10 questions for a digital service in aviation

Independent of the goal of your digital service, in the travel aviation industry,  here is a set of 10 simple questions that needs to be answered as part of its definition

1. What is the data connection with the rest of the travel eco-system ?
2. What is the main orientation ?
3. Who is the driver of the service definition and identity of users ?
4. What is the data relation with the cabin and the digital companion ?
5. What is the service operation ?
6. What is the strategy of data flow optimization ?
7. What is the level of data processing ?
8. What is the expected speed of evolution ?
9. What is the level of consistency with the other applications ?
10. Is it a full pay as you go service ?

1 – What is the data connection with the rest of the travel eco-system ?

As an avionic provider is at the middle of the aviation travel experience of a traveler, the service will have to be connected to other partners of the eco-system.
This connection can be realized by a simple delegation of service (access to the online portal of the provider) or a specific user experience combined with a data exchange with the partner

2 – What is the main orientation ?

The service driver has to be defined in regards to the 3 majors topics

• Fleet management of the airline for operation control
• Travel experience for passenger
• Aviation platform for integration into the avionic constraints

The digital service can cover or delegate the data management.

In case of delegation, the definition of the connection points and data reference (source of truth) is a major point.

3 – Who is the driver of the service definition and identity of users ?

The aviation relation of an airline can be simplified on digital to 4 main group of partners

• Relation to airports
• Relation to avionic providers
• Relation to consumer providers
• Relation to OEM

Each of them will have their expectations in term of standards, data ownership (and storage) and identity management.
The identity of users cover

• Traveler where the identity exist outside aviation (national identity, bank identity, social identity)
• The aircraft team members which identity is related to the airline
• The users of the digital services (management, operation, …) that can operate for several airlines

4 – What is the data relation with the cabin and the digital companion ?

On board, the relation to be defined is a set of parallel interactions

• The passenger and its companion
• The crew and its companion
• The services constraints (flight phases and service operation)
• The cabin environment (shared with all passenger)
• The seat environment (for one passenger)
• The entertainment system (including connectivity)
• The data centralization outside the aircraft (provider or airline)

5 – What is the service operation ?

To perform its digital goal, the service will support the crew or the operator for global organization, digitization of operation and team efficiency

6 – What is the strategy of data flow optimization ?

As the size of data is increasing faster than the infrastructure that can carry it, the service needs to have a specific focus on the data flow optimization.

Several level of consolidations can be required for the service to be performed : user, aircraft, location, airline, global.

The flow of data can be globally a collection or a diffusion of information; and the service can be controlled by major influences : geo-centralization, orchestration, prioritization …

7 – What is the level of data processing ?

The value of the service on data can be provided at different level of processing :

• Data centralization and standardization
• Data transformation and correlation
• Creation and use of profile (human or system) for prediction or decision

8 – What is the expected speed of evolution ?

The entire system used for digital will have several parallel life cycle with different paces

• Aircraft creation and evolution
• Cabin equipment evolution
• Consumer equipment evolution
• Aircraft software and content evolution
• Digital services evolution

The ability to use digital life cycle (continuous delivery, automatic validation, …) and deployment possibilities (canary deployment, beta services…) can or not be leveraged in regards to the avionic constraints and need for formal traceability in the validation

9 – What is the level of consistency with the other applications ?

When a digital service is provided to the customer through a branded digital application, several choices of consistency can be used in regard to other applications:

• Level 0 – Each application is autonomous
• Level 1 – Each application is autonomous but share a same company branding
• Level 2 – Each application is autonomous, with a shared branding and accessible from a single portal with a unique identity
• Level 3 – Each application can communicated with others, with a shared branding and is accessible from a single portal
• Level 4 – Each application can communicate with other, with a shared branding and used the same technologies in a consistent user experience

10 – Is it a full pay as you go service ?

If the digital service is provided as a “pay as you go” model, it needs to fulfill the following constraints :

• Dynamic orchestration
  The service supporting infrastructure is orchestrated to allow dynamic sizing based on demand and availability which limit the overall cost of the service
• All inclusive
  The service cost include all direct and indirect costs (communication, storage, SAAS/PAAS/IAAS, permanent investments, support contracts, maintenance activities)
• Self service
  The service can be selected on a self-service mode which explicitly define the direct cost (service use) and indirect costs (cost created by using other services)
• Automatic reporting
  The service usage information is available to the customer on request (self service) or on a regular basis (report)