Ocean Software
Taming Military Aviation Operations with FlightPro®

When a young Finnish instructor pilot returned from an exchange program at NATO Flying Training Canada, he had increased his flying proficiency, but he had also learned of an Australian company called Ocean Software, and a unique program called FlightPro®. Leading from that initial experience, the Finnish Defense Force acquired FlightPro®, joining a worldwide user base that includes eleven countries and supports eight militaries, with more contracts expected this year.

In its inception, Ocean Software built a training management system for Australia's Air Force pilot training unit. Twenty years later FlightPro® remains the Air Force’s system of record and Ocean Software’s prime customer. “With technology evolutions incorporated over the years, FlightPro® now runs the entire Australian Air Force from a training and operational standpoint,” says a proud Adam Hogan, Vice President, Ocean Software. A fully-fledged Software Solutions Developer (SSD) with a specific focus on government and military customers, Ocean specializes in solutions for squadron operations management and training, logistics management, and maritime surveillance.

“Our global deliveries are all FlightPro® implementations, and the key differentiator is scheduling,” notes Hogan. FlightPro® has a unique ability to schedule a dynamic military aviation environment using a simple drag-and-drop interface, mimicking the old “whiteboard and magnet” concept for organization of resources. The software provides real-time messaging when operating several squadrons, allowing easy collaboration. This results in an increase in efficiency, while integrating the tools to manage ongoing training and competency tracking, ultimately improves safety. According to Hogan, military aviation regularly blends operational tasking and training needs, so it’s important to be able to schedule, manage, and report within a single system. Excelling in this requirement, FlightPro® simultaneously manages 50+Canadian squadrons across all aircraft and mission types, rolling up data for headquarters while providing the toolset for individual units to safely and efficiently manage their tasking.

Another customer, a large flight training operation, was struggling with their legacy custom software. In their complex training environment, a single morning of bad weather regularly caused chaos and a significant loss of training. In urgent need of a solution, and aware of the product’s success in a similar operation, the client acquired FlightPro®.

This single change greatly improved the efficiency of operations, with scheduling time reduced by 75 percent, and a 30 percent reduction in manpower needs.

This success is a result of an industry-leading technology team, backed by a significant body of ex-military Subject Matter Experts (SME) with real-world experience, including aircrew from a diverse range of platforms and countries. These ex-operators provide Ocean’s experienced IT team with industry knowledge to ensure FlightPro® is closely aligned to business requirements.

CIOs in the defense arena are challenged to reduce operating budgets and, where possible, use a single system to manage all aviation operations, but most commercial technologies don’t handle the complexity of military aviation. Ocean Software provides a single toolset that can support a fighter jet squadron and then be configured to support a transport, maritime patrol, or helicopter community. This reduces costs, and improves communication by breaking down siloes between different end user groups.

FlightPro® is the complete proven solution for end-to-end operations management of military flying units. Functions include tasking, scheduling, conflict resolution, training management, currency and qualification tracking, flying hours recording and operational reporting

The company is observing great traction in Europe, with significant interest from countries like Belgium and France and various European agencies. “We see ourselves as the number one aviation operations and training management system for medium to large Air Forces globally,” asserts Hogan. The company is evolving their product suite in order to provide their customers with leading-edge technology with some big deliveries expected in 2015.