Frontier Airlines: investing in technology to improve the customer experience.

• Position: Special Advertising Section

Whether it is through e-mailing flight values, offering online ticket sales, allowing for self-service check-in at the airport kiosk or online, or offering Live TV onboard the aircraft, Frontier is continually developing technologies to improve the flying experience.

"Whatever I can do to make the passenger's experience more pleasant and hassle-free is important from an IT perspective and for the company," said Jeff Truax, director information technology, Frontier Airlines.

Since it started 10 years ago, the company has sought ways to leverage IT in a cost effective manner to bring value to its customers. Working with the Microsoft platform has helped Frontier to create a foundational infrastructure that allows the airline to offer excellent customer service while maintaining its commitment to provide value-fare air travel.

When Frontier was unable to find a packaged solution that met all of its needs for a recent initiative, it turned to Interlink to develop and customize an extensible framework for email campaign management. "Working with Interlink has absolutely been a positive experience. We considered a number of companies and narrowed it down to Interlink based on the reputation they had with not only their clients, but also with Microsoft. From both perspectives, it was a clear win-win for Frontier," said Truax.

The company uses email to communicate with customers regarding changes in its service, new markets, upcoming offers, and every day flight values. In an effort to better serve the needs of its passengers, Frontier partnered with Interlink to develop a solution that would add personalization, enable individualized campaigns, and measure campaign success. They are building the solution on Microsoft's .NET framework and incorporating the software company's Commerce Server and Content Management Server products.

"One of the goals is to transition to more of a one-to-one marketing model that individualizes the experience for our website visitors and provides personalized attention to every customer that calls our center," said Truax. He...