25 May 2012 - The first ever in depth survey of the MRO IT industry, to identify the experiences, thoughts, predictions and expectations for the sector in the first quarter of 2012, has been conducted by Rusada, developers of Envision™.
Looking at external influences, predictably, the top challenge for 45% of respondents was 'driving internal cost control due to external cost increases' and it was the second top challenge for a further 31% of respondents. ‘Lack of experienced and trained staff’ also figured high on respondents concerns.
‘Environmental accountability’ was first concern for only 15% of respondents. Perhaps this reflects that environmental accountability is such a prescribed area of operation that people feel confident in their understanding of its parameters and the ability of their systems to cope with it whereas cost control, staff and the competitive market are all true challenges to which every business's response must be of their own making.
The survey asked participants to look back over the past five years to find out their thoughts on the most significant business changes. Unsurprisingly, considering the economic climate, respondents indicated the biggest change had been the ‘streamlining of resources and personnel utilisation’ followed closely by ‘leveraging new technology’, both of which have meant they have had to adapt the way they do business.
The survey, conducted during January and February 2012, garnered 358 responses, a high figure for any survey of this nature. Of those 358, the majority were people working in airlines (61.5%) or aircraft operators (9.2%) while a further 15.4% were working in independent MRO facilities. OEMs and consultants each accounted for 4.7% with military, parts suppliers and IT vendors together accounting for less than 2% of respondents. This, in addition to the total number of responses, was good news because a significant majority of opinions came from the user end of the market.
In an industry where safety and security are such a major concern and where corners cannot be cut it is important that organisations have the software to enable them to be efficient and cost effective without compromising on delivery standards. Jan Haastrup, the Business Systems and Information Manager at Thomas Cook made the following comments about how Rusada has enabled Thomas Cook Airlines UK to overcome some of the current challenges that it faces: ‘For Thomas Cook Airlines UK the high level benefits of an advanced, integrated maintenance, repair, overhaul and continued airworthiness solution, such as Envision™, have been realised in three key areas. First, using one main system has enabled us to simplify our processes thanks to the elimination of any duplicated information and the fact that the same information is immediately available, in a verified form, to multiple departments.’
He added, ‘Second, there is a significant reduction in overall infrastructure cost because the latest systems use up-to-date languages and platforms to operate on which lend themselves to cross application integration and are easier to support than legacy bespoke software because their core structure is common to several vendor applications. Third, with the security of a stabilised system, the key staff involved in the business areas which it supports now have more time to devote to potential improvements in the business, with the knowledge that the systems work for them and not they for the system. Businesses like ours have to evolve to meet the demanding challenges brought about in recent years and vendors such as Rusada help us achieve that evolution.’
Envision™ is the Rusada MRO, operations and fleet management solution for the aviation industry that enables true business transformation by combining MRO, flight operations and fleet management in one integrated, configurable and extendable software solution. Serving aircraft operators, OEMs, MROs and service organisations, the data driven – asset management software provides the visibility and flexibility business needs to respond quickly to external market forces and internal cost and efficiency requirements.
