Exchange sales can be the hardest part of the aviation aftermarket business for both component shops and part sellers. To be successful, you need technology you can rely on to simplify processes and manage transactions accurately. Fortunately, by combining your ERP’s base functionality with Salesforce tools to automate, simplify and track these often-tricky transactions, users can successfully (and profitably!) manage the entire process.
Understanding your Tools
The complexity of Exchange Sales means sophisticated tools are needed to manage them correctly. The challenge then comes to understanding this complex functionality and configuring it to support your business.
Costing
Adequate systems provide different options for costing configurations (e.g. by financial entity or inventory subsets). This provides a lot of flexibility to the business, but understanding these functions and configuring them properly is key to insuring programs are run profitably with consistent costing and margins. Additionally, smart finance teams monitor these calculations to ensure accuracy.
Salesforce’s extensive reporting, dashboarding and alert capabilities when configured properly allow users to easily:
- Track and understand profitability
- Monitor values of rotable pools
- Analyze program performance whether by platform, consignment, customer, or lot purchase.
- Identify the most in- demand and profitable parts & platforms
- Designate slow moving, less profitable parts or platforms for possible liquidation
- Track trends in sales volume and profitability
Core Tracking
The ERP you choose will (hopefully) track your outstanding cores accurately – but this is meaningless if the information isn’t readily available to users. By understanding where to find this data and how to read it, businesses can deploy Salesforce tools to vastly reduce the amount of time & effort required for management of open cores with:
- Meaningful Open Core reports and dashboards by customer, Part Number or platform
- Core Due reminders sent automatically to customers
- Automatic creation of Tasks or Call Sheets for employees to follow up on cores by phone
- System generated billings for core late fees, sent either automatically or first cued for review
- Calculation of core due dates and standard TAT for repairs to forecast rotable pool availability
Core Repair
Incorrect handling of core repairs can result in mismanaged costs, inflated profit margins, and missed revenue for both part sellers and MROs. The late discovery of these often-hidden, hard to find problems can mean corrections requiring hours of journal entries, write-offs, or even a restating of financials.
Fortunately, Salesforce tools deployed correctly can:
- Provide reports and dashboards to track correct repair cost management
- Manage workflows to ensure users send cores for repair in a timely fashion
- Generate automated follow ups to repair vendors who are late on estimates or completed units
- Automatically bill clients for repairs upon the receipt of estimates
- Provide system guard-rails to ensure users follow correct processes and functionality
The Bottom Line
Exchanges are hard—but the right technology makes them manageable. By looking beyond generic, out of the box functions and tailoring available tools to meet the unique needs of your business, you can be confident in the accurate end-to-end management of these challenging transactions.
Ready to See What’s Possible?
Prodigy helps aviation users deploy Salesforce technologies for maximum ROI. Contact us to discuss how to move past the “from the factory” basics to unlock the full power of your tech stack.
Email: hello(at)weareprodigy.com Website: www.weareprodigy.com