Aviation SMS Software Reviews

Canada

Ze'ev Nafte
Pilot | SMS Manager
Air Nunavut / SmoothAir Charter

  I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Chris and Doug from SMS Pro for their outstanding assistance in setting up and maintaining our new SMS system. Their expertise has been invaluable in ensuring that our operations are internationally compliant with UK, EASA, and the FAA regulations. Not only have they guided us through various audits seamlessly, but their support has also played a crucial role in streamlining our pilot training programs and enhancing our record-keeping processes. The SMS Pro team’s dedication and knowledge have been instrumental in helping us achieve our operational goals and regulatory compliance. I am truly thankful for their fantastic support and the positive impact they’ve had on our organization.

They are a credit to the SMS Pro team, and I highly recommend their services to any organization in need of comprehensive SMS solutions."

Krista Best
Director of Quality and Safety at PAL Aerospace

  you guys are so good with your response time, we really appreciate it."

Ken Meintzer
SMS Manager R1 Airlines

  It is a pleasure having such prompt response to our issues."

Krista Best
Director of Quality and Safety at PAL Aerospace

  Best software company ever!!! Thank you J"

Angie Reglin

  Thank you for always getting back to me so quick. Have a good day! Angie"

Jordan Fenn
Air Bravo Corp.

  I see it’s back up and running. No grief at all – just a little inconvenience that was not your fault. I knew you would have it resolved in no time at all. Thanks for that!"

Ken Meintzer
SMS Manager R1 Airlines

  Your staff (Doug and Roman) have been very helpful in making the transition to our new portal very smooth. Big thanks to you all for your help with this."

Chris Reynolds
Operations Manager at Air Bravo Corp.

  Air Bravo is thrilled with SMS Pro. We have been using it for three years and it's our go-to system daily in Operations. The more you use it, the more effective your operation will become.

I was not a SMS believer when I first started looking to develop Air Bravo's SMS and probably still would not be, if we hadn't stumbled across SMS Pro.

The biggest asset to SMS Pro is -- it takes all the organization, overhead and paperwork, and bundles it into a nice framework that your company can use easily. Air Bravo is audited around five times a year from external stakeholders and they leave the audit raving about our SMS, the functionality of it, as well as the ease of use. Each auditor, including auditors from Transport Canada and ARG/US, have stated SMS Pro is one of the best systems they have seen.

SMS Pro forces you to examine every angle of an incident or hazard helping you complete an effective root cause analysis, determine effective corrective actions and then make sure you follow up on your findings. In turn, Air Bravo has found that we have a very effective reporting system that keep us safer, compliant, in good-standing with stakeholders and actually saves us money. I highly recommend SMS Pro!”

Canadian operator with three Boeing passenger planes

  Informally, through verbal conversation, TC has credited our system as the most sophisticated system they have seen so far and are impressed. They would like to see us expand this system to include the Hazard List Registry that prioritizes hazards listed on the register. I think we had a module like that at one time but never really got into it. TC will not endorse one system or another. However, it is safe to say they were very impressed with SMS Pro and how advanced we are with this system. Good work!"

Canadian charter & medical transport

  We have been doing research in a few different products for document control/tracking as well as on-line training.

The end result to the searching is that each aviation developer has jumped on the SMS bandwagon. "Look at our great training platform but, by the way, we will also do this online incident reporting for your SMS etc". Some basic, some complex but they are all thrown together quickly and poorly done. The end result detracts from what the original, good product and makes the whole thing look like a disorganized mess.

When you guys demo your product you should push that you are an SMS-first company that has poured countless hours into SMS research, training, developing and to beware of "SMS addons" to current products. "Your Safety System is not something you should have tacked on to another division of your company."

I've been through 5 audits now since we added SMS Pro... One Transport and the rest customer based, through independent aviation consultants. Each have been very impressed with the system.

I feel that I am not alone and explain it to the auditors this way: "I thought SMS was a joke and a pain in the ass, mostly because I did not understand it and it was being pushed on us.

First and foremost, it is a great reporting system, investigation system, classifying system and document system that is not only easy to use but will help you understand SMS in general. We now dig, dig, dig into reported issues and are quite surprised with the results. Our initial instincts, usually being irritated with a flight crew, have been wrong quite often. The investigation often results in new procedures. The reporter also has much closure as the system completes the loop.

We believe in full transparency, unless sensitive, and the employees (who had the same pain in the ass, don't under stand SMS opinion as I did) are starting to believe in SMS which is actually quite rare.

It forces us to close issues that previously would have been filed and forgotten, saving us money. The money saving side of safety is everyone's favourite line but one that is often ignored. Yes, no one can afford to have an accident, but when you have a system that forces you to EASILY dig into the Root Cause (and of course taking care of the annoying documentation of it); new systems, procedures and policies are developed actually saving money/preventing issues."

Each auditor has been thoroughly impressed but in seven months of running the system, the results are dramatic. A 703/135 company that does not have the overhead and support staff of an airline can have a working/thorough SMS that puts them to shame. The customer's auditors are happy, therefore the customers are happy. Important, since each government agency who contracts flying now considers a working SMS to be a decisive factor in the awarding of the contract. It really does make external audits a breeze!"

International

Safety Manager

Servizi Aerei SpA
Com.te Danilo Nania

  That’s great thanks guys for your cooperation. Since we started using sms Pro our SMS got better and better and it’s been recognized by many audits we received especially by our national authorities (FAA and NTSB equivalent). That’s why also our HSE wants to use it for their occupational safety which in Europe is a very sensitive issue."

  That’s great! Ok thanks. We are really happy working with you and your team"

  Perfect Chris, thanks a million buddy!!! Working and learning SMS Pro gets more and more exciting everyday. Thanks your teaching patience!! I will tell the whole world!!!"

  I wish to appreciate all the assistance rendered in setup of our IOSA audit Conformance Report in SMS Pro. It was great tool for our IOSA audit which we were able to score impressively!! We now wish to embark on customization of all out Quality System Checklists to enable us carry out all internal audits through SMS Pro."

  Overall...SMS Pro has enabled a geographically dispersed charter company to effectively consolidate and manage a functional safety program. Now, our safety program is completely horizontally and laterally transparent throughout the organization and issues can be reported and tracked in near real-time.

One of the major benefits of SMS Pro is that it doesn’t force policy or conformance to a predetermined program, but rather provides the guidance and tools necessary to establish an SMS program that is appropriate for your organizations."

IPart 135

  We are about halfway through our ACSF audit and I wanted to pass along to you that the auditors are nothing short of impressed with SMS Pro. I spent about 4 hours going through the program and how is blends with our processes. The Director of Safety for NATA is coming in today, and the auditors have requested that I go through the site with him. In fact, thanks in no small part to SMS Pro, the auditors have mentioned that "xxx" has one of the best safety programs they have audited."

Helicopter Operator

  I wanted to let you know that I am no longer with xxxx however, I really liked the SMS Pro. An idea that I am working on is to coordinate safety for smaller companies that can't afford full time safety staffs. Do you have affordable solutions for say, a small time operation of maybe 4 acft for instance? I am a staunch advocate for your system so if I can be of assistance in your marketing effort, I'd definitely be interested."

International Airports

  It is a really good system. It is going to become the major management tool to oversight operational risk at the Airport."

Safety Manager, Airlines

  Thanks very much for that “Breakneck Speed” service. When I first saw your reply in my mailbox I thought it had to be an “out of office” notice message from you.

How has SMS Pro changed your safety culture?
Management says: "it really saves us a lot of time" In general it has facilitated our quest to become a certified, validated SMS with a working system that reduces our work load as it becomes effective.

Which features do you like best about SMS Pro?
Management says: "they (their users) love the idea of being able to access the SMS anytime anywhere there is web access. Portable, flexible"

Why did you choose SMS Pro over other products?
Management says: "Service, training, user friendly, robust"

"Execeeded all expectations." Flair Airlines, Canadian Charter Airline (contact Judi Bethune, Safety Systems Manager, as a reference).

I would highly recommend this software as extremely versatile and well suited to development of a comprehensive SMS system. Also, the support service for SMSPro is excellent. I would highly recommend this product."

Safety Manager

  SMS-Pro is an awesome product. We began with the free version to see its value and if it integrated well into our culture. It allowed upper management to examine its value, get excited about its capabilities and ultimately, authorize me to upgrade to the next version level. Chris and his staff are so quick on helping with any problems you may encounter. I am just a very satisfied user of the software program, and I looked at quite a few."

New Zealand

Tim O'Neill
Quality Assurance Manager
Hamilton Aero Maintenance Ltd

  We’ve just completed our SMS certification assessment with CAANZ and the assessors will be recommending that we are certified for our SMS. They were impressed with the SMSPro safety portal, so I thought I would pass that on to you. They have not seen it before, but they have come across other software and their assessment was that SMSPro is superior to those other systems.

Even though we’re a small aviation community down here in the South Pacific, you can add CAANZ to the list of regulators that have assessed favourably, SMSPro’s ability to manage aviation safety systems. A lot of hard work has gone into setting up our SMS to the “present and suitable” stage, and along with the support of your portal we have gone the next step in the SMS journey. More hard work to come. Thanks for your help."

United States

Diane Hibbett
Supv. Internal Audit Evaluation Program/SMS Administrator
ABX Air, Inc.

 Thank you so very very much Chris! You guys are the absolute best!!!!!!!!"

Kellie N.Roby
Business Manager at Business Jet Access

 Hey there Chris! I wanted to touch base with you and let you know that we completed our IS-BAO and ARG/US audits last week and we successfully renewed our Platinum ARG/US rating and we were recommended for Stage 3 ISBAO! We are waiting for the "recommendation" to firm up before we announce it, but I thought you would like to know that they were (once again) very impressed with the interface and capabilities of SMSPro! Thank you for all that you guys do!"

  Thank you for looking into that and fixing that for me, Chris. You guys are awesome on your response times by the way! : )"

Undisclosed Government
(identity secured)

  SMS-Pro has been the force behind integrating SMS concepts into our employee’s daily routine. Its ease of use, especially the capability for users to email an issue directly into the system, has resulted in 56% more issues being reported over the previous year!

Those additional issues are the ones that never were reported due to employees having to fill out a paper report or get back to base and get on their computer. By then, they find it more important to go home after a long day. They rationalize that they will do it later, but never do. Now, they can send a report in from their smart phones during "down time", while passengers are being loaded or unloaded.

For the Aviation Safety Manager, it is the “go to” tool where I can complete the majority of my SMS tasks from any computer, even from home. Senior managers have seen the value and have encouraged employees to adopt and embrace it."

U.S.Consulting Company

  My company does aviation safety consulting and I have been heavily involved in System Safety and SMS since before AC 120-92 was even drafted. In fact, I was asked to review the draft of AC 120-92 before it was published in any form. The proposed AC was not user friendly then, nor has it improved much, particularly for smaller companies that can not afford a staff to implement its requirements.

I have seen many SMS software applications, but none compare to the comprehensive approach with which SMS Pro deals with all aspects of safety. It was written from the ground up as a dedicated aviation SMS, completely customizable and suited for unique aviation requirements. Given its modular construction it can be configured to fit any size company or other aviation organization (airports, MRO, etc).

It really does allow a company to manage safety in a way intended by the regulation. In addition, the support by NWDS is unsurpassed. I would highly recommend that with the SMS “train coming down the track”, your company take a serious look at SMS Pro."

Medium-sized Part 135 operator

  While your tech support is unmatched, I think the huge selling point is the functionality of the program. Anybody who has read ICAO Doc 9859 will see that the major points are covered with the software. The second largest point, in my opinion, is the customization afforded by the program.

ICAO and even the FAA are offering an academic model for certificate holders to follow. This means the theory can be applied to any company from the largest carriers to the smallest 135 operator. Therefore, being able to “tweak” an SMS to fit the company while still meeting requirements will be paramount as this pushes towards regulation in the near future. The fact that these “tweaks” can more or less be done in the software is a HUGE advantage."

European Airline

Per Christensen
Safety Manager at Danish Air Transport A/S

  SMS Pro is the most complete enterprise-grade Aviation Risk Management Software that delivers robust features to manage ICAO, FAA, Transport Canada and EASA SMS requirements. You can add IATA/IOSA."

  I am probably quite goal oriented and I think your software is one of the better I have seen so far in this area, but not perfect yet. I want this to work out to the best for all involved. Since going live I have already received some very positive response on SMS Pro from pilots. The next big thing we will need to dig into is the analysis part of SMS Pro and from experience from other software this is often unfortunately a weak part."

The Philippines

Fred Startz
Director of Safety and Security at Aviation Concepts, Inc.

  Howdy, ... you guys have been good SMS partners since I first ran into you in 2010. Besides the fact that your program was written from a clean sheet expressly for aviation, I’m constantly pleased to see how SMS Pro acts like aviation people think. I know that’s not an accident but it’s still nice whenever it happens.

Thanks much for your continuing support. Your help for those of us starting off in Jakarta years ago and now with me in the Philippines is invaluable. If I didn’t have someone backstopping me now, I couldn’t hope to get this company here up and running on SMS Pro. But I know that if ACI does take to SMS Pro, our company’s SMS will thrive.

Thanks for your help. I couldn't have gotten all this done without the help of SMS Pro."

Indonesia

Fred Startz

  You know, one thing I’ve had on my mobile’s world map time zones since 2011 is the time for Anchorage. Even in Indonesia, when an SMS Pro operational problem would arise we’d bet and laugh on whether or not we’d likely get a reply from SMS Pro before tomorrow (our time). After a while anyone who bet on an answer arriving tomorrow was considered the mug (sucker). Usually, we’d end up laughing and slapping our knees when soon after asking SMS Pro, an answer would arrive back in Jakarta J."

U.S. SMS Consulting Company

Mike Rioux
COO - JDA

  SMS Pro is one of the best SMS Software applications on the market that can be used in the cloud or on your own network. It provides all the tools and functionality for any size aviation organization and provides all the features needed to set up, run and manage your SMS. Technology is the backbone of a successful SMS and SMS Pro is at the head of the class."

Major Airlines

  I am pleased to provide an assessment strongly recommending SMS Pro , which in my assessment, is a leader among top SMS-related solutions.

I've been involved in airline safety program management for 10 years, 8 years of that as Director of Flight Safety for a major US Part 121 carrier, and for 20 years prior, military aviation safety in Naval Aviation, with half of that being deployed on aircraft carriers.

I've been a staff instructor at the University of Southern California's USC Aviation Safety and Security program for about 7 years now, where I teach SMS, Incident Investigation and Analysis, and Safety for Aviation Maintenance. I am involved in curricula development at USC, in airline pilot training, and as a Check Airman and instructor pilot at a Part 121 major US airline.

In my opinion, SMS Pro leads a very small field of employee reporting solutions, and an even smaller field of SMS program management solutions. The software is a very highly customizable application, one easily scalable to fit organizational requirements, and one that fits the organization, versus requiring the organization to fit the software.

SMS Pro manages the entire ICAO SMS, and is not simply an employee reporting tool. Because it is designed to manage the entire SMS, it is an "employee efficient solution." Implementation can be achieved with minimum personnel. The Return on Investment in not having to hire more people, is significant. The reduction in time to manage safety reports, and the organizational efficiency in processing reports in compliance with SMS regulatory requirements, is measurable and significant.

SMS Pro functions very well. NWDS provides good customer support, and their fees for certain program modifications and tailoring, when required, are very reasonable. Problems are handled in a very responsive manner.

Additionally, at NWDS, there is a lot of talent available to help a customer with just about any special research project needed.

I've been running a research program with SMS Pro, and the Air Line Pilots Association at a major US airline, for pilot safety reporting, and during implementation of what we think is the first SMS for a labor group - an appropriate pursuit for a labor group so committed to aviation safety, as ALPA.

We have about 1500 pilots in the organization, and in the first two months have recorded about 75 safety reports. Pilots like how easy it is to file a report. It takes just a few minutes to complete the process, and you know how much pilots don't like filing reports! That they are filing them at all, and that they like SMS Pro, is a good indication of how well the system fits the organization.

One of the many features I like is the Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, which are totally established by the customer. I like that you can set KPIs according to the organization's historical data. For example, when an event report is filed that exceeds your pre-set Quality Metrics, perhaps exceeding a threshold level of events that are otherwise within a range of acceptability in the organizational risk profile, then key personnel are automatically notified via email of the excellence. This is a really useful feature that saves time from someone having to manually monitor reporting.

...there are a lot more of these nice features in SMS Pro that make it a superb tool for managing an SMS."

Australia

Aviation Maintenance & Auditing

  Thank you for this opportunity to speak about SMS-Pro. I have personally been using it now for several years and find it easy to embed its use in my daily routines. I have introduced it to one of my new clients, a small AMO here in Perth and I am looking forward to working with their team to set it up and assist them in its use.

As an non-gov external airworthiness auditor I am obliged to use other SMS software that various clients use. I can state without fear or favor that SMS-Pro is far superior than any I have come across to date."

Middle East

  ...I have found SMS Pro to be intuitive and a great tool for both simple and complex aviation organizations - great job!"

Airways

  To be honest, I am speechless at the response I am getting. I am happy that I opted for SMS-Pro. I spoke with the Head of Airline Ops about 20 minutes ago and he has promised to pitch in favor of SMS Pro and I formally washed my hands off from *******."