When Papillon, the world’s largest aerial sightseeing company, recently announced it would start using Ramco Aviation Suite V5.8, it marked a major milestone for Ramco Systems. It meant that, according to Ramco, seven of the world’s 10 largest helicopter operators were now using its Maintenance & Engineering (M&E) Aviation Software.
That led us to ask the question: “Why has Ramco become the choice of so many major helicopter and special operators?”
Complete solution, powerful features
Ask Manoj K. Singh, Ramco’s senior vice president, Americas, this question, and he’ll tell you that while the company and its product stand out from the competition in several unique ways, each operator has different reasons why they’re drawn to Ramco.
It could be because the company offers a comprehensive aviation and business solution. “We provide a complete end-to-end aviation solution,” said Singh. “And for large operators, they don’t have to go outside of Ramco for any system needs, including flight ops, finance, accounting or HR.”
Of course, many operators have very specialized requirements, so they appreciate the aviation software’s unique and powerful features.
For instance, Air Methods has minimal staffing at its 100-plus bases. That means its mechanics and pilots truly need to be efficient when using M&E software. “So, we built something called Straight Thro’ Processing that speeds up the process of tracking maintenance and requesting and replacing parts. A lot of transactions in the system happen automatically behind the scenes. That minimizes the amount of time a mechanic has to spend in the system.”
For a customer like Columbia Helicopters, whose personnel are often in locations with minimal or no Internet access, Ramco created an industry-first: Offline Field Maintenance.
“This is an offline version of our aviation software that a mechanic can take with him on a laptop and go remote for months,” said Singh. “It can be used to track journey logs and maintenance remotely and then sync with the main server whenever they have Internet connectivity again.”
Helicopter knowledge
It also helps that Ramco has developed a detailed understanding of the helicopter industry’s unique needs, particularly when it comes to maintenance.
“Because of the multitude of operations that heli-operators are involved in and the number of moving parts, helicopters have more parameters that must be monitored,” said Singh. “In our software, we are able to capture up to 50 different parameters–customers like Era record up to 45–and then use business rules to determine maintenance checks. I don’t think there is another software that has this ability.”
With the recent spate of acquisitions and mergers, there are companies with multiple independent operations in their mix. Other vendors deploy their software at each of these individual entities, which creates more cost and complexity.
“Ramco has one software deployment, and then uses what we call Organizational Units to model different business entities on a single database, all separated by role-based authorization. Each division only sees its information, but the corporation can easily roll-up the data across all divisions. The single deployment also simplifies IT management.”
This solution is particularly useful for companies that have unique operations in multiple countries, languages and currencies.
A multitude of benefits
A quick check of Ramco’s case studies reveals a litany of tangible benefits and savings operators have gained from using M&E Aviation Suite. This includes savings from enhanced warranty tracking, increases in revenue from improved aircraft availability, increased inventory accuracy, reduced inventory costs, and improved employee productivity.
Ramco has also been at the forefront of innovation, infusing the latest technology into its product. For example, it has mobile apps designed for all key users, such as pilots, mechanics and warehouse clerks. This is part of Ramco’s larger digitization initiative, which includes converting all PDF manuals into digital interactive documents that allow for eSignature and drives an end-to-end paperless operation.
Of course, if he had to summarize where Ramco really stands out, Singh said the core difference is flexibility, both in its software and its customer partnerships.
“A lot of our heli-specific capabilities were built as requirements from our customers. Our software had the flexibility to accommodate those requirements . . . . Organizationally,
our customers appreciate our flexibility, ease of doing business and continuous support.”
When you mix functionality with flexibility and support, it’s easy to see why Ramco has gained such a high level of adoption.
Reaching smaller operators–Ramco’s new horizon
Having nearly cornered the large operator market, Ramco is setting its sights on small- and medium-sized operators. It has a new solution that should be ideal for this market.
“We have packaged the best practices of the heli industry that are unique and useful for heli-operators and are offering it on a cloud on a subscription basis. So, smaller operators can get the same gold standard in aviation software at a highly affordable price. We are calling it Ramco Aviation Lite.”
This on-demand solution also comes with continued airworthiness management services available through a partnership with veteran maintenance providers. This gives smaller operators a complete solution, and yet another reason to choose Ramco.
To find out more about how Ramco’s functionality, flexibility and support can benefit your operations, email them at contact@ramco.com.
