Virtual Aviation. On course with Apple.
This advanced level of integration between Apple products is, in fact, one of the things that has impressed Stevenson and his staff most. “In our experience, the integration between Apple products has been seamless and reinforces our view that Apple equipment allows us to get on with work and be as productive as possible”, he says, adding, “We never had this before with our PC network”.
iPhones also come in handy during simulations; customers are not allowed to take pictures inside the simulators, so instructors use the iPhones to capture images that can be instantly emailed to the customer. Photos on the iPhone are also useful when an impromptu networking opportunity arises: “It’s great that I have loads of good-quality images on hand to show to people who express interest in the simulators or the business”, says Stevenson. “I can run them like a mini presentation; it never fails to impress”.
Thanks to MobileMe, all the calendar and email functions on the iPhone are synchronised with the desktop and laptop computers. “For example”, says Stevenson, “I have my own account on each of our Macs so that I can work from any of them if necessary – emails, Address Book contacts, Safari bookmarks, iCal events are all available on any of the Macs I work at – and on my iPhone too”.
There are other features of the Mac that have helped win over Virtual Aviation – as well as saving the company money. “There’s no doubt that we run a more efficient operation now”, says Stevenson. “All that time we wasted trying to sort out IT; we haven’t encountered a single problem since we set up the Mac network six months ago”.
The company has also made concrete savings by making use of iLife software for tasks they would previously have paid others to do. For example, Stevenson used iMovie to make a promotional video for the company’s website, which would otherwise have been completed at great cost in an edit suite in Soho. “In the past”, he says, “we’ve paid a film-maker around £800 a day to make our videos for us. But because we weren’t in a position to see all the original footage and weren’t in on the edit, we sometimes ended up with videos that weren’t quite what we were after. With iMovie, we have complete control”. He adds, “I’m just amazed you can do it on the office computer!”
Stevenson has also made use of iWeb to help develop other aspects of the Virtual Aviation business. He says, “We built a micro-site for a different branch of the business. This is another area where iLife can save us money because you can trial an idea by putting up a website – the costs are so low, there’s no reason not to”. He is also impressed by how easy iWeb is to use. “It’s incredibly straightforward”, he says. “I have ended up doing things that I never would have dreamt I could do before, and the fact that it all comes free is a real boon to the business”.
The company makes good use of iWork too, depending on Pages for its speed, reliability and ease of use, and they now produce their own sales collateral and press releases. Stevenson says, “We’ve already saved thousands of pounds in the short time we’ve been using the Apple software because there are all sorts of internal documents we can now create ourselves that previously we had to send out to designers and printers”. These documents include route maps to the training centres, which were previously laid out externally but are now dispatched direct to the printer in PDF format, plus internal forms, customer comment forms, order forms and even a magazine advert. “The software is very versatile and very powerful”, comments Stevenson. “We must have saved ourselves between £2,000 and £3,000 so far, simply by using iWork to do things ourselves. In fact, the only piece of promotional literature we’ve had to get outside input for is a single full-colour flyer, in all the time we’ve been using the Mac”.
Virtual Aviation makes use of Boot Camp on the Mac to boot up Windows for the company accountant who comes in several hours a week and only works on PCs. “That’s literally the only time we need to come out of a strictly Apple environment”, says Stevenson.
He is also impressed with the reliability of the Apple operating system. “Mac OS X is stable and very easy to work with”, he says, “It makes me wonder how we ever put up with the PC!”
As far as Stevenson is concerned, there’s a strong business case to be made for switching to Apple technology. “The PC was a hindrance to our daily work”, he says. “Now, not only do we make concrete savings thanks to Apple software, we’re also more productive – in short, we achieve more in less time and with fewer headaches”.
