Flight Planning providers???
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
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Do I know you, OpsDog? 'cos you certainly don't know me judging by your unqualified dismissal of anything I have to say.
My comfy sales position has me on the road for 70% of my life and most of that to places that can only be described as 'not somewhere you would take your wife and kids on holiday'. I have rack up a damn sight more hours in the air than most pilots...Only my furniture seems to be permanently based in Geneva.
For your information, I got this 'comfy Geneva based sales position' after 16 years in Crewing, Flight Ops, & Aircraft Dispatch. Not 30 years as a pilot, I know, but at least I'm not bitter and twisted as the result of being medicalled out of the position I worked all my life to achieve.
You are quite right to say "who the hell believes a salesman"... that's why I always start my "pitch" with a brief rundown of who I am and what I've been doing for the past 20 years in aviation (I got in by emptying toilets and loading bags so I have certainly done my time.) Credibility and trust makes sales in this business not salesmen. I have never actually considered myself a salesman, just an aviation professional with an (educated) opinion of a specific line of products. Granted SITA currently pays my salary, but as anyone who knows me will confirm, I am very much my own man with my own opinions of what is a good system and what isn't. I have even turned away prospective customers for SITA as our system wasn't suited for their specific style of operation.
To fully evaluate any system, you have to get behind the bell's and whistles, the sales schpiel and the glossy brochures and examine the mathematics at the core level...The algorithm's behind the SITA solution are second to none; the result being a highly accurate end product "the dispatch brief".
All the systems out in the marketplace are designed to produce the same end product using the same core data; aircraft performance data, nav data & atmospheric data; so how come they all produce different numbers?
Stop 'SITA bashing' for the sake of it, and do a professional, comprehensive evaluation of the other vendors and their solutions. You'll probably end up back where you started and resigning with SITA...four of our European customers in 2003 have done just that. 246 customers is no mean feat, only Jeppesen has more and they have the GA, ExecJet and Military markets pertty well sewn up which is a market we are prevented from addressing due to the legal structure of our organisation. Take these away from Jeppesen's customer list and you are left with pretty much the same customer number as SITA has.
and again, for your information, I leave my 'comfy sales position in Geneva' next Friday and am going back to the frontline. My choice, not SITA's!!
Even though I am moving on, I still believe the SITA solution delivers the best value for money out there; I also agree that LIDO is an excellent system but who can afford almost US$1M upfront costs...their existing customers certainly couldn't judging by the headlines over the past 6 months!!! Behind the scene's the majority of guy's supporting the SITA solution are excellent, fully dedicated and highly experienced, so as soon as I get the opportunity with my new company, I'll be signing up to use it in anger.
Don't critisise people you know nothing about...it only goes to prove your own ignorance and immaturity which for someone with 30 years in the business is quite pathetic.
Whooaahh!!!
My comfy sales position has me on the road for 70% of my life and most of that to places that can only be described as 'not somewhere you would take your wife and kids on holiday'. I have rack up a damn sight more hours in the air than most pilots...Only my furniture seems to be permanently based in Geneva.
For your information, I got this 'comfy Geneva based sales position' after 16 years in Crewing, Flight Ops, & Aircraft Dispatch. Not 30 years as a pilot, I know, but at least I'm not bitter and twisted as the result of being medicalled out of the position I worked all my life to achieve.
You are quite right to say "who the hell believes a salesman"... that's why I always start my "pitch" with a brief rundown of who I am and what I've been doing for the past 20 years in aviation (I got in by emptying toilets and loading bags so I have certainly done my time.) Credibility and trust makes sales in this business not salesmen. I have never actually considered myself a salesman, just an aviation professional with an (educated) opinion of a specific line of products. Granted SITA currently pays my salary, but as anyone who knows me will confirm, I am very much my own man with my own opinions of what is a good system and what isn't. I have even turned away prospective customers for SITA as our system wasn't suited for their specific style of operation.
To fully evaluate any system, you have to get behind the bell's and whistles, the sales schpiel and the glossy brochures and examine the mathematics at the core level...The algorithm's behind the SITA solution are second to none; the result being a highly accurate end product "the dispatch brief".
All the systems out in the marketplace are designed to produce the same end product using the same core data; aircraft performance data, nav data & atmospheric data; so how come they all produce different numbers?
Stop 'SITA bashing' for the sake of it, and do a professional, comprehensive evaluation of the other vendors and their solutions. You'll probably end up back where you started and resigning with SITA...four of our European customers in 2003 have done just that. 246 customers is no mean feat, only Jeppesen has more and they have the GA, ExecJet and Military markets pertty well sewn up which is a market we are prevented from addressing due to the legal structure of our organisation. Take these away from Jeppesen's customer list and you are left with pretty much the same customer number as SITA has.
and again, for your information, I leave my 'comfy sales position in Geneva' next Friday and am going back to the frontline. My choice, not SITA's!!
Even though I am moving on, I still believe the SITA solution delivers the best value for money out there; I also agree that LIDO is an excellent system but who can afford almost US$1M upfront costs...their existing customers certainly couldn't judging by the headlines over the past 6 months!!! Behind the scene's the majority of guy's supporting the SITA solution are excellent, fully dedicated and highly experienced, so as soon as I get the opportunity with my new company, I'll be signing up to use it in anger.
Don't critisise people you know nothing about...it only goes to prove your own ignorance and immaturity which for someone with 30 years in the business is quite pathetic.
Whooaahh!!!
Last edited by Whooaahh; 6th Dec 2003 at 00:59.
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Posts: 58
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Hey guy's...
I'm now officially not on the SITA payroll any more.
Does that now allow me to post here without being branded biased?
I can't see myself having much time to post much, what with the new job and all, but I'll try to pop in when I can just to make sure OpsDog is behaving himself!
Whooaahh!!!
I'm now officially not on the SITA payroll any more.
Does that now allow me to post here without being branded biased?
I can't see myself having much time to post much, what with the new job and all, but I'll try to pop in when I can just to make sure OpsDog is behaving himself!
Whooaahh!!!
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Essex
Posts: 12
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Whooaahh
Thank you for your frank, and may I say, agressive response.
Two things:
a) Amassing hundreds of hours sitting in an aluminium tube sipping Gin and Tonics counts for nowt!
b) Hook Line and Sinker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for your frank, and may I say, agressive response.
Two things:
a) Amassing hundreds of hours sitting in an aluminium tube sipping Gin and Tonics counts for nowt!
b) Hook Line and Sinker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
