• Home
• Customers
• Aerospace & Defense

Jet Aviation

SAP BIG BANG for Jet Aviation

The Challenge

"We already had SAP implemented in our maintenance and completions operations in Switzerland and Germany but the challenge we faced was to adapt SAP to our other lines of business in the U.S., namely, fixed base operations, charter and management services," Dennis P. Geoffroy, chief information officer at Jet Aviation's largest and busiest U.S. facility in Teterboro, NJ, said.

The company also wanted to integrate the system into its four major U.S. operations, in Teterboro, NJ, Bedford, MA, West Palm Beach, FL, and Dallas, TX, simultaneously. "Because we were already on an integrated
system, the only plan that made sense was the 'Big Bang' approach where we shut down the old system and bring up the new everywhere on the same day," Geoffroy said. And in order to do that, Geoffroy said Jet Aviation was looking for a partner "that could bring SAP and project management expertise into the project."

That partner turned out to be IMG Americas, based in Kennett Square, PA, a subsidiary of The Information Management Group (IMG), global e-Business architects, and recognized leaders in reinventing business for the information age.

The Project

The scope of the project included business process re-engineering in all lines of business as well as one major application interface, a new third-party developed GUI and two new, customized, credit card interfaces. "In my 25 year career, I never saw a project of this magnitude accomplished so easily and so quickly," Geoffroy remarked, noting that "some businesses take four to five years to do what we did in less than one. Some try and never accomplish it." Geoffroy noted that the keys to the project, apart from IMG's SAP and e-Business expertise, was the chemistry between the IMG team and Jet Aviation's staff,
and total, unflinching commitment from Jet Aviation's executive management. Both IMG and Jet Aviation, Geoffroy noted, "put the right minimum number of resources to make it work."

"It really was a dream team," he said.The team consisted of four full-time personnel from IMG, John O'Neill, senior vice president at IMG, said, along with two other part-time support staff. The Jet Aviation resources consisted of 9 full-time resources... the best from each area of the business. The steering committee, O'Neill said, coordinated the entire project, and included Jet Aviation's senior management. "All senior vice presidents of the U.S. operations were on the steering committee," Geoffroy explained, underlining the commitment to the project. "Our president and COO for Jet Aviation's U.S. operations, Terrance P. Kelley attended every monthly meeting," Geoffroy added, "due to the importance he and the rest of the management team placed on the success of this project." Although the eight and a half month project was completed on time, both Geoffroy and O'Neill acknowledged there were some troublesome spots, albeit few and far between.

"We had one personnel change in the midst of the project and we also altered
the scope in one significant area where it was clearly in Jet Aviation's best interest, Geoffroy said. "But the fact that both Jet Aviation and IMG worked as a team, our combined level of commitment and communication easily overcame these challenges," he added. "Even with these challenges, we succeeded in accomplishing the project on-time and on-budget."

That teamwork between IMG and Jet Aviation has obviously paid off for both firms. "I now look to IMG as my first choice as a consulting firm for other projects," Geoffroy said.

"That is the kind of relationship we have developed," he added. "I was completely satisfied overall and more than pleased with the mutual support, trust and respect that developed throughout the project." Geoffroy further explained, "You have to have lived through a number of these types of projects to fully appreciate just how well things went. We had the right project team, the right consulting partners and the right management team. Everyone was with us all the way with their total commitment and expertise." O'Neill concurred, saying there was complete agreement between IMG and Jet Aviation in such areas as the priority of issues. "It's tough to meet firm, fixed deadlines," O'Neill said, "But with the environment both we at IMG and those at Jet Aviation created, we all came through really well, and in style."

According to Geoffroy, the project was a "major leap forward for Jet Aviation, its customers and its employees. Never before had Jet Aviation U.S. attempted a project of this size nor a system of this level of sophistication." Geoffroy praised IMG's desire and ability to work "closely together, almost seamlessly" with Jet Aviation.

"Many consulting companies," Geoffroy observed, "Usually want to run the project their own way, especially when it's a fixed price project. Usually the client is strong-armed into accepting numerous concessions it would otherwise not accept. Not with IMG. They were true partners throughout. I have seen too many failures when the consultants run the project," Geoffroy said. "IMG, however, allowed us to lead, even though we were not the SAP nor project experts... but we did know our own business." "IMG's real expertise came in by coaching us, and teaching us in an indirect way," Geoffroy said, "Tactfully telling us when we were headed in the wrong direction and truly advising and assisting us in getting it back on track."