Challenge

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic grounded a majority of airlines across the world.

Being one of the largest airline companies in Europe, SAS was financially impacted due to the significant reduction in air traffic and increasing cancellation of flights post COVID-19. This led to many measures being undertaken at SAS to sustain business, including reduction of costs and greater management of spending. It was critical that SAS integrate these measures into its systems at the earliest.

Solution

TCS stepped in to help SAS maintain the financial health of business amid the pandemic.

Understanding the impact COVID-19 could have on airlines’ finance systems, TCS helped SAS seamlessly incorporate changes in its financial system and processes. We leveraged our knowledge of the airline’s financial processes to break down the changes required from a financial point of view, analyzed the impact and designed a solution for SAS’ financial system.

For instance, TCS assisted the business and finance control team at SAS in understanding the revised contract terms for airlines, facilities and other leases with respect to the impact on leasing cost. TCS worked with the airline’s finance team to finalize appropriate accounting adjustments, which were then implemented in the leasing and financial systems at SAS.

TCS also helped generate a detailed list of fixed assets and right-of-use assets from the system for impairment assessment, and configured the ERP for creation, validation, accounting and reporting of the impaired assets. Finance experts at TCS analyzed the changes needed for managing cash flows and designed revised payment terms, then setting up new priority payment batches in the system to meet these new directives. TCS also helped design supporting solutions for customer refunds and revised compliances in relation to COVID-19.

This quick turnaround was made possible by the prompt implementation of TCS Secure Borderless Workspaces™ (SBWS™). By switching to a virtual work environment through TCS SBWS, our team was able to provide uninterrupted support to the finance team at SAS, especially at a time when the airline had to scale down its workforce.

...Your Support is invaluable for Business Control, and (for) me.

Service Manager, Finance IT, SAS

Benefits

SAS was able to mitigate financial risks due to timely implementation of updates by TCS.

Immediate changes to contract and payment terms in the system enabled SAS to manage its cash flows effectively. “Your help in contract modifications (is) much appreciated during this crisis time,” Business Controller, Ground, SAS, said. SBWS ensured availability of TCS teams to assist the airline in implementing the solutions in a time-critical environment.