Maintenance software systems With a number of airlines and MRO companies requiring professional MRO software for the first time or needing to upgrade to a new system, the commercial aviation maintenance software sector is currently a growth area. But what are the most important factors to consider when making this choice? Jason Holland investigates. When selecting an IT system, airlines and MRO companies face the choice of the large-scale but less flexible enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, best of breed (BoB) systems which have been built from the ground up for the sector, or a hybrid offering which combines elements of both. ERP solutions are great for accountants and excel in this area, but they rely on bolt-on functionality to satisfy the needs of the MRO market which often is cumbersome and expensive, comments TRAX managing director Chris Reed. ERP is typically designed for manufacturing, so maybe an OEM would prefer this type of solu- tion, but the BoBs are designed for airline and MRO operations. Developing the right solution Indeed, a lot of the successful maintenance software systems in use today in the commercial aviation sector have been designed with specific industry needs in mind. Ronald Schaeuffele, CEO of Swiss AviationSoftware (Swiss-AS), notes that BoB solutions are built on industry best practice and are based on the input of a customer community using and supporting the product. He says: The big advantage of BoB solutions is that they more easily adapt to constantly 78 Aircraft Technology - Issue 125
Swiss-AS solution, AMOS, has already incorporated non-maintenance functions such as finance or human resources. From our point of view, a BoB system includes all the processes that the maintenance department focuses on; the aim is to enable the end user to work in the daily business without any disruptions in the maintenance processes. Ronald Schaeuffele, CEO, Swiss AviationSoftware changing requirements and that due to the many community inputs they are forced to include industry innovations at an early stage. The necessary strategic developments of a BoB solution are all integrated into the one community product while the community reviews the changes/enhancements done by the vendor. Nevertheless, Schaeuffele states that because Swiss-AS solution, AMOS, has already incorporated non-maintenance functions such as finance or human resources (within the maintenance context), it could already be considered as a kind of a hybrid solution, incorporating some of the elements traditionally associated with ERP systems. From our point of view, a BoB system includes all the processes that the maintenance department focuses on; the aim is to enable the end user to work in the daily business without any disruptions in the maintenance processes, he says. Ramco s Aviation Suite is another example of a system built to provide the best of both worlds. The company sources its traditional strength in providing integrated ERP solutions and combines that with comprehensive functionality for aviation maintenance and engineering built from the ground up, comments Amrith Ganesh, head aviation marketing. So while being designed specifically for aviation, the solution incorporates ERP functions such as finance and human capital management under one roof. According to Ganesh, Ramco s approach also provides a seamless flow of data wrapped around single technology architecture that eliminates data silos and adds transparency across the entire maintenance execution and contract to cash cycle. TRAX s Reed is proud that his company s solution was made purposely as a BoB type. Although taking elements of the ERP concept and using them in TRAX Maintenance, Reed says this is mainly in cross company integration aspects, such as lessening data duplication and redundancy by departments relying on each other s inputs. Mxi Technologies Maintenix system was designed and developed by aviation experts specifically for the aviation MRO community, comments James Elliott, product marketing manager, an approach which speaks directly to the unique challenges faced by the aviation industry that a generic ERP system cannot accommodate without expensive and time-consuming customisations that often result in limited success, at best. Elliott points to the evolving demands being placed on MRO solutions. It is no longer enough to simply act as a storage container for maintenance transactions; systems today need to be transformative, he says. Using MRO-specific solutions gives organisations the head start they need to focus efforts on driving greater business value from their MRO departments (such as top and bottom line optimisation, reduced costs, reduced AOGs, etc.). The company s application programming interface (API) strategy offers elements of the hy- 80 Aircraft Technology - Issue 125
TRAX s maintenance software solution was made purposely as a BoB type. brid approach, providing additional integrated connectivity to critical systems within the enterprise, including finance, human resources, timesheet, supply chain, flight operations, diagnostics, procurement, third-party maintenance, shipping and electronic logbook. Rusada s Envision solution is another to have been client led in its development of functionality. It is aviation centric because that is where the experience of our company was founded. There are other BoB solutions for financial accounting, payroll management, airline ticketing etc that have been developed by specialists in their field and chosen by clients who know exactly what they want, explains Tim Alden, commercial director. What Rusada does is work with clients to maximise the use of these applications by delivering a robust aviation solution capable of being integrated with other business systems through the use of modern web services. Nick Godwin, managing director at Commsoft, says his company s OASES solution is being aggressively developed as new functionality continues to be added. Unlike many other BoB systems, OASES puts major emphasis on its intuitive usability, flexibility and customisability and is far less data hungry than some competitor systems. This makes it ideal for CAMOs and fastgrowing airlines, as the user is only paying for functionality that it uses, rather than an expensive edition or version with functionality that is never used, he says. Configurability and scalability in deployment There is no question that the scale and magnitude of systems implementation requirements can play a role in an organisation s decision to move forward with a vendor solution, says Mxi Mobile technology is currently a key trend in the market. Technologies Elliott. Beyond the functional scope of the offering, clients need to feel confident that the vendor will deliver the software promise in a means that minimises time, effort, cost and impact to the organisation. He notes that, ultimately, the degree of difficulty of any software implementation is directly proportional to the quality of the data being imported from the legacy systems. Mxi has done a lot of work over the years to help our clients embrace a good data approach to MRO management, ensuring information is perpetually in a clean and standardised state throughout the MRO lifecycle, says Elliott. Configurability is an important issue in deployment. Each client is different so it is critical that they have elements of configurability within the application otherwise you face the situation that most ERP operators have where their solution is unique in the marketplace, comments TRAX s Reed. We aim to keep a permanent upgrade path available for our customers and use the configuration possibilities to allow each customer to have slightly different functionality, but within the same core application. Rusada s Alden believes configurability is key to the success of an implementation, and he would typically expect a customer to live in the MRO software within four to six months a rapid timeline [that] includes training and data 82 Aircraft Technology - Issue 125
transfer. Alden explains: The key to such rapid deployment is the inclusion of the clients super user team at all stages during the set-up phase. This team needs to be able to work with us as the vendor and be able to define the set-up of the system to match their way of working to minimise the impact on approved procedures. Once the set-up of the system has been bedded down then its application can be introduced to the user base. Scalability, meanwhile, is important for customers who are in a growth cycle. A good scalable application does not need to be replaced if the organisation grows, says TRAX s Reed. Our application is used by airlines with as low as three aircraft and as high as seven hundred aircraft. One of Ramco s central strategies is to use technology innovation to solve the business challenges in an MRO environment. Many application providers have just made their solution portable so that the users can access the same screens and functions that they have on their fixed workstation but on a mobile screen. Chris Reed, managing director, TRAX Improvement in the market Reed says that although in general terms companies are spending less on IT solutions as a percentage of their revenue than they have in the past, airline/mro software is currently a growth area. There is expansion occurring in many areas of the world such as the Far East, so this is positive for our industry, he comments. Customers are looking for an off-the-shelf MRO management solution that can be implemented with the minimum amount of fuss and is easy to use for their users and one that is popular in the community. Data sharing is becoming more and more important and solutions that allow greater connectivity with the community are becoming more critical. Mxi Technologies Elliott observes that while the global aviation MRO market is projected to grow to $69bn by 2021, only a small percentage of MRO organisations are running anything close to a modern IT solution, hinging efforts instead on a combination of old systems from the 1980s that are inching closer to becoming obsolete, or custom-built siloed solutions that are costly and risky to maintain, while failing to deliver the business benefits targeted across the industry. Clearly, there is a lot of potential in the airline/mro software market, and a number of companies are looking for new IT solutions. Due to the increased complexity in aviation maintenance and tightened airworthiness regulations, many airlines have been forced to buy professional MRO software for the first time or to upgrade to a new system, says Swiss-AS Schaeuffele. The introduction of new generation aircraft has accelerated this process. Where airlines used to draw up a business plan to decide about new MRO software, it seems that the business plan has only an inferior standing in today s evaluation as the airlines need a new system that can handle the new requirements. Schaeuffele says that the central demands customers are making of the software are: best practice solutions, cost cutting potential, increased safety, and early incorporation of new requirements such as new generation aircraft, RFID or e-signatures. Ramco s Ganesh adds that small operators are underserved in terms of IT solutions and these companies are looking at Cloud based offerings as a way to improve their efficiency, better manage inventory and reduce operating costs. When looking at updating a current system, Rusada s Alden suggests that one of the most important factors that customers are looking for is the ability to synchronise existing systems with their new MRO solution. We have seen great interest in the web service work we have done for OEMs and MROs because it allows those organisations to retain their finance systems but then provide a better maintenance tool for the engineers without duplication of effort or loss of functionality. Indeed the saving in licences for the ERP finance system often significantly contribute to the return on investment of taking Envision, he says. Future trends and outlook The companies interviewed for this article are finding different ways to adapt and prepare for future trends in the MRO management software solutions sector. Ramco s Ganesh says the pulse of the industry and where it is heading lies in the voice of the customer. Our CAB Customer Advisory Board a panel of carefully chosen key customers across segments have a strong influence on the direction of our product road map, comments Ganesh. This ensures full alignment of our product with present and future trends and needs. Ramco also relies on a network of other sources to adapt and face future trends such as: focus groups of industry experts, a company-wide innovation wing, constantly evolving base technology architecture and a state-of-the-art R&D department associated with several top technology institutions around the world. One of Ramco s central strategies is to use technology innovation to solve the business challenges in an MRO environment. We see mobility, predictive analysis on big data, seamless data exchange in a heterogeneous application landscape as key trends that will shape this industry, says Ganesh. The company s Cloud based application delivery model allows it to expand the ad- Aircraft Technology - Issue 125 83
Commsoft s OASES solution is being aggressively developed as new functionality continues to be added. dressable market space, according to Ganesh, making available to the smallest operator the same sophisticated product capabilities that drive efficiency improvements and process optimisation only large organisations previously had access to. TRAX is currently focused on specific mobile technology. Many application providers have just made their solution portable so that the users can access the same screens and functions that they have on their fixed workstation but on a mobile screen, says Reed. This is not the same as building specific mobile technology that is easier to use and understand, requires less training, performs better and encourages the users to actually use the technology. Mxi Technologies Elliott observes three main trends in the MRO sector, with the biggest and most critical evolution taking place on the business, rather than technology, side. He sees mobile-ready maintenance applications, business analytics that can help executives and upper management make the right business decisions based on accurate information insights, and innovative ways for monetising maintenance data as the main areas of focus. For MRO software providers, this means providing a solution that can deliver the business transformation customers are seeking, more so than just the latest bells and whistles, he observes. Commsoft s Godwin sees a change in the role of MRO software systems. Trends in the MRO sector require increasingly diverse information to be presented in ever concise, relevant and accessible forms to suit the disparate needs of the end user, he says. Faster processing and near real time data transmission will allow MRO IT systems to progress from being engineering compliance and reporting tools to being active decision support systems and offering economic advantage through real time integration with finance, operations, human resources and other systems. Increasingly the use of KPI and BPI dashboards with customisable alerts, status indicators and business tracking are being requested, thus turning systems such as OASES into senior management tools. Being embedded in an airline environment has been an important advantage to Swiss-AS in capturing trends and future requirements at an early stage, according to Schaeuffele. As quite a few members of the airline group are using AMOS, it is important for us to provide a state-of-the-art product that meets the expectations inside and outside the corporate family. AMOS is considered within the Lufthansa group as a cost-saving-enabler and we have to live up to our reputation. This dependency is a win-win situation for all parties, he says. The company is another that looks to involve its customer community in the development of its software, creating the AMOS Strategic Board in which customers can decide about the strategic development roadmap, and offering workshops that allow customers to influence the design of modules at an early stage. With the era of the connected aircraft upon us and the introduction of new aircraft that have more than six million parts in them, all designed from the ground up to be more software dependant, there is now more data than ever before in the industry that needs to be managed accurately and taken advantage of. As Ramco s Ganesh notes, aviation IT will soon see a growth spike in Big Data led predictive analytics. Mxi Technologies Elliott sees a similar trend. Looking further out, say five to seven years from now, I see the promise of predictive maintenance will largely intersect with the varying business models throughout the MRO food-chain, starting with the fundamental ask either from customers or service providers: have you done the right thing and can you prove it? 84 Aircraft Technology - Issue 125