Delta Air Lines recently made some changes to their web-site, for example, asking for email addresses and surname at login time. This is as a result of the merger of Sky Miles with Northwest’s frequent flyer program. Our hope had been that Northwest’s 1980’s vintage code would have been improved by Delta’s 1990’s vintage code, but the opposite has now occurred. Northwest has infected Delta’s Sky Miles system such that:
- incessantly asks for emails
- fails to report earned Medallion qualification miles as soon as the flight lands (takes 24 hours now)
The above are reminiscent of Northwest’s 1980’s vintage code, and while a small thing, is a step backwards for Sky Miles. Computer systems and IT systems should be moving forward, not backward. Trivialities are excellent predictors of future corporate actions and health, and a pointer to what goes on in the present. Delta’s powerful Sky Miles program interface has now become a 1980’s clunky software system, which is piss-poor now matter how you look at it.
How it will be spun: “we’ve competed our merger of World Perks and Sky Miles! Now our guests have all their miles IN ONE PLACE! Our customers have not lost a SINGLE MILE! This quick turn-around is indicative of Delta’s commitment to blah, blah, blah” (while true, it’s irrelevant, and is the very nature of spin, that is, find a positive aspect of a shitty thing and trumpet it)
The reality: “we chose the path of least resistance so that we could spin, and so we could reduce time-to-market, not the hard road of correctness and robustness in software, therefore making us better than the others in the long run. Also, we think our customers are so internet-unsavvy they will not notice our clunked-up, 1980’s interface to Sky Miles and its operational characteristics.” Dudes, reducing time-to-market only works when the product is better than the competition, not worse or equal (Microsoft is a perfect example: Windows has been riddled with software failures for years, is the most insecure operating environment ever invented, often crashes, and is generally a laughing stock, but by God, it’s the first).
Undoubtedly, some readers of this blog are thinking: “what does it matter? talk about trivialities!” It matters because:
- everyone, corporations included, should strive for the very highest and best at all times
- software and systems should always get better, not worse
- the hard decision road is almost always the best road
- spin of any form should be critically examined and debunked whenever and wherever possible, even if it’s harmless spin. For example, Ballmer’s most recent labeling of “other” browsers as “rounding errors” which while true from a numbers perspective is certainly not true from a growth and quality perspective. An important function of executives is to spin, and to provide direction for other spinners in the corporation, to be sure. It is the consumer’s job to critically examine the spin for flaws, and there will be flaws because the flaws are the reason for the spin in the first place.
