Unlocking the doors of Frankfurt airport's digital marketplace: How fraport's smart data lab manages to create value from data and to change the airport's way of thinking

Abstract

In March 2015, Fraport AG in Frankfurt carried out an experimental Smart Data Lab (SDL). For the first time, experts from a variety of departments worked together in a laboratory situation. They defined four concrete problems to be solved with analytics, using a huge collection of data from different sources within the company. The effective communication of problems and results helped promote the acceptance of the lab's data based recommendations. Analytics and the use of huge amounts of real-time data which were integrated into the IT systems for the first time, allowed for the correction of some established decision rules.Most of all, not only the problems defined above were solved and the business processes behind were improved, but also several new data-based business ideas with cross-departmental impact were generated. Results from the Smart Data Lab were widely noticed and accepted by Fraport's executive board, which in turn has decided to make SDL a permanent institution: The second round of Smart Data Lab was completed in April 2016.