Press Release

22 June 2011

Skyblue Aero soars with XMetaL and DITA

In aerospace and aviation, XMetaL is used by Airbus, Bombardier, Continental Airlines, the European Space Agency, KLM, Pratt & Witney, and Qantas. It's not just a 'big company' product though.

Skyblue Aero Services, a Type Rating Training Organisation (TRTO), located near Exeter, United Kingdom , specialising in ATR turboprop aircraft, has recently started using XMetaL for its documentation. Skyblue made the decision to upgrade their documentation facilities during late 2010 and worked with Koala Publishing, located in Bristol, UK, to help make the transition. "We knew that XML was the way forward in documentation, but as a small organisation we could not afford a long learning curve, and certainly not a long drawn-out deployment with its inevitable costs" said Skyblue's CEO Andy Foan.

Koala's Commercial Director, Gordon Dennis, commented "Koala introduced Skyblue to DITA, which is an Open Standard built on the foundation of XML. Its great advantage is that users can gain the benefits of XML without having to be experts in XML".

JustSystems Inc. provide XMetaL Author, one of the longest established and most highly rated native XML editors on the market. XMetaL has a comprehensive DITA capability, implemented with a very intuitive user interface. "We were able to get up to speed very quickly indeed" said Andy Foan, "vindicating our decision to use DITA and XMetaL Author. The fact that XMetaL has such a well established user base in aerospace and aviation, and that Koala is very experienced in our industry, also played a part in our decision" he said.

The company is also using Koala's Modulux 2011 content management system for topic management, version control and permissions management. "Documentation within the aviation industry is safety critical and so has to be 100% accurate at all times. One of the key aspects we were concerned to get right was the traceability of document modifications, which Modulux provides for us" said Andy Foan. The system records all actions by every user in an audit trail. This is an essential tool enabling operators to satisfy the regulatory authorities that documents are traceable and their authors accountable.

"Developing Modulux, we set out with the objective of a lightweight, relatively low-cost system" said Gordon Dennis. "We also wanted to make it very closely integrated with XMetaL, and our product developers used the XMetaL Software development Kit, whilst working closely with JustSystems in Vancouver on the design, to ensure that the overall package gives the user a genuine one stop shop" he continued. Skyblue Aero Services has a worldwide client base. The company carries out pilot training and consultancy services for a range of airlines in Europe, Africa and South East Asia. For further information, email: andy@skyblueaero.com

About Koala:
Koala is a software development company specialising in the aerospace and aviation industries and located in Bristol, UK. The company has been active in XML-based documentation and data management since the standard first emerged over 10 years ago. Customers include National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and Airbus as well as smaller organisations such as SkyBlue Aero. Koala's products are engineered with compliance to ISO9126 and tested to the standards required by ISQTB. The company provides products using the Aeronautical Information Exchange Methodology (AIXM), which is also based on XML, as well as being a reseller partner for JustSystems. For further information, email: gordon.dennis@koalapub.co.uk

About JustSystems:
JustSystems is a leading global software provider with three decades of successful innovation in office productivity, information management, and consumer and enterprise software. With over 2,500 customers worldwide, the company pursues a global expansion strategy based on its XMetaL content lifecycle solutions. For further information, email: nick.mongston@justsystems.com