So after three evenings of entertainment and hospitality
interspersed by two full days of presentations and seminars we reach the
conclusion of the Jeppesen CONNECT EMEA event here in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.
I last attended this event in 2010 and it has certainly grown in attendance,
perhaps due to the gradual recovery in the fortunes of commercial aviation, although
I did notice an increasing military presence this year. We still have the ‘Blue
Man Group’ show to look forward to tonight, followed by a party at the Pan Am
Lounge so I thought I would get this written first…
What did I learn? Well there is a strong desire amongst
operators here to rationalise the variety of paper-based and software-based
systems that most of them manage in order to satisfy all of the information
needs of the diverse user groups, from load control through flight ops to the
board room. One or two pioneers appear to have achieved something close to this
seamless and paperless ‘Nirvana’ which begs the question, ‘If it’s that easy
why doesn’t everyone do it?’ The answer appears to be that it really isn’t that
easy and the transition is far from risk free.
I recall from my experience at Emirates that a real danger
exists when separate departments become frustrated with each other in the
pursuit of a joined up system and branch out with their own stand-alone
solutions. These are often badly supported, short-lived and incapable of integration.
The result is disaffection in the finance office, when they are asked to fund replacements
or enhancements for recently purchased systems and from user groups struggling
to work with less than perfect functionality.
Do you choose iPad, the only platform available for Jeppesen
until recently or do you go for the newcomer in the aviation market, the
Windows based Surface? I am no expert but users at the forum had pros and cons
for both and you need to get the choice right because the investment is
substantial. Whatever you get, it seems you need to change manage the
implementation because not all users will be tech-savvy or eager to adopt a new
information culture.
So is there a seamless software option on the shelf? Well,
no not yet. Even our hosts were quick to admit that their end-to-end solution
is a work in progress and they could only show us the development version,
which still had lots of ‘watch this space’ panes. The vast majority of
attendees placed themselves in the ‘toe-in-the-water’ category when it comes to
mobile data systems and I suspect it will take a bit more persuasion to get
them all to take the plunge.
No comments:
Post a Comment