Web Manuals (Booth N5870), developer of digital documentation services for the aviation industry, is revealing key new features of its latest major software update to its regulatory compliance package here at NBAA-BACE 2019, ahead of the formal launch and roll-out in early 2020. The update, called Web Manuals 8, provides a more intuitive, user-friendly, and customizable experience compared with the former version, noted Krister Genmark, Web Manuals director of operations Americas.
“We rebuilt the foundation of the whole software and one of the main improvements is the speed. The speed is heavily increased, and you can scroll through a manual of 100,000 pages without delay in a couple of minutes,” he told AIN. The interface is not dissimilar to what users experience with platforms like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, except here they get all the digitization benefits of Web Manuals, such as full document revision control, structure, and traceability, he added. The ability to work with multiple pages simultaneously makes it quicker and easier to edit large and complex manuals, Martin Lidgard, CEO and founder of Web Manuals said.
Another important improvement, Genmark said, is Web Manuals 8’s ability to extend across platforms and its compatibility with a much wider range of devices, including the iPhone and smartphones running on Android. Offline support is possible via the Chrome browser. The Web Manuals software provides real-time updates on regulation changes, ensuring customers—Web Manuals is a subscription service—regulatory compliance and flight safety. The system’s rapid authoring, reviewing, publishing and distributing tools also provide “significant time and cost savings,” the Swedish company stressed.
Customers Want Digital Products
The update is in response to customer feedback and the increased digitization of business aviation. “We've been saying for quite a long time that it is time to leave the Stone Age behind and enter into the digital world. Most companies in the industry are now in the digital world, but now we need to take that next leap forward to be at the forefront of digitization,” said Genmark. “Web Manuals 8 paves the way for the future.”
In the U.S., demand for document digitization has “rocketed," championing a 17 percent increase in Web Manuals’ stateside customers since the beginning of 2019. Business aviation is leading the charge for digitization in the region, according to Web Manuals—nearly two-thirds of its 69 U.S.-based customers operate within the sector. “The digitization of American business aviation has, this year, truly taken off. To increase our U.S. client base by almost a fifth proves that, industry-wide, people are embracing digital transformation,” Genmark concluded. Web Manuals has offices in New York and San Diego, giving American customers an extensive support system to call on.
The company maintains is headquarters in Europe, where it still has its largest client base. Web Manuals’s global client base now numbers 230 customers, a 35 percent increase since last year’s NBAA-BACE.
Web Manuals 8 has the capacity to incorporate additional languages into the user interface, which Lidgard said shows the company’s “commitment to ensuring our international customers continue to find digitizing their existing documents a stress-free and seamless experience.” Aspirations are to add 10 new languages, and these will be added as demand grows. Initially, English and Spanish will be available with the update.
Also on the horizon is expansion into the Canadian market in 2020, possibly with a local partner, and to install the Canadian regulations in its Compliance Libraries within the Web Manuals application.
