Locatory.com, an IT company supporting the aviation industry with IT-based Supply Chain Optimisation solutions worldwide has signed an agreement with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in order to provide the IATA Financial SIS platform to increase the efficiency of its aftermarket services. The IATA Financial SIS platform is an electronic invoicing solution facilitating the air transport industry’s billing and settlement activities by optimizing and reducing the cost of back-office processes, unifying invoicing standards and eliminating the need for paper documentation.
“In today’s market carriers are always in search of ways to cut down expenses. Nevertheless, almost half of all the money the global aviation industry spends on maintenance services (which is $56.2 billion in 2013) is invested into spare parts. However, this number could be reduced if the relevant processes were properly optimised. Innovative IT solutions can considerably speed up the execution while reducing the number of such emergency situations as AOG,” says Zilvinas Sadauskas, the CEO of Locatory.com. “Many of the maintenance-related delays are connected to the processes of finding and purchasing the necessary inventory. And then there are also hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of documentation management processes to consider.”
In today’s market carriers are always in search of ways to cut down expenses and that could be beneficial to supply chain optimisation.
IATA reports that approximately 160 tonnes of invoices and supporting documents circulate among airlines each year to support the aviation industry’s interline billing and settlement processes. In addition, such largely paper-driven activities as invoicing and dispute handling involve substantial manual effort. SIS aims to eliminate unnecessary paperwork, mail charges and courier fees as well as mitigate the risks related to lost documents and internal paper handling thus offering annual cost savings of up to $700 million for the industry.
Via SIS an operator can submit a single electronic billing file that then is converted into an invoice and a settlement file. This helps to avoid record duplication and improves efficiency by integrating a unified e-invoicing standard (IS-XML). The platform also enables the participant to choose from such options as automated invoice validation and offers a variety of other handy functions. As a result, it significantly reduces the need for manual labour, adding to supply chain optimisation and improves control over cash flows, as the data is being directly linked to the payable systems of airlines.
“The first task of any e-procurement system is to ensure that operators receive comprehensive inventory management services with fast and effective aftermarket support. With the integration of the IATA Financial SIS solution into our platform, operators will be able to not only simplify the process of searching for necessary parts, but also purchase them in a fast, standardized electronic manner, making the process cheaper and paperless,” shares the CEO of Locatory.com. “Considering the cost of an AOG situation, the process of acquiring the necessary part should be as fast and easy as possible. The cooperation with IATA will allow us to offer our clients the opportunity to significantly reduce aggregate inventory while minimizing the number of maintenance related delays and cancellations.”
