SAS: Taking EuroBonus digital experience to new heights

Global passenger air traffic is projected to grow at an annual rate of 3.7% for the foreseeable future, doubling by 2037. In today’s crowded and turbulent travel market where a better deal or a more intriguing travel experience is often just a click away, tapping into this growth requires world-class services and the ability to give customers what they want, and more, right when they need it.

Technologies used

React
TypeScript
Hapi
Node.js
Microsoft Azure
Kubernetes
Contentful
Elasticsearch

The challenge

SAS was looking for a way to respond to customers’ needs at a faster pace, whilst also delivering stable and flexible solutions. The airline wanted to start implementing more agile ways of working and modernise its tech architecture and strategy.

What we did

Futurice and SAS built a team of experts capable of continuously discovering, developing, delivering and optimizing new services for the client. The team worked out of our offices in Solna, Sweden and Tampere, Finland.

Initially, Futurice’s Lean Service Creation methodology was used to implement a build-measure-learn way of working. Throughout the project, we co-created prototypes and solutions with the stakeholders and kept on iterating and developing them further based on feedback from real users and data on the business results.

The team followed agile work practices - like daily standups, sprint planning and retros - and introduced the client to new software and tools to enable and speed up online collaborative work.

SAS and Futurice worked together to prepare SAS for the accelerating rate of technological change by adopting best practises on cloud architecture. To minimise governance disruption, maximise alignment with other parts of SAS IT and allow legacy and new services to coexist and function efficiently, SAS and Futurice chose to set up a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipeline on the Microsoft Azure cloud service. The enterprise-grade system allows SAS to release new functionality faster without sacrificing quality, dependability and security. Cloud orchestration and Azure setup were accomplished by using Kubernetes and Azure DevOps pipeline.

Futurice is a true partner in digital transformation, both in delivering high-quality digital solutions and in setting up modern and efficient ways of working.

Maria Andersson

Head of Digital Development & Customer Interaction, SAS EuroBonus

Why it matters

The project team was able to both fulfil the client’s pressing needs and introduce a new culture and team set-up at SAS. The new ways of working combined with a new, more modern approach to tech allow SAS to design, develop and launch new services faster than before. Four new services have been launched since December 2018 and the team now works on continuously releasing new services and features for SAS customers.

Thanks to the hard work by teams from Futurice and SAS, the client reached their initial one-year goal for one of the services in only seven months (after launch).

About Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)

Scandinavian Airlines commonly known as SAS, is one of the more popular airlines in the Nordics. SAS offers the most departures and has an attractive offering for people who travel frequently to, from and within Scandinavia. SAS conducted 817 flights daily in 2016/2017, and a total of around 30 million passengers traveled on SAS’s 272 routes between 123 destinations in Europe, the US and Asia. In addition to airline operations, activities at SAS include ground handling services, technical maintenance, and air cargo services.