Corporate Brochure - Steria

Collaborative creativity
Innovation is less about ideas
than their practical application,
responding to business needs
shaped by real-world challenges.
Creativity is often found in
deploying new ways of working
with clients and partners to
achieve common goals. Steria’s
groundbreaking work in Aviation
demonstrates powerfully the
benefits of creative collaboration
at work.
Business sector Transport
Expertise Systems Integration
Geography France
10
The skies above us might already appear to be at full traffic capacity.
Yet this is predicted to double by 2020. Accommodating this safely and
efficiently alongside rising oil prices, security threats and environmental
pressures is the challenge Steria is helping to tackle as part of the
‘GAIA Virtual Sky‘ project. GAIA will help deliver the objectives of the
Single European Sky ATM (Air Transport Management) Research
programme. SESAR is a European Commission initiative, dedicated to
creating the world’s most efficient air transport infrastructure. One that
can handle double current capacity; improve safety by a factor of 10;
reduce the environmental impact of each flight by 10%; and halve Air
Transport Management costs.
This is where GAIA comes in. This landmark in collaborative creativity
involved a number of partners including: Airbus; THALES; l’Ecole
Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC); DGAC (the French Civil Aviation
Authority)*, working together to help reorganise airspace through
innovative simulation networking. ‘GAIA Virtual Sky’ is a flexible
plug-and-play interface allowing the simulators of multiple partners
(even competitors) to ‘talk’ to each other through a secure but highly
realistic virtual network. It combines Steria’s expertise in systems
integration and interoperability with the concept behind social
networking and gaming. The ‘players‘ in the Virtual Sky are sharing
invaluable experience of operating simulated cockpits and control
towers collectively. Where once they worked in isolation, they now
recreate the realities of a crowded airspace, with multiple human
players and conditions in real-time operation. The more players
participating, the more realistic the experience, the more able airports,
aircraft, aircraft operators and managers will be prepared for the
challenges of the future.
The interface needed to work with multiple partners’ existing IT
strategies and infrastructures, and provide complete security to allow
competitors to collaborate. By working collaboratively we helped
bring about a network that achieved economies, pooled knowledge,
and tackled common challenges without compromising commercial
sensitivities. This integrating of systems and people displays ‘coopetition’
(competitive cooperation) at its best, enabling knowledge and efficiencies
to be shared to bring real business advantages to all players.
‘GAIA Virtual Sky’ is now operational, with new partners joining the
network all the time. Where next? The sky is not the limit for the GAIA
model. Steria is already scoping out its translation to the management
of Norwegian maritime traffic, with clear applications for other
transport networks. The flexible, secure and adaptable interface and
‘cooptive’ approach can surely help other industries gain commercial
advantage by embracing the power of sharing.
*The ‘GAIA Virtual Sky’ project is realised within the Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster
and involves specialised SMEs such as Oktal, Cgx Aero InSys, Intespace and Alticode.