UNIFI with implementation time , security and innovation . Under his leadership Unifi ’ s IT infrastructure has been successfully scaled to support its growth , accommodating an increase in sales revenue to over US $ 1.3bn . “ If we are launching Unifi at a new airport or a new city , it is easy to start up new operations and integrate when you ’ re using the cloud .
“ Without cloud , you have to set up your own product , custom development , setting up the servers . It would be a huge undertaking for a company like ours that is onboarding new contracts almost on a monthly – sometimes weekly – basis . Cloud gives us that scalability we need to thrive as a business .
“ For example , we recently went in Calgary ,” he illustrates . “ If we didn ’ t have modern infrastructure architecture applications , it would have taken at least six to nine months for us to set up the entire IT system there , but as a result of using the cloud we did it quickly and our operations went live within eight weeks of us winning the contract .”
Using AI and data modelling in Unifi ’ s operations The issue of safety , particularly in the world of aviation , is critical . Unifi has partnered with Microsoft and Artis Consulting to develop a predictive and prescriptive aircraft and injury safety model .
“ We have to focus on safety because keeping our people safe is paramount . It has a direct impact on our employees , on the airline and on passengers ,” Angra explains .
With Artis Consulting and Microsoft , Unifi used number of Azure services including Azure AI , Azure Machine Learning and Power BI to develop this model to improve operations . The system provides risk values based on 30 variables and more than 500 data points , including staffing levels , tenure of leadership and employees , training , equipment quality and age , weather , and more . Since the predictive component ’ s inception in August of 2022 , it has had a consistent 94 % accuracy rate .
“ Now , our safety team can act proactively and look at all our ground handling contracts and determine the probability of any incident happening . It also tells us the measures that can be taken to reduce that risk . This data modelling system has been one of the most successful programmes Unifi has implemented , using Microsoft capabilities .”
Unifi first worked with Microsoft and Snowflake to design and develop its own enterprise data lake . “ Building the data modelling programme would not have been possible if we didn ’ t have a data lake ,” says Angra .
“ I ’ ve always known how critical data is – even from my early consulting days . So , when I was selecting all of our software , choosing modern data and analytics infrastructure and architecture was the top priority .”
How technology will change the airport experience Angra predicts the future will see continuing emphasis on the digital experience for both passengers and employees at the airport . Unifi , he says , will focus particularly on three areas .
“ We are going to first focus on a tactical perspective . How can we automate the majority of our processes using AI or RPA tools to bring more efficiency into our operations ?”
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