Web Manuals has enhanced its web-based service by adding an App for Windows-based electronic flight bags (EFBs) and updating its Apple iPad App. The Swedish company also has started to offer U.S. FAA-compliant compliance library in Web Manuals version 5.1 (code-named “Super Firefly”), complimenting its existing EASA library.
According to WebManuals co-founder and CEO Martin Lidgard, the Apps have “unique” functionality that automatically highlights changes in regulations. The company has already signed up the first five operators for the new U.S. system.
Lidgard told AIN that the company had “gained momentum rapidly” since it was founded in 2012, through a management buy-out. “We started with five clients and five people, today we have 50 clients and 10 people.” Its service is focused on small and medium-sized operators in business aviation, and also regional airlines, said Lidgard, who added that some operators were “really struggling” with their old systems.
Setting up a new client with Web Manuals (Booth A059) only takes two to three months “from sign-up to go-live” with two to three weeks of internal work for the client and “a few days” assistance from Web Manuals itself. “They usually see a return-on-investment in the first six months,” Lidgard said.
The new FAA compliance library (already in use with operators such as Gama Aviation) incorporates Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) for Part 91, 121 and 135 operators and, claims the company, makes updating aviation manuals “a less time consuming and more reliable process by automatically highlighting where documents require revising.”
The functionality was developed in partnership with regulatory specialists AeroEx and also now includes allowing users to add notes and comments that Lidgard said were later retained, even when subsequent changes had been made. This feature could be useful, he said for safety-related instructions, for example on the carrying of dangerous goods.
“What used to be a laborious manual task is now made simple: the rapid authoring, review, publishing, distribution and control of an entire manuals library is now a seamless operation, bringing significant savings in time and administration costs while improving regulatory compliance and flight safety.”
The App, now for iPad and Windows tablet devices as well, “complements Web Manuals’ main cloud-based application,” said the company, which claims that the latter “revolutionized the way operators maintain compliance with changing aviation regulations.” Lidgard said that “about half our operators are already using the EFB Apps.”
“Web Manuals helps business aviation operators achieve major efficiencies in document management, regulatory compliance automation and operational agility. Our document reader app extends these benefits into the cockpit and, therefore, right across the organization,” Lidgard continued, adding that the focus for now was Europe and the U.S.
The company’s three-year plan is to have 500 clients by 2017, half in the U.S. and half in Europe. Lidgard believes most of its competitors are focused on more sophisticated XML-based systems for larger operators, and even so the market is “up to 10,000 potential clients.”
