A comparative analysis of information technology strategy in American Airlines and French Railways

In choosing the computerised reservation system Sabre, SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais) was hoping to benefit from the same strategic advantage this technology brought to American Airlines during the deregulation of US air transport in the 1980s. However, the adoption of a new transport distribution model based on the deregulated US air industry proved to be controversial, leading to implementation problems. The SNCF distribution system, Socrate (Systeme Offrant a la Clientele des Reservations d´Affaires et de Tourisme en Europe), represents a new form of management control, particularly in its use of yield management techniques, and has to be situated within the broader context of US and European deregulation. By reviewing the multiple aspects of Socrate´s implementation difficulties and concentrating on the market, economic, political and cultural differences in the transfer of Sabre from American Airlines to SNCF, this paper illustrates how strongly these differences affect strategic decisions and the use of technology. Differences found to explain some of the difficulties relate to: the nature of air and rail markets and their operational complexities, the intramodal and intermodal competition in US and European transport, US and European liberalisation, the emphasis on high-speed trans-European trains, national and regional development policy issues, cultural notions of access to transport and its pricing, and organisational change