Newsletters
January 2010
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SMS Pro™ Receives Praise from Transport Canada Transport Canada (TC) recently performed a thorough audit of a Canadian operator that uses SMS Pro™. TC reported that they consider SMS Pro™ the most "comprehensive Safety Management System (SMS) tool they have seen so far." SMS Pro™ is a very user friendly, Web-based safety management system that includes hazard reporting systems and sophisticated management, monitoring, and reporting tools that every aviation SMS should have in some fashion or another, whether you are under TC, FAA or ICAO regulations. TC stated that SMS Pro™ had more functionality than other SMS applications and especially liked how dynamic reports were easily available at the touch of a finger, particularly the financial reports. Meeting Manager TC was impressed with SMS Pro™'s Meeting Manager. The Meeting Manager function is a scheduling tool that allows users to quickly and efficiently organize meetings based on agendas within SMS Pro™. Starting with unresolved issues within your organization, you can add or subtract important agenda items and email the agenda to participants as a pdf attachment. All you need is a Web browser and e-mail - no software needs to be installed on your computer. Meeting Manager focuses on safety, quality, security and compliance meetings. The module is ideal for organizations as well as individuals and is highly scalable. The application architecture supports both individuals and organizations with only a few or thousands of employees. TC highlighted how all meeting minutes were documented for easy access in the future. In addition, they liked how tasks could be updated and/or assigned during a meeting. Performance Monitor TC gave SMS Pro™'s Performance Monitor high marks. Performance Monitor's key performance indicators allow management to quickly see how their aviation SMS is affecting their operations. SMS Pro™ offers a Performance Monitor for executives to see reported activity. Auditors quickly see how open the reporting culture is by looking at the Safety Board. In addition, looking at the average number of days an issue is unresolved is a good metric for organizational responsiveness. TC also liked the financial data incorporated into the report management functions. Issue Validation Issue Validation is perhaps the most difficult for companies to manage. Reported issues must be re-evaluated in the future to ensure that corrective actions remain effective and the corrective actions have not exacerbated the issue. SMS Pro™'s Issue Validation alerts Safety Managers when issues need to be re-examined and manages the history of the validation reports. Auditors absolutely love this feature. Customizable Risk Matrix SMS Pro™ has been rated as the most complete and user-friendly aviation SMS tool on the market. SMS Pro™ now provides the capability for a customizable risk matrix including customized colors, dimensions, labels and legends. With customizable risk matrices, SMS Pro™ allows safety managers to perform: 1) Initial Risk Assessments 2) Residual Risk Assessments 3) Review Risk Assessments during the "Validation" phase What is different about the new SMS Pro™ Risk Matrix? In the first version, SMS Pro™ allowed each user to have either a 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5 Risk Matrix. Values and legends were fixed regarding: 1) People 2) Environment 3) Assets 4) Reputation Now SMS Pro™ clients can have the Risk Matrix configured to fit their organization. Flight Risk Assessment Tool (FRAT) SMS Pro™'s FRAT provides proactive identification of possible hazards and the use of risk management tools to mitigate risks as aspects of an SMS. The improved and completely customizable Mission Risk Assessment Tool allows escalation of required actions based on the individual mission's risk score. There are four categories to evaluate for any particular mission: 1) Manpower 2) Operating Environment 3) Equipment 4) Departures / Arrivals SMS Pro™ comes pre-configured with default questions and risk values in each of the first three categories. An SMS Manager or Admin can easily modify these items by: 1) Adding new questions 2) Changing the verbiage of questions 3) Changing risk values between 0 and 5 4) Changing the order the questions appear SMS Managers or Chief Pilots for example can configure a risk value for the departure and arrival at each airport. Currently there are over 6000 airports in the SMS Pro™ database. SMS Pro™ will soon add a utility to include customizable landing areas. Mission Risk Assessment enables users to arrive at measurable values that direct users to follow additional instructions if the total risk value falls within an "escalation range." For example, a mission risk value of 50 may require "Director of Operations Approval" and anything higher may direct pilots that "Flights are not authorized." Based on the Mission Risk Value, one can press a button to email an escalation report to configured users or third parties. In addition, one can easily send all mission reports to an email account to archive. One can even email a report to "dispatch." Finally, one can print a hard-copy report to get required signatures or to file. Must Acknowledge Module SMS Pro™ now provides management the means to ensure that employees and staff receive, acknowledge and understand important notices, whether they are: 1) Policies 2) Important safety bulletins or announcements 3) Compliance statements 4) Audit trail items SMS Pro™'s Must Acknowledge module allows Management to compose newsletters or email announcements and mail them to users such as Department Heads, Pilots, Cabin Crew, Mechanics etc. If desired, emails can be targeted to only a few personnel. Key features of the SMS Pro™ Must Acknowledge module include: 1) Managers can assign priority, deadlines and managers to the Must Acknowledge task 2) Users receive unmistakable emails with a subject line starting with ***Must Acknowledge*** 3) Each email has a link that opens into a secure window for users to easily acknowledge receipt 4) Response emails communicate to managers and team members of the acknowledgement 5) SMS Pro™ can be configured to ensure team members must acknowledge all outstanding statements before gaining access to SMS Pro™ 6) Managers can see at a glance who has (or has not) responded 7) Managers can easily send reminder emails with one click 8) Additional features include filtering by: -Manager -Division -Date range 9) The Auditor Review function allows an easy interface to review the items and see who has (or has not) acknowledged 10) Auditor Review allows full text search on Title, Task Description, Manager or Status Support of Operator's Internal Evaluation Program Managing Internal Evaluation Program (IEP) documentation is a time-consuming task for operators that must have an IEP. The plan must be prepared, reviewed regularly, accepted by senior management and regulatory authorities and then distributed to appropriate company personnel. Reduce manpower requirements by using SMS Pro™ to manage this task. SMS Pro™ offers an IEP solution. SMS Pro™ provides a template approach to putting your IEP into version control, workflow management, timestamps of personnel making changes and rollback capabilities. In addition, SMS Pro™ provides a toolset to manage your audits, inspections and evaluations. Findings and concerns are managed using a user-friendly corrective actions management interface. SMS Pro™ is a one-stop solution for aviation safety, security, quality and compliance issues; including investigations, corrective actions and validation. What people are saying about SMS Pro™ "...It was a great demo and you have an excellent product..." and "Very nice program and thank you for taking your time to go in depth with us. We are looking forward to a strong and mutually beneficial relationship..." and finally, "...just get it! It constantly exceeds our expectations." To learn more about SMS Pro™ and arrange for an on-line demonstration contact: Dustin Wilcox at dwilcox@jdasolutions.aero or Chris Howell at chowell@nwds-ak.com. Click here to forward this e-mail to a friend!
SMS Partners is a partnership between JDA Aviation Technology Solutions and Northwest Data Solutions. The combined expertise of these two organizations provides its customers with customized SMS solutions that will improve your safety record, keep you conpliant with regulatory requirements, and save you time and money. For more information, go to the SMS Partners' website.
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