Story ID: 420
Argus Provides ClearView with Global Picture
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: Argus's new ClearView offering provides a range of global data that industry businesses can break down into "digestible chunks" so they can plan their ops.
Word Count: 989
Aviation safety and data research specialist Argus International is bringing to market a service, Argus ClearView, that aggregates big data to enable users to select and benchmark the information that is most helpful to plan their operations and business decisions. ClearView, which draws upon operational information globally, is designed to support a range of aviation businesses, from charter companies and fractional operators to MROs, FBOs, fuel providers, OEMs, international support organizations, and aviation service providers.

An interactive data service, ClearView enables specific benchmarking, filtering, dynamic flight mapping, and data-integrity monitoring. Customers can use the information to analyze the market to determine aircraft utilization, market share, and growth opportunities. The service slices information into “digestible chunks," allowing users can drill down to a specific aircraft type, category, global region, time period, operational category, airport, or fleet.

As an example, a charter operator can track operations between two locations to assess traffic trends, types of aircraft that might frequent the airports, or even which airport in these locations is drawing which aircraft at which times. An OEM could have a global view to see where its aircraft, or perhaps its competitors’ aircraft, are frequenting. Or an FBO chain could monitor trends regarding arrivals at its other facilities. These are among the many applications for the service.

“After evaluating our data capabilities and listening to the marketplace, it became clear that dynamic, global functionality was needed, and we are delighted to support the market with a product that meets those needs,” said Travis Kuhn, v-p of Argus Market Intelligence.

Argus (Booth 1127) developed ClearView after surveying its customers, as well as its capabilities, said Mike McCready, senior v-p of Argus International. “We started looking at what’s been changing in the industry, what meets those clients’ needs,” he said. “We surveyed a number of customers to understand what they are looking for to help find greater efficiency, ways to grow their business, and essentially find ways to become more efficient as an operation.”

Those surveys yielded a strong response from Argus's customers that helped shape ClearView, which was developed over the past year. “The team really took time to connect with our customers to truly understand their needs,” McCready, said. “Argus ClearView has been designed by the industry for the industry.”

Kuhn added that the customer feedback was complementary to its capabilities, particularly since Argus had launched a global data platform in March and has been building it out.

“This was a phenomenal next step in terms of how to continue to bring new relevant products to the market, solve problems, and provide these solutions to the operator market,” he said. “We recognized we were in a time crunch because we're still in this Covid environment, creating a need to have this relevant global picture now.”

In the past, Argus focused on North America, but now, Kuhn said, “We’ve taken all of our existing features and filtering options that you would have in our North American data and we’ve applied them on a global scale, which is extensive. If you want to see Gulfstream operations in Brazil or operations between Australia and Japan, you can. Previously, there wasn't access or visibility into that.”

A key feature is the customer’s ability to benchmark its own operations to a different scale, such as an entire fleet, location, or even globally. McCready noted that companies often struggle with understanding their operations against others, raising questions such as, “How can we just get a nice, clear view of what our market share is—our aircraft utilization against the industry? How do we really compare in a particular region or route structure against our competitors?”

ClearView provides the capability for insight into those kinds of questions, he said. “Maybe an MRO has a specialty with a particular type of engine. They can upload all the numbers that surround that particular engine and they can now benchmark that against the industry.”

Kuhn noted that the dynamic mapping provides a clear picture of what is happening where but can be narrowed down from a global picture into a single location. “It's set up so you can go from a visual display of the world very quickly down to the underlying departure data in Miami or Palm Beach, for instance, and actually see what was happening in a given time period in any individual market,” he said. It can be further customized to details such as Embraer departures out of the Pacific Northwest in a given quarter.

Customers have had access to vast amounts of data, he said, but haven’t been able to sort it into forms that are useful for their own business. “It’s definitely taking a more interactive approach to data,” he said.

According to McCready, the service has been in beta testing “and the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Duncan Aviation is a launch customer for ClearView, and Kent Kuta, market research supervisor for the MRO, said of the service: "ClearView provides several views into the business aviation market that are unlike any other product we have seen to this point and it provides insight into new sections of the market that we previously thought were unattainable."

ClearView rolls out some two years after Argus was acquired by SGS, a testing, inspection, and certification company that has some 93,000 employees worldwide. McCready said SGS is an “amazing company” that has backed its ability to grow and leverage its strengths.

With that backing, Argus is developing a series of new products, including others that it is showcasing this week at NBAA-BACE. That includes SafetyLinQ, a flight-risk assessment tool that will be part of a new line to help the industry prepare for upcoming safety management system mandates.
, full_html