Rental Car IT - as bad as it gets? | Hacker News Reader

Rental Car IT - as bad as it gets?

memeagora.blogspot.com

11 pointsbdfh425 comments

The deadliest tangles wrapped around a companies Enterprise Systems often result from the structure of the organisation. Individual departments and operational functions depend upon small efficiencies generated by the existing systems. A replacement system might represent a dramatic improvement in overall efficiency but would almost certainly disrupt the existing organisation. Project like that can only be led from the top of an organisation - without that level of leadership the IT function is confined to continuing the development of those small efficiencies to the detriment of the whole.

You see it everywhere I am afraid.

This sounds like a good opportunity for a startup. You wouldn't even need to establish a counter at the airport. As a customer, you just check-in via Blackberry, iPhone, or even text message. The shuttle bus swings by to pick you up and you're off.

I was thinking the same thing. What a fantastic opportunity for somebody to build a centralized, remote system, that's easy to use and offers some really powerful features ("Hi Mr. Jones, would you like the same kind of luxury sedan you rented last time? A local map and directions to some common destinations is already on the front seat for you."), and then sell it to the rental car companies.

Somebody'd better do it, or I will. ;-)

Heck, if you can collect the arrival times from the various airlines, you could send a confirmation message a few minutes after the plane lands. Checking in would be as simple as hitting reply.

That would require the traveler's flight information, which I wasn't assuming was something the rental software would have access to. However, if the customer wanted to offer it up ... sure!

Higher-end hotels have systems that do this kind of thing already, and there's no reason that rental car companies couldn't also.

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