Singapore Airlines extends use of VMware Workspace One

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is extending its use of VMware’s Workspace One enterprise mobility software to more users including pilots, cabin crew and aircraft engineers as part of its digital transformation efforts.

According to an SIA spokesperson, the national carrier has been using Workspace One since 2016 and has recently renewed its enterprise agreement with VMware to continue using the software to enable employees to work remotely.

Currently, about half of SIA’s workforce are mobile workers who can now use Workspace One to access mobile apps across more than 14,000 employee-owned devices and over 6,000 company-issued devices.

These apps include mobile and intranet applications that were developed by SIA’s in-house technology development and innovation team, as well as software-as-a-service (SaaS) productivity apps.

With the single sign-on function in Workspace One, SIA staff can log in to SaaS mobile apps without the need to key in their credentials, improving user experience, the SIA spokesperson told Computer Weekly.

SIA said it is also using Workspace One as a mobile device management (MDM) tool to manage both company-issued and employee mobile devices, for both iOS and Android operating systems.

On company-issued devices, Workspace One enables SIA to encrypt data on these devices and provides a secure mechanism for SIA employees to access relevant information and business applications.

Similarly, on employee-owned devices, Workspace One enables SIA to segregate company data from personal data, secure the company data that staff is authorised to access on their personal device, and remove the data when staff no longer needs it, without impacting their personal data.

“Singapore Airlines has been at the forefront of digital innovation,” said Sanjay K. Deshmukh, VMware’s vice-president and managing director for Southeast Asia and Korea.

“Digital workspace solutions are recognised for their ability to offer a seamless, collaborative workplace experience and VMware is committed to supporting the carrier on its mission of enabling greater enterprise mobility while improving operational efficiency while enhancing data security.”

Not contented with being declared the world’s best airline, SIA has been working to extend its leadership into the digital space amid stiff competition from rivals nipping at its heels.

George Wang, SIA’s senior vice-president for IT, told Computer Weekly in an earlier interview that the airline has been doubling down on transformation efforts, such as migrating applications off the mainframe to the cloud.

The company has also re-architected its backend systems so it can provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that its partners can use to deliver new services, and has rolled out software-defined networks at its datacentres.