ILS Announces Solution Portfolio Improvements, Brand-new ILSmart.com and ILS/CONNECT 2021 Virtual Conference
ILS (Inventory Locator Service, LLC) announces a brand-new corporate website (www.ilsmart.com), a comprehensive set of solution updates and additions, and the date for its annual user conference, ILS/CONNECT, which will be held virtually this summer.
Leveraging an aerospace data warehouse built on $500 million+ part price points, FMV (fair market value) provides ILS users with critical pricing information to make more informed buying and selling decisions. By enhancing its AI/ML capabilities, FMV calculation now spans the part number as well as its condition and description level, adds supply-and-demand indices, and expands confidence levels and anomaly-detection capabilities. These substantial enhancements provide more accurate FMV values, allow for different applications based on the scenarios for a part number, and are now available on-demand in other ILS solutions, such as PartStats™, SalesEdge™, PartsWatch™, FastQuote™ and via Web Services.
Says Kaveh Alizadeh, Systems Improvement manager at Fokker Services, “ILS’ strategy to continuously improve the ML/AI powering FMV is aligned to Fokker’s automation strategy, which includes providing intelligence on-demand to our userbase. As a longstanding ILS Market Intelligence and Web Services user, Fokker Services appreciates the new FMV capabilities and enhancements.”
ILS has also added the Airbus A340 to its IPC Analyzer portfolio of the 25+ most widely used commercially operated airframes and engines, including Airbus, Boeing and Embraer as well as CFM, P&W, GE and IAE. By airframe, engine or part, the IPC Analyzer provides research and insight, including demand by user type, geography, supply, FMV, applicability and ATA groups/chapters, as well as PMA trending and repairable versus non-repairable.
For suppliers who would like to save time quoting individual RFQs, ILS added MultiQuote, allowing users to select multiple RFQs to quote at once, eliminating duplication of effort and improving sales productivity. Announced last summer, ILS SalesEdge is an intelligent RFQ and smart quoting management tool, designed for sellers who want to prioritize and quote with intelligence all incoming requests from potential buyers.
“ITS has been using ILS for 20 years," says Scott Tinker, managing partner at ITS. "ILS’ products and services are an integral part of our daily operations, including the ILS Marketplace and the Market Intelligence solutions. Most recently we started using ILS SalesEdge, which streamlined and organized the way we manage and process our inbound requests, and adding the Multi-Quote capability further improves our outbound productivity.”
Expanding on its comprehensive digital-advertising solution, ILS customers can now set up sponsored ads for parts or repair services, without any ILS staff assistance. Available 24/7, customers can select ads more intelligently, including review if other suppliers are sponsoring the same parts, providing them with more convenience as well as validation and control when adding parts or repair services to sponsor. With 28,000+ users spread across 100+ countries and 1 billion+ parts listed in 2020 on the ILS Marketplace, digital advertising has become increasingly productive for suppliers to ensure more RFQs and to drive more sales.
Josh Wilson, VP of Business Development at Earp Aviation, says, “During the pandemic we launched our initial digital-advertising campaign utilizing several options ILS provided, enabling us to introduce Earp Aviation Repairs successfully to a wide-ranging group of ILS customers. With this new capability, advertisers are provided with more control and precision which is well-aligned to the requirements of today’s competitive environment.”
With customers asking for increased out-of-the-box integration capabilities, last year ILS released the ILS Bridge for fellow CAMP Systems-owned Component Control’s Quantum (QC) ERP software. Now it adds the ILS Bridge for CORRIDOR, also owned by CAMP Systems. Available in early release for selected customers, ILS Bridge for CORRIDOR simplifies inventory and RFQ management for buyers, provides robust out-of-the-box functionality and enables intelligent supply-chain management with real-time connectivity between CORRIDOR’s Next Gen Service Center Software and the ILS Marketplace.
Says Mike Greig, VP and CORRIDOR general manager, “As an integration component, ILS Bridge for CORRIDOR is a key building block of our Next Gen Service Center Software vision. The ILS Bridge integration improves reliability, ensures real-time availability, and with 300+ users already, ILS Bridge is rapidly being implemented as more aviation professionals seek to automate and bolster their supply chain.”
In addition to the updated User Experience (UX) for the ILS Marketplace, visitors to www.ilsmart.com will recognize a completely overhauled corporate website with a more contemporary UX that reflects ILS’ capabilities more clearly and provides more comprehensive Solution and Industry Segment information, as well as additional convenient ways to interact with ILS services and sales teams. Aside from servicing customers and prospects better, the website is also critical to support ILS’ recruiting needs, as ILS continues to add more jobs in software development, as well as services, sales and marketing.
ILS is also announcing its annual user conference, ILS/CONNECT 21, themed ‘Winning in the Recovery.’ The conference will take place virtually on June 23-24, 2021, given continued uncertainty with regards to in-person events and in light of the well-received virtual conference in 2020 with over 1,000 visitors. ILS/CONNECT 21 will announce registration, agenda, speakers and sponsorships in the next weeks and will be available to qualified aviation professionals across the globe.
Lastly, on April 6, ILS will present a webinar featuring Sebastian Torhorst, head of Sales Engine Services Americas at Lufthansa Technik; Paul Belisle, VP and GM of HEICO Hardware & Accessories Group; and Pat Markham, VP of HPG Technical Services, HEICO Aerospace, to discuss MRO trends for 2021.