Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Video - Aviation Safety Meeting Manager Enhancements

Airline and airport safety meetings increase and maintain the interest of employees in safety issues!

airline/airport safety committee meetings managed easily using Meeting Manager
Airline and airport safety managers save tremendous amounts of time using SMS Pro's Meeting Manager to schedule and hold safety meetings. Most safety managers use the Web based aviation SMS software to automatically generate agendas for open issues or issues requiring review by the safety committee.

Not Just for Safety Meetings

While Meeting Manager was created for conducting safety meetings, most companies use it for general administrative and operational support meetings. This user-friendly module creates and publishes meeting agendas within a few minutes.

To learn more about this Meeting Manager and how to get this aviation safety software module into your airline or airport, see http://www.asms-pro.com/Modules/SafetyPromotion/MeetingManager.aspx

New Meeting Manager Features for Safety Promotion and Communication


Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

More information about aviation SMS software can be found at:



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Public Hazard Reporting for Airlines, Airports & Aviation Maintenance Organizations

Everyone has an interest in aviation safety. Allow all users to participate in your aviation safety program.

Web Based Hazard Reporting for All Airline and Airport Stakeholders

hazard reporting software for airlines and airports
All aviation-related stakeholders, including passengers, contractors, vendors and maintenance providers have a vested interest in airline and airport operations. These stakeholders often witness hazards or potential hazards that may affect your operations. Customers also may feel more "connected" to your operations when they have an easy way to submit quality, security or environmental concerns to your airline or airport management personnel.

Allow External Users to Submit Hazards & Quality Concerns

Public Issue Reporting module in the Web based aviation safety management systems software called SMS Pro allows external stakeholders to submit safety, security or quality reports to your safety program without having an account in your SMS software program. Public Issue Reporting module is very easy to setup and configure.

Below is a quick video explaining how NWDS support staff can format the Public Issue Reporting module to suit your needs, whether you:

  • Simply provide a link to your customers or support staff; or
  • Embed your module into an IFrame (Web page embedded inside another Web page).


Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.


More information about aviation SMS software can be found at:



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

State Safety Programs (SSP) Software to Monitoring SMS Activities


States are required to monitor SMS activities of all aviation service providers

State Safety Program Requirements Outlined

State safety program (SSP) software to monitor airline, airports SMS programs
A State Safety Program is integrated set of regulations and activities aimed at improving safety. These activities require tools to facilitate the management of:

Safety Oversight

Civil aviation authorities can easily monitor the safety activities of their aviation service providers when using SMS Pro™ on a national or regional level. Conduct audits either on an “issue” level or system-wide level using SMS Pro’s built-in auditing features.
Quickly review reports of particular service providers or review reports of industry segments, such as airlines, airports, maintenance or air traffic control operations. Management portals can easily group these industry segments, or consolidate all operators under a single management portal. For most SSP implementations, management portals for industry segments make the most sense.

Accident/Incident Investigation

SMS Pro has a very complete investigation module that can be used by both states and service providers. States can easily review ongoing investigation being performed by service providers or start their own investigation in their management portal.
Operators can systematically conduct root cause analysis or human factors investigations using the investigation module. Using SMS Pro’s Issue Manager is also considered a formal investigation by some civil aviation authorities who don’t require such detailed investigations.

Mandatory/Voluntary Reporting Systems

Aviation State safety program (SSP) software to monitor airline, airports SMS programs
Facilitate service providers’ automated event reporting by providing SMS Pro™ to each service provider. States can be immediate notified in many flexible ways. For example, when events are reported, states can be automatically alerted via email at the time of the report. Alternatively, Safety Managers at each company can easily send an automated email to civil aviation authorities for specific types of issues.
When operators can easily report hazards simultaneously to both their parent companies and their civil aviation authorities, both parties win.

 Safety Data Analysis

Gathering data from an entire country of service providers remains a daunting task. SMS Pro™ allows states to instantly aggregate reports in many flexible ways. Focus on an industry segment, such as airports, or drill into a specific company to determine safety challenges the company may be facing.
Reports are generated in real time and can focus on types of issues, root causes, key performance indicators or associated hazards. Furthermore, SMS Pro™ is flexible to easily accommodate additional reports based on client requirements.

Safety Promotion


Communicating safety to an entire country’s aviation service providers can be easily accomplished using SMS Pro™ Newsletters module. Also, conduct surveys or generate “Must Read” or “Must Acknowledge” messages for specific user groups within an organization.




For more information on SMS Pro, visit this aviation safety management software (SMS) software website.



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

6 Basic Principles to Select Best Aviation SMS Solution



If you are an airline or airport safety manager new to the aviation SMS, here is a quick primer on aviation safety management software to help shorten your learning curve.

Selecting best aviation safety software solutions for airlines and airports

Top Aviation SMS Software Selection Challenges

Aviation safety management software can be a challenging technology to fully understand. It can be difficult for safety managers to tell which solution is best for their airline, airport, flight school or aviation maintenance company, especially when each of these industry sectors have special needs AND every aviation SMS software company claims to have the key benefits that will serve your enterprise best. This becomes even more complicated for the smaller airlines, airports, MROs and FBOs who want the great functionality of an enterprise-class system at an affordable price.

Because of these factors, it's best to keep these factors in mind when selecting an aviation SMS software solution for your airline or airport.

1) Ease of Use, Installation & Configuration of Aviation SMS Software

Choosing best aviation safety management software solution
Small airlines, airports and aviation maintenance organizations appoint safety managers who have a track record of "getting things done." These safety managers are busy and don't have the time to waste on lengthy, complicated software installations or complicated configurations. If you belong to this group of small aviation service providers, choose an aviation SMS software solution that is easy to manage and configure, not only from the installation and configuration stages, but also in day to day operations.

2) Open Platform Design 

The best aviation SMS software solutions are as "device agnostic" as possible and support a wide range of browsers, touch screen devices and smart phone technologies. If the solution is not Web enabled, do not choose this solution. Your aviation SMS software should be accessible to the entire organization, whether they are in Seattle or flying above the Arctic Circle. Choose aviation safety software solutions that can work in offline modes if your airline or airport employees need to conduct tasks outside the range of a reliable Internet connection.

3) Low Installation & Total Ownership Costs

Look for an aviation SMS software solution that integrates easily with many hardware devices. The best software solutions use cost-effective and scalable system architecture to optimize and extend operational efficiency over the years. For example, SMS Pro uses "modules" that plug into the system that can be upgraded without affecting the rest of the application.

4) Intuitive Display and Interactivity Features

Best aviation safety software is easy to understand and suitable for airlines and airport
Your chosen aviation SMS software solution should intuitively serve the unique needs of your airline or airport. Today's aviation safety software packages provide configurable interfaces that require no in-depth computer expertise. Whenever complicated workflows are present, remember that the best aviation SMS software providers have online video training libraries and help documentation. Documentation should be easy to search.

5) Centralized Data Storage

The best aviation SMS software solutions keep all the data in one centralized location. These include audit results, hazard reports, safety meeting documentation, policies and procedures, etc. When your airline or airport's safety program is not well organized, this sends a red flag to auditors that your company is not well organized.

6) Future Proof Architecture Design

Choose an aviation SMS software solution that can easily scale as your airline or airport scales in size and scope of operations. The best aviation SMS software solutions are designed to be used for either small or large multinational operations. MS Access and MS Excel should not be considered. Too many safety programs start using these technologies, but they are not scalable. Within a few years, your company will be spending more time and money trying to withstand audits than if you simply chose a quality aviation SMS software product for your airline, airport, aviation maintenance organization or flight school.


For more information on SMS Pro, visit this aviation safety management software (SMS) software website.



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Management Benefits of Aviation SMS Software

Challenges of Convincing Management to Purchase Aviation SMS Software

Safety managers around the world have the constant challenge of convincing management that Web based safety management software is required to manage all the ICAO SMS requirements.

The following PowerPoint presentation is designed to make your case to management to purchase SMS software. Let's face it. Safety Managers love the SMS Pro web-based aviation SMS software program because it saves safety managers tremendous amounts of time and money. But there are benefits for all managers in an organization using SMS Pro.

Benefits of Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) Software

For more information on SMS Pro, visit this aviation safety management software (SMS) software website.



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Video - New Linked Reports Features in Aviation SMS Software

Linked Reports in Aviation Safety Software

Airline and airport personnel routinely submit hazard reports to electronic hazard reporting databases. These Web based systems have considerable power to allow safety managers to easily perform risk assessments, classify reported hazards for future reports and conduct investigations. Corrective actions are applied and tracked to mitigate the reported hazard, accident or incident.

Airline and airport hazard reporting software

Risks Are Mitigated to ALARP

The objective of any risk management program is to mitigate or transfer the risk to as low as reasonably practical. Corrective and preventive actions treat the root cause of the reported incident, accident or irregularity. Effective corrective actions ensure that similar events do not recur, or when they do
recur, risk exposure is minimized.

In the real world, the best aviation safety management software tools allow safety managers to link related reports. Managers can then analyze related hazard or events and develop more effective corrective preventive actions. SMS Pro allows managers to effortlessly establish these connections and view related issues.

safety management software SMS for airlines and airportsNew Enhancements to Linking Reported Issues

This following video describes the new enhancements in SMS Pro's Issue Manager module. One can see how easy it is for managers to view reported issues and escalate reports to affected managers.


Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.






About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Aviation Safety Risk Management Database

Risk Management Occurs Within a "System"

Aviation risk management remains the most crucial element of an effective aviation risk management system. Operators manage risk in everyday activities, but we don't focus formal, structured process needed in an ICAO compliant SMS risk management framework.

Managing Aviation Risk Using databases
Aviation providers implementing ICAO compliant SMS programs are recommended to structure risk management strategies according to best practices, which are found in quality aviation risk management database software.


Phases for Managing Aviation-Related Risk

Aviation risk management strategies (or best practices), commonly possess these risk management cycle phases:
Airline and airport risk management best practices
Identify & Report Hazards: Determine whether potential risk exists and report it using formal hazard reporting tools (paper based, Web reporting forms, audits, gap analysis, etc). The SMS Pro™ Web-based hazard reporting form is a customizable solution with automatic email notifications that is recognized as best in class. Other capabilities of SMS Pro's hazard reporting and aviation risk management database software includes:
  • Customized forms requiring minimal costs to incorporate additional data elements;
  • Many predefined Web-based hazard reporting forms for flight operations, maintenance, ect. that meet most user needs;
  • Quick report features for mobile Web users or others who may pressured for time and need to submit a "quick hazard report;"

Assess Risk: Determine severity and probability of risk with a standard, best in class, risk matrix like SMS Pro's Customizable Risk Matrix. Whenever potential risk is minimal (low to medium severity, low likelihood of occurrence), your policies may state that no additional actions is required unless the issue repeatedly occurs. With significant or major risks, which could cause injury or damage to users and equipment, you need to implement reactive risk management processes. Based on reported issue's severity and type of issue, one may also choose to use SMS Pro™ to:
  • Set targeted closure dates (so issues don't remain open forever);
  • Inform regulatory authorities or clients (when required by contract), that the issue has occurred.

Classify Risk: The best risk management database software offers simple, flexible, customizable strategies to classify risk. One must understand risks before they can be managed effectively. Consequently, aviation providers adopt risk classification systems or create their own. Many will start with a template and modify the schema as necessary. Classifying risks (or reported issues) allows aviation organizations to identify and control risk, which is a major element of aviation risk management. SMS Pro™ offers the best system that is very comprehensive, yet flexible enough for all types of organziations, such as airports, airlines, FBOs, MROs, and flight schools. SMS Pros risk classification framework helps identify risk which is useful for generating reports to communicate risk.

Corrective/Preventive Action Plan: Control identified risks based on the risk's severity and likelihood of occurrence. Develop various alternatives and perform a cost/benefit analysis when necessary using SMS Pro™. Automatically generate a Corrective Action Plan for audits, whether they are external or internal audits.

Mitigate or Transfer: Put into action the corrective and preventive actions created in the previous phase to mitigate identified risk. Reassess risk after all corrective and preventive actions have been implemented. When risk is not within acceptable risk management levels, return to the previous phase to put further corrective and preventive actions into play. When corrective and preventive actions fail to reduce risk to acceptable levels, continue analyzing the risk to determine actions to bring the identified risk to an acceptable severity level.

Track: After mitigating risks to an acceptable severity level, track these risks' implemented corrective actions to ensure they remain effective and are controlling the risk. As time passes, ensure implemented corrective actions don't increase risks when they were implemented to alleviate the risk.These items remain the core of any best in breed risk management program. They are easily managed using aviation risk management database software.





About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Aviation Safety Newsletter Software Enhancements in SMS Pro

Safety Newsletters Are Important to Every Aviation SMS Program!

Most aviation safety management software packages overlook key safety promotion activities, such as safety surveys, safety meeting management and safety newsletters. Web-based SMS Pro is one of the most complete aviation safety management software suites available on the market (since 2008).

Safety Newsletters have been a core SMS module from SMS Pro's beginning; however, the module didn't have many bells and whistles for managing safety newsletters. The key features included:

Aviation Safety Newsletters Software Templates
  • Target user groups based on safety role or group;
  • Add attachments; and
  • Send mail asynchronously.

Satisfying Safety Auditor Requirements Using Web Based Software

SMS Pro's Newsletter module didn't keep track of how many newsletters were sent to users or to which user groups these newsletters went to. These are nice features and the SMS Pro community asked for these repeatedly over the past two years. But there is more!

Safety Newsletter Enhancements

Among the items listed immediately above, SMS Pro's enhanced Newsletter module has more enhancements, including:

  • Improved formatting for drafting safety newsletters;
  • Ability to save newsletters as templates that can be loaded later;
  • Categorized templates;
  • Modify default newsletter categories;
  • Sort and filter saved safety newsletter templates;
  • List sent safety newsletters;
  • Filter, sort and search for sent safety newsletters;
  • Listing past newsletters directed to user or to roles the user belongs to;
  • Open safety newsletters from list in popup window; and
  • Open safety newsletter attachments that were sent with newsletter.

Aviation Safety Newsletter templates in Web based software for airlines and airports

Safety Newsletters Integrated into User's Personalized Safety Dashboard

Many of you have seen the configurable safety dashboard in SMS Pro. One can easy customize their own personalized dashboard using drag and drop technology. Safety Newsletter will be among the approximately 30 reports to choose from when you configure your personalized safety dashboard. Look for it soon in your Web based aviation safety management portal.

For more information on SMS Pro, visit this aviation safety management software (SMS) software website.



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Real-Time Statisical Analysis Using User Dashboard Charts in Aviation Safety Software

Analyzing Statistics in Real Time Using Aviation Safety Software

Real-time statistical analysis of airline and airport safety data can be performed in many ways when data exists in a centralized database, such as SMS Pro. SMS Pro recently upgraded User Dashboard charts and offers more than 20 new charts that managers can arrange to create their own personalized dashboard. These dashboard charts have been built using the latest Web technologies.

Most User Dashboard charts are intuitive and require little explanation, such as dashboard maps plotting recently reported hazards. Some aviation safety managers have requested an explanation of this following chart, labelled "Types of Issue Statistics."

Airline/Airport Risk Management Statistical Reports


The above statistical analysis chart is broken down in three sections:

  • Created Issues within last 30 days;
  • Closed Issues within last 30 days; and
  • Severity of Reported Issues within last 30 days.


Scanning down the left-most column, we see these following labels, that correspond to the types of issues managed in SMS Pro:

  • Safety;
  • Security;
  • Quality;
  • Compliance; and
  • Environmental.


When using these real-time statistical analysis charts, tool tips appear when you hover over column titles and bars within the "Created," "Closed," and "Severity Average" columns.

Reported Issues Within Last 30 Days

Under the Created Issues section, the "#" column provides the raw number of issues reported within the last 30 days. The "%" column illustrates the percentage of issues in the corresponding row, whether they are safety, security, quality, compliance or environmental issues. Finally, the column labelled "Since last month" illustrates the rate of change within the past 30 days for each type of issue.


Issues Closed Within Last 30 Days

Under the Closed Issues section, the "#" column provides number of issues closed within the last 30 days. The "%" column shows the percentage of issues closed within the corresponding row, such as safety, security, quality, compliance or environmental issues. Finally, the Closed Issues column labelled "Since last month" provides the rate of change within the past 30 days for each type of closed issue.


Severity of Newly Reported Issues Within Last 30 Days

Under the Severity section, the "%" column provides an interesting number from 0 to 100%. SMS Pro developers map your risk matrix to a percentage value to provide an indication as to how severe your reported issues were during the past 30 days. 100% indicates that all reported issues were risk assessed as the most severe possible on your risk matrix. Each row will have a separate value to determine risk for each type of reported issues, including safety, security, quality, compliance or environmental issues. The column labelled "Since last month" provides organizational risk rate of change within the past 30 days for each type of issue.

The final column at the right of the chart shows users the average severity of reported issues within the past year for each type of reported issue.


More Information on User Dashboard Charts
Configurable Aviation SMS Dashboard Reporting Software


For more information on SMS Pro, visit this aviation safety management software (SMS) software website.



About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.