SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Do You Understand Aviation SMS Solutions' Architecture?

After eight years of being an aviation SMS software consultant, I have heard just about every question imaginable about aviation safety software.

Perhaps the most common questions we get are:

• What is a division in your aviation safety software; and
• How many divisions do I need?

Before we answer this question, we should familiarize you with the overall architecture of an aviation SMS solution.

Modern aviation safety management solutions are designed to reduce the grief associated with paper and MS Excel spreadsheets. These home-grown solutions end up costing airlines and airports more money in lost time than if they simply found a commercial-off-the-shelf SMS solution.

The best aviation SMS solutions are scalable for small, medium and large aviation service providers. Let's dig in further.

I Don't Need an Aviation SMS Database!...Or Do I?

It seems as if today that many more airlines and airports are scrambling to research or acquire aviation safety management system databases. Why are aviation SMS databases important? What should an airline or airport know before runing out and buying the cheapest SMS database on the market?Aviation safety management systems (SMS) are structured processes that in most cases enforce, and in other situations, encourages, aviation service providers to manage their safety programs according to best practices established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the FAA, Transport Canada, EASA and other civil aviation authorities.

To help safety teams in their search for an aviation SMS database program, here are a few things to consider before you throw time and energy into implementing aviation SMS software at your organzation.

What Are Safety Management System Databases

In early 2007, when we started designing and developing SMS Pro, I was mildly surprised that many aviation safety managers called a Web application to manage aviation safety events a "safety management system" (SMS) database. I'm an IT guy, and when I think of a database, I"m thinking about Oracle, SQL Server, MS Access, etc.

I believe the confusion comes from pilots who are used to dealing with MS Access databases. MS Access has the abilty to create forms that feed and access data from the internal database. Therefore, I can understand how aviation safety managers, as well as many other professionals in other industries, can confuse the term "database" with "Web application."

A Web application has forms that can be accessed via the Web. These forms are tied to a centralized database, such as Oracle or SQL Server, two of the most popular enterprise grade database programs. In this article, we are going to call the Aviation Safety Management System Database simply "SMS Database."

We will highlight the various benefits of using an SMS database at airlines, airports, flight schools and aviation maintenance organizations. These benefits will include:

• Safety Benefits;
• Business Benefits; and 
• Unanticipated Benefits.