Applications For Agility
31 Jul 2008
EDS' Applications Make a Difference For Clients and Their Customers
EDS’ Advanced Mission Planning Application Improves Processes For Royal Air Force
On site at Royal Air Force (RAF) Marham in the United Kingdom, Tornado Wing Commander (navigator) Dean Andrew shows how EDS’ Advanced Mission Planning Application has improved the process of planning Tornado missions in both peacetime training and combat operation to reduce the time and effort in the planning process and to allow greater accuracy.
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What do a fighter pilot, a convenience store customer and a retired pensioner have in common? Not much until you look at the information technology that touches their lives every day.
Governments and businesses turn to EDS for help in modernizing the critical applications they depend on to keep their organizations running. These enterprises want to become more agile, more seamless and more capable of connecting directly with their customers, employees and suppliers.
EDS' applications solutions benefit these organizations with improved productivity, stability, efficiency and significant cost savings. But the final end users of these new systems also enjoy the advantages of EDS' know-how whether that means safely returning from a combat mission, confidently accessing a benefits payment online or easily finding a favorite fudge.
Taking a Quantum Leap In Mission Planning
The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force was asked to do more than it has ever done. The Tornado GR4 and Harrier GR7/9 fighter jets are a key destructive force for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fighter pilots could spend hours putting together a very complicated combat mission. EDS designed an Advanced Mission Planning Aid (AMPA) application, a family of mission planning systems, which has reduced planning time from 2 hours to 20 minutes while increasing accuracy. Before, a carefully planned mission could still be potentially dangerous because of unknown variables such as low visibility, heavy weather or enemy surface-to-air missile systems. Now, with a few clicks of the mouse the system moves the route around these dangerous threats preventing the loss of aircraft and possibly lives.
Pilots can rehearse the planned mission by flying the simulation through AMPA before ever leaving the ground. They are now airborne with the most up-to-date equipment, accurate mapping and intelligence. And, once the mission has been created it can be downloaded to a transfer device called a brick and loaded into the aircraft's systems. Wherever the squadron goes on detachment, they take their AMPA with them. This innovative technology solution enables the pilots to spend their valuable time on performing their mission; and it helps save lives.
Meeting the Changing Needs of Customers Every Day
It starts to rain and a shopper running errands realizes the umbrella is at home. Workers on a quick lunch break want a fresh sandwich. Kids walking home from school need a cold drink. Any one of these people will probably walk into one of the 32,700 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States. 7-Eleven stores sell everything from fresh deli sandwiches to prepaid telephone cards, and store managers closely monitor inventory to see how fast each product is moving off the shelf. Customer demand determines the inventory at that specific location.
To give 7-Eleven access to accurate, timely product-specific information, EDS implemented an enterprise data warehouse that improves operational performance and helps 7-Eleven analyze the profitability of products on a store-by-store basis. Going even further, EDS supplies stores with automated weather reports and regional information updates twice daily. The just-in-time distribution system processes orders daily and in the event of an emergency can be re-routed. As a result, customers can walk in any 7-Eleven convenience store and find what they want, when and where they want.
Introducing Electronic Transfer System To Beneficiaries
One of the largest postal networks in the world, Post Office Ltd. in the United Kingdom, wanted to modernize payments to beneficiaries including citizens unfamiliar with banking processes. EDS managed the strategy of JP Morgan's leading edge Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system and TTi Card Technology and its smart card technology. Together, they launched the innovative card account at Post Office service, employing proven electronic transfer and smart-card technologies to distribute government benefits.
EDS led customers through every stage of the transition from the welcome packet, to easy-to-use Chip and PIN terminals at all Post Office Ltd. branches. Pensioners and benefit recipients opened 4.8 million card accounts. They now have instantaneous access to their benefit entitlement via simple paperless transactions. And, beneficiaries can turn to the new dedicated customer call centre for inquiries and make transactions from anywhere at any time. Pensioners and other benefit recipients have now accepted an electronic account to manage payments, and many withdraw only what they need.
EDS understands how important your end users are to your business, whether they're a fighter pilot, convenience store shopper, or retired pensioner. That is why we use our more than 45 years of experience to ensure your applications portfolio and infrastructure align to your business priorities, operational requirements and budget needs. EDS' Applications Services are designed to support you every step of the way through the planning, building and management of your applications.