A quote on aircraft parts while the question is still fresh
- 2m+ spare parts in one sales flow
- 90 % of the quoting process runs automatically
- Since 2015 developed further with the business
- Sales spends the day writing quotes that look alike.
- Response time decides the deal, and you lose it by hours.
- Growth means more hands, not a better business.
That is what it looks like in many trading companies with large catalogues. These are some of the challenges we have worked on with Leki Aviation.
What was Leki Aviation facing?
A catalogue of more than two million unique spare parts is a strength — right up until every quote has to be produced by hand in the ERP system. Enquiries arrived through different channels, and staff had to look up the part themselves and find the customer's price, the price line and the geographic region before they could answer.
In aviation, response time is not a detail. An aircraft on the ground costs money by the hour. The manual process became a bottleneck, where long response times cost deals, and where more sales could only come from more employees.
Leki Aviation can sell more without hiring proportionally more people.
Every quote produced by hand in the ERP, no matter which channel the enquiry came from. Long response times, and lost deals when things got busy.
More than 90 per cent of the quoting process runs automatically, whether the enquiry arrives by email, from a marketplace or from another system.
Staff spend their time on the difficult deals and on customers, instead of looking up prices.
A search engine that finds the part, even when the enquiry is off
- The part
Up to 20 part numbers can be searched at once, and the engine still hits the right one when the number is typed incorrectly. If the part does not exist, alternatives that can replace it are suggested.
- The customer
The enquiry is matched to the right company and contact person, no matter which channel it came in through.
- The salesperson
The case lands with the person at Leki who knows the customer. The automation delivers personal service rather than removing it.
The web shop became the foundation for everything that followed. Because the engine was there, the same lookups could be reused by the integrations, and more than 90 per cent of the quoting process could be automated. It is still being extended and improved.
Build the web shop around how the industry actually orders
An ordinary web shop is built for browsing: one item at a time, add to basket, pay. That is not how aircraft parts are bought. You sit with a list of part numbers and need an overview and a price for the whole list.
A standard web shop on top of the catalogue
- One item at a time, when the customer has a whole list
- No help when the part number is typed incorrectly
- A dead end if the exact part is out of stock
Purpose-built ordering with a search engine underneath
- Up to 20 part numbers searched at once, with an overview of the whole list
- Request a price or order straight away
- The same engine became the basis for every later integration
Three moves that made the business scalable
Leki Aviation has the industry knowledge, the catalogue and the customer relationships. Our contribution was building what lets them answer right away instead of tomorrow.
- 01
Modular architecture
The platform is built in parts that can be extended one at a time, so new features and integrations do not require touching the rest.
- 02
Integration with industry standards
Quantum ERP, AeroExchange, SPEC2000, ILS and EDI all talk to the platform, so data does not have to be moved by hand.
- 03
Market insight as a basis for decisions
Data on supply, demand and trends is gathered continuously, so purchasing and pricing rest on more than gut feeling.
One workflow at a time, since 2015
The collaboration started in 2015 and has run ever since. It did not begin with a master plan for the whole platform, but with the web shop and the search engine underneath it. That became the base; everything else is built on top.
A customer portal, an administration system, market insight and a business API have been added along the way, each piece built once the previous one had proved its worth in production. The engine is still being extended and improved.
The system is confidential and part of Leki Aviation's competitive edge. So here we describe what the solution does, not how it is built.
The web shop customers log in to
The entrance to the platform. Behind the login sit the multi-search, the quotes and the integrations, which cannot be shown here.
The system behind the login is confidential.
A foundation that can carry the next step
The modular build means new channels, new integrations and new markets can be added without rebuilding the platform. The business API lets third parties and marketplaces connect, and every new channel inherits the same automation.
- Industry
- Aviation and trade
- Platform
- Web and server automation
- Our role
- Development partner with operational responsibility under a service agreement and ongoing development
- Capabilities
- Digital consulting , UX and service design , Web development , System development
- Technologies
- Angular, Java/Scala, Postgres
- The collaboration
- Ongoing collaboration since 2015
Shall we look at your quoting process?
- A reply from one of us by the next business day.
- A no-obligation review of your situation.
- Clarity on which options are relevant to you.
- A concrete plan, if you choose to go ahead.