Avios uncorks the bottleneck in its mobile app development

How Mindera is working with the aviation loyalty programme provider to accelerate the release of new app features, while increasing stability.

Images: Main – RP Nickson, Pexelsl; Thumbnail – VP Apratama, Pexels

Multiple releases a day are now possible without harming app stability and existing traffic.

The challenge

As brands strive to attract and retain customers under tough economic conditions, the tailored incentives delivered through the bespoke loyalty programmes developed by Avios, part of IAG Loyalty, are proving to be an invaluable tool.

However, to continue to grow its airline partnerships, improve its products, and ensure they comply with their customers’ systems and brand specifications, Avios knew it needed to innovate faster. But the speed of its product delivery and release cycle was being sacrificed to maintain the stability of its existing legacy platform.

This was creating a damaging bottleneck, holding Avios back from providing the best possible experiences for its partners’ loyalty programme members.

The solution

Working closely with the Avios technical workforce, Mindera’s dedicated software development team helped solve the problem first by consolidating ways of working and augmenting technology knowledge to bring a more data-focused approach to product performance. Introducing self-contained digital product development teams accelerated the creation of new features that complied with required standards and seamlessly integrated with partner systems.

Meanwhile, services and databases were migrated to the cloud, delivering more computing power as and when needed. In addition, a re-engineered Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CICD) approach freed developers to generate versioned releases continuously, with auditability, reproducibility and peer reviews built in by design. A new cloud-based Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solution was also implemented. Able to handle a high volume of traffic, it now serves as the Avios default authentication mechanism.

Mindera also augmented the Avios data team to reshape data quality, building a scalable, sustainable and secure data ecosystem to power better business decision making.

The results

Avios now have a modern technology platform capable of scaling and adding more services as the business grows, with a development flow that minimises deployment risk. Technology is no longer creating a bottleneck, and, along with improved ways of working, is enabling multiple releases a day without harming stability and existing traffic.

The result is an expanded product offering in diverse areas, from collection and rewards to core services like authentication. This has been supported by improving the security and robustness of the applications in the Avios ecosystem, providing all-round better experiences for its partners and their customers.

6% rise in loyalty voucher use

About Avios

The leading aviation loyalty programme in the UK, Avios is owned by the International Airline Group (IAGL). It delivers a loyalty programme that gives customers product and business discounts when they travel within the airlines of IAGL.