Considering both the complexity and dynamic nature of legal compliance in aviation, it is certainly no surprise that airlines seek ways to simplify their compliance-related content management. This article summarizes the insights provided by a recent webinar on how operators may achieve that objective efficiently while always ensuring both transparent and reliable documentation for the end-user. For the full story however, as unfolded by the CEOs of ASQS and Yonder, feel free to access the on-demand version of that webinar here.

Compliance is not documentation. And documentation is not compliance. But there’s a connection between the two. And that’s exactly where the collaboration between our two companies can bring value to our joint customers.

Thomas Vogel
Chief Executive Officer Yonder

With more than 240 aviation customers around the globe, ASQS is one of the industry’s leading providers of safety- and quality-management solutions. It’s flagship product IQSMS being a web-based Safety, Quality and Risk Management solution with offline capabilities for Reporting and Auditing, ASQS consistently supports aviation companies in compliance with the industry specific requirements.

Provision of reliable information is also a key objective of Yonder, which is quickly emerging as a leading provider of documentation managements solutions, serving industry leading brands such as Cargolux, the TUI Group, and several members of the Lufthansa Group, to name but a few. Offered as a SaaS solution, its product features everything an airline may depend on to account for seamless documentation management. Hence, from creating and publishing content, all the way to revising it based on the organization’s internal revision and approval procedures: Yonder delivers reliable, role-based information to frontline employees at all times,- both via web client and the offline app that is available for tablets and smartphones.

“For the sake of our customers, we follow an open-interface strategy that allows for third party systems to further enhance Yonder’s capabilities”, says Tom Vogel and adds: “One of several systems we interface with successfully is indeed IQSMS. And Günther and I were asking ourselves from the beginning, what information the two systems could share via links to the customer’s benefit”.

The two CEOs agree that the concept of a link can indeed be a powerful tool. Unfortunately, its capabilities are hardly used because every solution tends to digitize for itself. And that’s exactly the kind of deadlock the two companies are resolving. Namely, via the bi-directional API that allows their solutions to share information in either direction.

IQSMS x Yonder Mind: Sharing Information in Both Directions

The two CEOs agree that the concept of a link can indeed be a powerful tool. Unfortunately, its capabilities are hardly used because every solution tends to digitize for itself. And that’s exactly the kind of deadlock the two companies are resolving. Namely, via the bi-directional API that allows their solutions to share information in either direction.

There are literally hundreds of legal databases that feed into our system, including but not limited to regulations and standards from EASA, IATA and regional regulations such as the ones originating from the GCAA, SACAA, TC and FAA, to name just a few. Our highly qualified team of industry professionals applies weekly checks on all of these regulatory sources, thereby ensuring that all of the legal databases in IQSMS are up-to-date at all times

Günther Schindl
CEO at ASQS

Provision of reliable information is also a key objective of Yonder, which is quickly emerging as a leading provider of documentation managements solutions, serving industry leading brands such as Cargolux, the TUI Group, and several members of the Lufthansa Group, to name but a few. Offered as a SaaS solution, its product features everything an airline may depend on to account for seamless documentation management.

Hence, from creating and publishing content, all the way to revising it based on the organization’s internal revision and approval procedures: Yonder delivers reliable, role-based information to frontline employees at all times,- both via web client and the offline app that is available for tablets and smartphones.

“For the sake of our customers, we follow an open-interface strategy that allows for third party systems to further enhance Yonder’s capabilities”, says Tom Vogel and adds: “One of several systems we interface with successfully is indeed IQSMS. And Günther and I were asking ourselves from the beginning, what information the two systems could share via links to the customer’s benefit”.

The two CEOs agree that the concept of a link can indeed be a powerful tool. Unfortunately, its capabilities are hardly used because every solution tends to digitize for itself. And that’s exactly the kind of deadlock the two companies are resolving. Namely, via the bi-directional API that allows their solutions to share information in either direction.

IQSMS x Yonder Mind: Sharing Information in Both Directions

The two CEOs agree that the concept of a link can indeed be a powerful tool. Unfortunately, its capabilities are hardly used because every solution tends to digitize for itself. And that’s exactly the kind of deadlock the two companies are resolving. Namely, via the bi-directional API that allows their solutions to share information in either direction.

Figure 1: Bi-directional API between IQSMS and Yonder

Regulatory Updates Trigger Automatic Change Requests for the Corresponding Document Content

Yonder follows a modular approach to documentation management. Meaning that document content is split up into discrete units of information that can be further refined with additional properties and functionality. One of the resulting benefits includes that these so-called information modules can then be linked directly to underlaying regulations via iQSMS, as illustrated in the image below.

Figure 2: Regulatory updates trigger automatic change requests for content

Once the underlaying regulation is being updated by ASQS (2), any number of actions can be triggered automatically for the respective module in Yonder Mind, including but not limited to triggering an automatic change request (3) for the corresponding information. Such change requests then allow the relevant stakeholders to take action via Yonder’s inherent workflow capabilities that allow organizations to reflect their compliance-related revision and approval procedures without compromise. And since all the discussions and decisions related to a given change request are tracked, there’s always a seamless audit and revision trail available.

Instantly Demonstrate where Procedures are Documented

As depicted in the image below, Yonder can also apply updates to IQSMS. For example, by means of grabbing the URL of a linked module (1) and passing it on to related audit items (2).

Figure 3: Instantly demonstrate where procedures are documented

Having this information available in IQSMS certainly does benefit Quality and Compliance Monitoring Departments, considering the time that can be saved during audits. Hence, instead of auditors having to wait for process owners to locate the content related to a given audit question, the auditee can simply access the respective question in IQSMS and instantly demonstrate where the corresponding procedure is in fact documented.

More than a Vision: Automated Documentation Updates Based on Compliance Findings

In the future and as illustrated in the image below, open findings (1) captured in IQSMS will be capable of automatically triggering a change request for the corresponding content in Yonder. And once the content has been updated accordingly, Yonder will automatically trigger a corrective action (2) for the respective item on the IQSMS side.

Figure 4: Automated document updates based on compliance findings

Simplify your compliance related information management

Theability of the two systems to share intelligence with each other avoids the unnecessary duplication of information and largely eliminates the need for organizations to use their internal resources to do manual work that doesn’t add any value. “Instead of being distracted by rather cumbersome manual labor, relevant stakeholders get to focus on their actual subject matter expertise again”, Tom Vogel concludes.

And while there is certainly work involved in initially linking the content to the underlaying regulations, Günther Schindl has no doubt that putting in that time is well worth the effort: “It provides organizations with the opportunity to standardize and align their setup, thereby setting the stage for considerable efficiency gains thereafter, for example during compliance audits. Consider a IOSA certified operator that is being audited every two years: With a properly setup system, the operator will be able to proof with a click of a button where the different IOSA requirements are documented. Or if the operator has the competent authority come in for an audit in a specific area, it’ll be easy to demonstrate where the proper documentation is located.

These are just two examples that show how the proper setup can lead to considerable time savings during the audit process while also increasing the overall effectiveness of the organization.”

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