Aerocom System

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AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGY & MAINTENANCE: Maintenance focus: Italy - August/September 2003

To gain an overview of Italy's aviation MRO industry as it moves out of recession, Aircraft Technology takes a brief look at five of its leading players, each of which operates in a somewhat different field: Alitalia Engineering & Maintenance, a division of the national flag carrier; engine MRO Avio; software house Aerocom; conversion house Aeronavali; and SKF, a manufacturer of seals and bearings.

MRO software

The recent problems in the aviation industry have focused minds on the need to maximize operational efficiency, with the result that the market is now awash with IT products intended to streamline maintenance operations at airlines, OEMs and independent MROs.

One of the companies offering such a product, Aerocom, takes Trento in Italy as its main location. The company's main product, a maintenance and fleet management software suite brand-named Aerocom System, was developed exclusively for the aerospace industry, and is not applied in any others. "We don't do anything on the administrative side of the airlines business," says a company director. "This is normally handled by general software so there's no reason for us to provide those capabilities. Obviously there are thousands of components to be managed even within a fleet containing just one or two aircraft, and our software helps overhaul shops to prepare maintenance events long before the aircraft actually arrives - by helping them to be aware of what stocks they need for the pieces to be replaced, and so on."

Aerocom's client base includes many small to medium airlines, competing in the Italian market. "There's not too much real competition in our local market, " says the director. "I mean, there are a huge number of poorly-designed programs which amount to little more than adjusted Excel tables - those are not really competitive - and then there are a few big programs on the market which were designed by major airlines, but those are very expensive. They also require a lot of training, whereas our product can be implemented even by a small organisation. I think we are also well-placed from a pricing point of view."

Though presently still a DOS programme, the Aerocom System software will be upgraded to a Windows platform in the near future. "We took a big decision in 2001 not to keep simply upgrading the software but to go to a new technology. We now have a sister company in Kuala Lumpur - 100 per cent owned by us - which is developing a new, Internet-based version of the software and, once it's ready, we'll start marketing it to regional airlines in the Far East." In its home market, meanwhile, Aerocom is experiencing a shift in the regional breakdown of its customer base.

"There is more dynamic market in the south - or central and south - of Italy right now, in terms of regional and local flights, partly because of the islands, Sicily and Sardinia. so we're winning more and more business in central and southern Italy. Though the north remains interesting for us, it has suffered a lot because of the [Milan] Malpensa airport disaster. I think the combination of Alitalia experiencing difficulties and Malpensa airport never becoming a big hub has had an impact."