Press Release

Issued by Communications Software Ltd.

February 29, 2016

Commsoft, developers of OASES, will be officially celebrating the 40th anniversary of this industry-leading MRO IT system at this year's OASES User Group being held at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel at London Heathrow on the 1st and 2nd of March 2016.

Founded as a software house in 1971, Communications Software (Airline Systems) Limited won its first airline contract in 1975 with industry innovator Laker Airways in the UK, leading to the launch of the predecessor to OASES (Open Aviation Strategic Engineering System) the following year. Since then, Commsoft has been continually developing its MRO IT system, now called OASES, a process that has been shaped in large part by feedback from its User Group clients.

Co-founder and chairman, Gary Pollak commented “When I founded the company with my late partner Dick Rawcliffe during a cultural period of 'boom and bust', it was our vision to create a professional organisation based on principles of honesty, integrity, quality, service and friendliness that would face the test of time. I am proud that we still hold these tenets true and recognised by our many loyal customers who have honoured us with their business, trust and friendship for these many years and those who have more recently joined the Commsoft family.”

A 'best-of-breed' system, OASES offers an industry-leading technical sophistication whilst being intuitively user-friendly and, to allow for scalability, is structured in a modular format. At the heart of the OASES system is the core module which provides the essential system components that enable the operation and integration of the OASES functional modules, Continuing Airworthiness, Planning, Production, Line Maintenance, Material Management, Commercial Management and Warranty, any or all of which can be added depending on the client's requirements.

The success of OASES is reflected in the 65 current contracts that Commsoft has won worldwide, often in the face of stiff competition, more than doubling the customer base in the last seven years. In 2015 alone, the maintenance of over 100 additional aircraft was entrusted to the system. Today, the OASES community includes more than 90 aviation customers around the world, ranging from national carriers and large third-party maintenance providers to small independent operators.

The recent introduction of the OASES Private Cloud has brought the system within reach of smaller clients who are now able to benefit from the full extent of OASES functionality without the need to make a major investment in new hardware. It also means that the benefits can be made available more rapidly as the hosting infrastructure - dual redundant, geographically separate, dedicated servers - is already in place.

Other recent OASES developments include the launch of the first of a range of new OASES Mobile Apps, allowing information to be accessed anywhere, anytime. This innovation is also a good example of the close cooperation that Commsoft encourages with its client base and was just one of several improvements and developments made to OASES during 2015 as a result of frequent customer community exchanges and detailed analysis of service requests in the highly-successful web-based OASES Servicedesk.

To support the growing global community of OASES users, Commsoft has expanded its network of offices. The company's Head Office remains in Tiptree in Essex. As Commsoft's Managing Director, Nick Godwin, has observed: “We aim to put Tiptree on the map beyond the famous, locally-produced jams.” But in addition, there are now regional offices in Derby and other UK locations as well as an office in Australia and support partners in India, Romania and Singapore.

2015 also saw the launch of a new corporate identity as part of a strategy to ensure a clear and consistent image across all media. A new logo was introduced to project a more modern feel whilst still retaining a link to the heritage of OASES. In addition, the identity has been carried through to a new-look website - optimised for SEO and for mobile platforms and better integrated with social media. A progressive updating of all OASES product and marketing literature is also underway.

Commenting on the 40th anniversary, Nick Godwin said: “In celebrating 40 years of aviation maintenance IT excellence, we can look back on a long history of technological achievement as well as forward to the ongoing development of this truly 'best of breed' system and an ever growing global community of OASES users.”