Bangkok Airways scales up capabilities, improves processes with RISE with SAP

⇨ Upgraded to S/4HANA to replace SAP ECC to improve system availability and adopt new innovations like generative AI

⇨ Centralised back-office operations and workflow automation, while also increasing visibility across entire business

⇨ Opted for RISE with SAP on AWS using a scale-out to scale-up model and a clean core strategy

Boutique airline Bangkok Airways has improved its system availability thanks to RISE with SAP, scaling up the company’s capabilities and reducing time spent on business processes.

Bangkok Airways upgraded from SAP ECC, which was used primarily to manage data around operational costs and profitability for close to a decade.

“The pandemic disrupted the entire airline industry, and we were not spared. Amid the market volatility and unforeseen challenges, we knew we had to take a proactive approach to ensure that Bangkok Airways stayed resilient and would be operationally agile once the pandemic tided over,” Bangkok Airways senior director of corporate information technology, Monpraon Sukroongreung said.

“This was going to be enabled by our digital transformation in the cloud with our trusted long-time partners, SAP, AWS, and NTT DATA Business Solutions.”

Bangkok Airways serves 12 domestic destinations, seven international destinations and owns and operates three airports. It carried more than 4.4 million passengers in 2023.

The company sought to future-proof the business with SAP S/4HANA to be able to adopt more advanced tech like generative AI, while also looking to increase flexibility and scalability. RISE with SAP on AWS was chosen, transitioning the SAP ERP architecture from a scale-out to scale-up model and adopting a clean core strategy.

Scale-out systems connect a cluster of smaller SAP HANA systems together into one clustered database, while scale-up systems build a single system with as many resources as possible.

Bangkok Airways went live on SAP S/4HANA on AWS in November 2023, reporting an uptick in system availability. Batch processing for back-office operations and workflow automation are now centralised, increasing visibility into the company’s business processes across the organisation and real-time insights that facilitate better data-driven decision-making.

Disaster recovery was also improved with the new system, reducing Bangkok Airways’ risk of loss and downtime while also improving system performance and reliability.

“We can now effortlessly scale up our capabilities during peak periods and save on costs from greater efficiency,” Sukroongreung said.

“When we were on premises, our productivity was not great, but now we are seeing significantly reduced processing times. Business-critical reports that used to take days to generate can now be completed almost instantly.

“The improved performance is enabling us to optimise our IT resource mobilisation, which in turn contributes to more efficient ground operations and a smoother experience for Bangkok Airways’ passengers.”

SAP Indochina managing director Kulwipa Piyawattanametha said the past three years have accelerated the speed of change for many industries, especially the aviation sector.

Sukroongreung added, “The robust ecosystem that SAP and AWS are a part of, also aligns well with our enterprise business requirements. As our business continues to scale and transform, we’ll be able to leverage the ecosystem for a broad range of services and solutions tailored to our needs.”