Jannette Benefee

ASSISTANT MANAGER, PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS GROUP
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Jannette Benefee is at the forefront of innovation through use of business intelligence tools and facilitating development of new business solutions. She led the Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport Transportation Business Unit (TBU) in two critical innovative efforts recently. The airport is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy on the Advancing Transportation Hub Efficiency Using Novel Analytics project. The objective of this three-year study is to leverage mobility data to optimize efficiency and reduce the cost of both passenger and freight movement at and around transportation hubs. Benefee has worked closely with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, providing input and ensuring that DFW provides accurate and applicable data to fit the needs of this project.

Benefee has also created and fostered the internal Transportation Business Intelligence (TBI) team, with the motto “Data that makes sense.” This team disseminates essential and usable data throughout the organization to optimize the customer experience and operational excellence. Collaborating with the DFW Information Technology Services business intelligence team, she has developed a custom training series that used actual parking information to enable trainees to internalize their training experience and expose them to reporting and data dashboards. This training created a group of “citizen analysts” consisting of staff at all levels and job descriptions. Each citizen analyst acts on behalf of his or her section to create data solutions and informational displays specific to the individual sections and provide section management the ability to quickly access information and identify trends.

During her first year on the job, she led TBU business intelligence efforts, collaborating with TBU leadership, IT, and finance to enhance and update the TBU business intelligence mobile dashboard and ensure the data integrity of its contents. This dashboard provides essential decision-making data to staff.

When a software update to the revenue control system created data gaps, Benefee identified the gaps and collaborated with IT to make corrections and re-map data tables and views. She also employed tactics to ensure the data needs of all sections of the TBU were addressed.

Benefee identified future data requirements and partnered with DFW IT to develop custom training for the parking and transportation team. Additionally, she collaborated with the TBU operations team to improve occupancy measurements and with DFW Intelligent Transportation System to build a mobile input screen to update and display lot occupancy information more efficiently. She also led the creation of a mobile app to display comparatives of DFW parking options and was able to resolve issues that prevented the curbside team from automating taxi dispatching and regulation.