Collins Aerospace (Booth 635, Static A405) has consolidated business aviation services such as flight planning, weather information, fleet operations, and ArincDirect flight support and connectivity into a single online platform—called the Izon Connected Platform—accessible with one login.
Customer feedback was an important factor in the development of Izon, according to LeAnn Ridgeway, v-p and general manager of the Collins IMS business. “We believe Izon will take the friction out of the way you do business with Collins and run your business aviation operations,” she said. “It’s about how you use these tools every day and [how] you feel about these tools.” The name “Izon” is a play on “eyes-on” and represents a new way for customers and Collins to share and use information. Collins is formally launching Izon this week at NBAA-BACE.
Izon is being implemented in phases, starting with the single sign-on portal for ArincDirect flight support and connectivity services in the initial deployment. Next will come fleet status capabilities for Collins’s airborne connectivity services such as its Luxstream satcom, as well as other satcom services for which it supplies equipment and/or provides service. This includes real-time flight data monitoring and alerting for connectivity disruptions and the Flight Debrief C-FOQA Centerline partnership with GE Aviation.
Collins will add access to navigation databases for Collins-equipped aircraft and Stage content management and Tailwind TV subscriptions. Finally, flight scheduling and Collins’s FOS software will be added to the Izon platform, scheduled in 2022. “As the platform grows and evolves, the portal will allow for us, and third parties, to also share and conduct data transactions,” the company said.
Collins's team has been working on Izon “for a while,” said marketing director Nancy Welsh, who is leading the Izon development program.
The process began with customer forums and advisory boards, she said. “We made sure as we were redesigning how customers interact with us and took into consideration what was most important. This meant focusing on ease of use and delivering access on mobile and desktop platforms, bringing all the Collins tools, solutions, and information together to be at your fingertips,” she explained. “This is a way to bring the best of both worlds together.”
“The vision we have is one Collins experience,” Ridgeway said. “The key point is instead of having to reenter information into multiple systems, the data will flow across them. We’ve put a lot of effort into that, and it will minimize the time to reenter data. Our customers want a one-stop-shop, they want access to all that great information for their fleets in one place. This will enable us to do that. It’s an 'easy' button for customers.”
As far as prices for Izon services, “costs should be more scaleable,” she said. “The way the old information services were built was on single servers, and they had high costs. The future is moving to the cloud, and this reduces the heavy hardware [burden]. There should be operational savings in that.” Once Izon reaches the third phase of implementation, Collins and customers will be able to run data analytics and predictive analysis, linking to real-time maintenance and reliability information and allowing for route optimization.
“That’s the vision [for Izon],” Ridgeway said, “that it becomes a platform for business aviation customers, a consistent user interface. We want to show that they’re dealing with one company, not four. It’s going to be powerful for them.”