AeroParts Now Interview with GHC Interactive at PBEXPO 2022
Watch as Will Dent explains how AeroParts Now customers benefit from the all-in-one toolkit for selling aircraft parts online.
AeroParts Now President Will Dent sat down with GHC Interactive CEO Greg Heine at PBEXPO 2022 to discuss what AeroParts Now does and how it’s unique in aviation business technology.
Greg: Hey everybody we’re here at PartsBase PBEXPO for day two, joining me I have Will Dent, from AeroParts Now. Will, how’s it going?
Will: Great, Greg, thanks for having me. Enjoying the show, it’s been a good show. Yesterday was great, last night, and looking forward to another day.
Greg: Very cool. So tell us a little bit about AeroParts Now. What’s the company about, what’s the product, and we’ll take it from there.
Will: So, we’ve been around for about three years, the intent was to put something in the hands of aircraft suppliers that allows them to be more efficient and effective with what they do now, and position them for the future, which we feel is more online transactions—either starting the transaction or finishing the transaction or doing the entire transaction online.
“The intent was to put something in the hands of aircraft suppliers that allows them to be more efficient and effective … and position them for the future.”
But the point is we put together a system that fits nicely between the existing ERP systems and the rest of their sales channels. So we sync up with PartsBase, ILS, AeroExchange, but then we also establish a branded storefront. So it’s pretty neat when you see a customer see all their inventory branded on their website in a matter of weeks, and it’s all the way integrated back to their ERP system. It’s a good feeling—both for the customer and for us when we see that.
Greg: Very cool. So that connection that you guys are creating between the storefront and ERP is kind of ensuring like there is a real part, it’s in stock, it’s something that’s available for somebody to buy.
Will: That’s exactly right. I spent a lot of time at a manufacturer, every morning they’d wake up and the first thing we would do is look at an Excel spreadsheet of all the aircraft that are AOG in the world. We’d move a part halfway across the world, we’d find out a day later that the part was actually on the airfield that the airplane was broke, AOG on. And the reason we didn’t know about it was because we were waiting on a phone call or an email to be returned to find out. But meanwhile we’re moving heaven and earth to get that part.
So, that’s the AOG use case, but some point, ultimately, airplanes are going to be like inkjet printers and ordering their parts and looking out there in the supply chain, and we position our customers as well for that future.
Greg: Right. And so trying to really bring that more into a modern buying process. Or giving your customers the ability to allow their customers to buy in a more modern way. Or something that’s a little more similar to an Amazon right now.
Will: That’s exactly right. And the thing about what we put together was that we recognize that the buyers and the suppliers that are working in these roles—they’re younger. They are digital natives. They don’t know a world that starts with a desktop computer and opening client software like Quantum or Pentagon, they open up a website and that’s where they start searching for parts.
“We recognize that the buyers and the suppliers that are working in these roles … they are digital natives.”
And so that’s a part of the premise of what we put together as well, to support the generation changes. But the good news is we support the now, and we support the future as well, where we feel the industry is headed.
Greg: Right. And so where do you think it’s headed?
Will: I think it’s headed for a more autonomous supply chain. We’re using machine learning, we’re anticipating things breaking before they break, and when they do break and it’s unexpected, we know where parts are. We’re able to locate them close. From a green standpoint, you’re getting and sourcing things closer, because you’re aware of it. And from an availability standpoint, you’re getting parts to the airplane quicker, and you’re ensuring dispatch reliability.
“I think [the aviation industry] is headed for a more autonomous supply chain.”
Greg: Very cool. And so how about on the integrations with the marketplaces that are out there, like a PartsBase. What does that integration do for your customers?
Will: For our customers, it just gives them the ability, one, to keep their inventory up-to-date, out there in the marketplace, so that their supporting these different channels where buyers are. It also gives the ability to search those marketplaces and pull that into an integrated system where they can look at an ILS, a PartsBase, and they can even look at their own inventory, their own past procurement history as well, and pull it into a single interface where they can answer the truth—whether it’s the right price, or it’s the right part location, etc.
Greg: Sure. And I know you have a bunch of customers who are either attending or exhibiting here today. What types of cost savings or time savings, what are the benefits they are seeing in implementing your product?
Will: So one of the first things that we see on the current tradition process is, they’re able to get to all the demand that is coming from the marketplaces. Because traditionally the marketplaces, the demand coming from them has the lowest hit rate—versus true customers that they’ve done business with in the past. And so immediately with our system they get to all that demand, they can put business rules in place, they can help with spam, etc.
And then the second thing that they get is, if they go the eCommerce option, is they have the ability to have their parts found on Google. We have a customer that has 25,000 parts in Quantum, and 25,000 parts that are out there and searchable. 13,000 of those part numbers you type in Google—they’re on page one of the search results on Google. So we put together a system that’s SEO-ready.
“They have the ability to have their parts found on Google … we put together a system that’s SEO-ready.”
Greg: That’s awesome. I would imagine for somebody who was looking for a part, the easiest place to go is Google, right? So that’s something pretty unique that you’re doing, exposing that to generic search results.
Will: That’s right.
Greg: Very cool. So any big plans for 2022 that you want to mention?
Will: We’re doubling down on our integrations with others. So we’re integrated with AvSight, we have customers that are launching in distribution that have hundreds of thousands of parts that are integrated all the way back into AvSight as well. We’re working with ERP.aero. So you can think of us, we want to be a hub, a layer that helps companies. We’re the ultimate toolkit.
“We want to be a hub, a layer that helps companies. We’re the ultimate toolkit.”
We have some CRM capabilities that we’re expanding on, but we work with HubSpot, we work with Salesforce. So we’re not out to be the one that solves all those things, but we want to be the one that helps connect our customers to the best practices and the best tools out there.
Greg: Very cool, well alright! Sounds good. Thank you for stopping by, it was great to hear about some of the latest happenings there and we’ll talk soon!
Will: Thanks, Greg, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Learn More About GHC Interactive
GHC Interactive provides aviation consulting strategies and solutions focusing on technology, marketing, sales and customer experience in business aviation, commercial aviation, general aviation and military aviation. Greg Heine, the founder of GHC, is a SaaS & Aviation Senior Executive with 12+ years of experience focusing on B2B SaaS sales, digital marketing, new product development, and award-winning customer support. He’s worked alongside both entrepreneurs and private equity to create and execute winning strategies.
