ThoughtFocus & ALTHOM Select HICO iLS.Suite® Digital Data Management Platform For Integrated Technical Publications And Product Support Solution

The innovative product sustainability service will provide customers with an affordable, easy-to-implement alternative to ongoing product support services

Irvine, CA and Hamburg, Germany (PRWEB) - ThoughtFocus, a leading consulting, engineering and business process management firm serving the aviation and aerospace industry, and ALTHOM GmbH, specialists in offshoring production management for customers in aviation, defense and other industries, today announced they have selected HICO Group GmbH as a data platform partner for their new integrated technical publications and documentation product support solution for aerospace and defense (A&D).

ThoughtFocus and ALTHOM have expanded their technical publications production alliance to provide a turn-key Integrated Product Support (IPS) service, based on a next-generation platform that is fully compliant with the latest S1000D technical content standards. The addition of the HICO iLS.Suite® digital data management platform completes the offering, enabling integration of quality technical content and broader product support services across the enterprise.

The IPS solution will be presented at the 2018 S1000D User Forum & ILS Specification Day, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association slated for September 10-13 in New Orleans, LA.

“Our technical publication customers in the A&D space have been asking for additional logistical support, as they grapple with the need to upgrade infrastructure and capabilities,” said Alkiviadis Thomas, ALTHOM Founder and CEO. “The addition of the HICO iLS.Suite® platform and associated tools gives us the ability to offer a truly total solution to enterprise customers needing to support products throughout the service life cycle. It represents a sensible, affordable alternative for customers who are looking to invest in a program for long-term product sustainability.”

The on-demand solution from ALTHOM and ThoughtFocus offers engineering resources for any needed support. This integrated platform conforms to stringent S1000D standards. With advanced technical publications capabilities integrated into the IPS solution, airframe manufacturers moving to S1000D compliance can rapidly migrate supplier technical publications.

“We have the technology, platform and people to provide superior integrated product support at lower cost, protecting our A&D customers against obsolescence, especially in spares provisioning,” noted ThoughtFocus Aerospace General Manager David Deal. “Customers can buy the IPS suite from us and we'll design an integrated program for customer implementation. They can use us for the implementation, or they can turn over the entire product support/documentation function to the joint ALTHOM and ThoughtFocus team. In every scenario, we can save them money, while assuring a superior service and sustainability.”

Targeting A&D industry manufacturers, the ALTHOM-ThoughtFocus technical publications with integrated product support initiative will rely upon the data management tools and protocols resident in the HICO iLS.Suite® digital data management platform. The HICO iLS.Suite® collects and manages data from different IPS segments as well as external applications and prepares them for business-wide use or for delivery to end users. HICO iLS.Suite® will also serve as the delivery platform for the technical publication authoring, illustration and production services offered by ThoughtFocus and ALTHOM.

“Whether an organization sells products or offers technical services, there is always a great amount of logistic information and product data to manage,” according to Werner M. Schadelbauer, HICO Group General Manager and President of the Management Board. “Complete, accurate and timely documentation is a must for any quality-conscious company, but it is especially important for enterprises engaged in aerospace and defense manufacturing. The ThoughtFocus-ALTHOM collaboration is delivering a vital solution to these critical industries, and we are delighted to provide them with the broad product support capabilities found in the HICO iLS.Suite®.”

The ThoughtFocus-ALTHOM technical publications collaboration produces documentation and publications in compliance with all applicable technical regulations and appropriate international standards, including publications such as:

• Maintenance manuals
• Troubleshooting manuals
• Structural repair manuals
• Flight and cabin crew operating manuals
• Aircraft schematics and wiring diagrams manuals
• Illustrated parts documents, lists and catalogs
• 2D and 3D illustrations
• Interactive Electronic Technical Documentation (IETD)
• Customer-specific individual documentations

“As aircraft and vessel manufacturers transition to new platforms and component suppliers design and build for the aftermarket, they require a means of managing all associated data and developing the requisite documentation,” Deal added. “ThoughtFocus – ALTHOM technical authoring and illustration services, combined with the HICO iLS.Suite®, creates the ideal solution for managing this complex requirement on a sustainable basis, and we look forward to bringing this innovation to the global aerospace, defense and marine market.”

About ALTHOM
ALTHOM GmbH offers its customers the highest standards of offshore management. The service provider plans the business, production and development processes for companies at proven foreign locations. ALTHOM GmbH places one of its focuses on engineering, research & development and technical documentation. With its offshoring production management model, the company additionally supports its customers with the cost-effective relocation of production and the meeting of their offset obligations. ALTHOM GmbH has over 200 employees at five locations in Germany, India, Poland and Greece. For more information please visit Technical Publications by ALTHOM.

About ThoughtFocus
ThoughtFocus is a privately held technology consulting and services company serving middle market to large enterprise clients in Manufacturing, Financial Services, Higher Education and Aerospace. Clients look to ThoughtFocus for innovation in product/application engineering, SAP Implementations, knowledge process outsourcing, and digital transformation. The company has over 1,300 employees globally and is one of the fastest growing technology companies in the US. ThoughtFocus is a technology partner and portfolio investment company of Blackstone, a leading private equity firm. Click here for more information http://www.thoughtfocus.com.

About HICO Group GmbH
Since 1997, HICO is the Full-Line Supplier for efficient, sustainable software solutions and services for “Integrated Product Support (IPS)” and “Service Lifecycle Management (SLM)“.
HICO’s One-Stop-Solution focuses on technical documentation, material management, maintenance support, training and engineering-support. The company provides custom-tailored solutions by process- and system-integration of different product information sources. HICO is headquartered in Austria with subsidiaries in Canada, Germany and Switzerland. International representation via OEMs and business partners acting globally. For more information, please visit http://www.HICO.com.