Boeing

MyBoeingFleet.com, one of the most successful business-to-business Web portals on the Internet, now offers airlines the ability to store and retrieve their own content in addition to accessing Boeing technical information and services.

The "Hosted Customer Content" feature provides a convenient, fast and economical way for airlines to manage the huge volume of documents and data generated by their own maintenance, engineering and operations departments.

By taking advantage of this Web-based feature, the carriers can avoid setting up costly internal digital systems or relying on cumbersome paper or microfilm-based reference systems. Most of Boeing's airline customers already have access to MyBoeingFleet, and now can begin using the portal's familiar search, display and control capabilities to manage their own content.

The hosted-content feature is available for a one-time startup charge plus a monthly fee. The fee is based on the amount of data storage used by the customer. Typical airline usage could vary from a few gigabytes up to as many as 20, with one gigabyte roughly equivalent to 50,000 printed pages.

MyBoeingFleet was launched in May 2000 as a single online source of maintenance, engineering and flight operations information and services for operators of Boeing and Douglas jetliners. It provides access to thousands of digitized technical manuals and documents, as well as millions of engineering and tooling drawings. Users may also order and track spare parts shipments through the portal, and even collaborate on resolving fleetwide technical issues.

"Since airlines often tailor the Boeing-provided documents to meet their unique maintenance and operations requirements, it made sense to offer them a way to integrate those customized contents on the same portal from which they access the original material," said Rich Higgins, Boeing vice president of Maintenance Engineering & Publications.

"Airlines currently make more than 75,000 logins monthly on MyBoeingFleet," Higgins added. "By accessing their own data on the same portal, they'll be getting even more value out of their online time. What's more, our fee for hosting their content is extremely competitive with any other method of storing and retrieving this type of information."

Initially, the hosting capability is available for customer-generated contents associated with component overhaul and maintenance manuals. During the next few months, hosting will be expanded to include inputs to all types of maintenance documents now accessed on MyBoeingFleet, including all major maintenance manuals and service bulletins.