Adobe clinches deal with MAS

PETALING JAYA (Feb 11, 2014): Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has signed an enterprise licensing agreement with Adobe to introduce Abode Marketing Cloud and Adobe Creative Cloud as part of its technology refresh, which will see the airline undertaking a digital marketing platform consolidation over the next three years.
"We selected five solutions from Adobe Marketing Cloud, including Adobe Target, Adobe Social, Adobe Media Optimizer, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Experience Manager. We'll also be deploying managed services for Experience Manager. The solution provided us with the most intuitive, easy-to-use user interface along with deep analytic power and robust delivery," MAS chief marketing officer Dean Dacko said in a statement yesterday.
Adobe won the contract following a tender that commenced in April 2013 where MAS evaluated bids from various vendors for its business-wide transformation. Dacko said 15 stakeholders were involved in the selection process. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
"With a project of this size and complexity, it's critical to engage stakeholders from across the business. The marketing department worked closely with IT, sales, customer experience and product among others to define needs, and evaluate tenders," he said.
According to him, the implementation will be done in three phases, delivering the foundation to align digital marketing and customer engagement across all the company's platforms and brands, including Firefly, MAS Wings, MAS Cargo and loyalty programme Enrich.
"The integration of off-line customer data from sources such as our loyalty program and customer call center, together with digital records and footprint, will give us access to a single customer view. This is going to allow us to deliver a whole new level of customer experience, through more personalised and customised content, offers and services," he said.
He added that engagement via social media is also critical to the transformation and is at the forefront of its marketing mix.
Adobe Southeast Asia & Hong Kong's director of digital marketing cloud Stephen Hamill said the deal was notable for a number of firsts for the region.
"We see this deal as a highly strategic partnership with an organisation that is not only a flagship regional brand, but also a digital visionary and leader. It's the first managed services deal in Southeast Asia, reflecting that customers are looking to implement more complex solutions across whole-of-business rather than deploy point products," he said, adding that it was critical to obtain consensus from all the business stakeholders.
"The IT team was very closely involved, ensuring the solution was a suitable technology fit. We undertook an extensive value engineering services process as part of the tender, which helped deliver the data and proof points needed to validate the business decision for everyone from marketing to IT to finance," he added.