Boeing

Data-Driven Proof-of-Concept B2B Application

A working application allowed Boeing to demonstrate key features and gauge interest in a new offering

Challenge

Boeing is a large global company with a heavily siloed organizational structure and process-rich manufacturing environment.   

Modern airplanes are basically flying IoT sensor arrays, with almost every part of the plane capturing data during a flight, which is downloaded for analysis by the airline when a plane lands.  This data contains a wealth of potential insights, such as performance trends that can lead to more accurate maintenance planning. This data becomes even more valuable when it is aggregated with other airline-specific data as well as supplier data so it can be used to identify trends and issues early, to the benefit of the industry.

Of course, much of this data is also proprietary and demands high security so that different airlines and suppliers are only sharing what they are willing to share and can maintain control over who sees what and for how long.

Boeing needed a better way to share data between organizations in a highly controlled and secure way.

The company wanted a proof-of-concept that would demonstrate an interaction between Boeing, an airline, and a parts supplier, and the value of this aggregated data. It was needed under a tight timeline, and it needed to demonstrate innovation and customer-focused development to Boeing’s customers.

boeing

The Solution

Because this project was a new type of endeavor, Boeing did not have an established process internally and selected Kopius* as its innovation partner, benefiting from Kopius’ nearshore engineering services, with team members based in the US and in Argentina.

Kopius conducted a series of client interviews and design sessions with key stakeholders to understand current processes and capabilities for sharing this type of data.  Because this was a new capability, there were many gaps and unknowns in the process.  Our team led the customer through envisioning sessions to develop wireframes for key features in the solution while also working closely with Microsoft to integrate with existing technology solutions including Microsoft Synapse, Purview, and an unreleased Microsoft product that creates and enforces contracts when data is shared securely.

Boeing Screenshot

Results

The solution was a responsive web application hosted in Azure that allowed users to access, share, and analyze data with airline customers and suppliers in a secure and trusted environment.

The result was a working application that allowed Boeing to demonstrate these key features to customers to gauge interest in becoming an early adopter of this new offering. The effort also enabled Boeing to collect early user feedback to inform the exploration of new revenue streams by monetizing existing data. Boeing was able to conduct market analysis rapidly and inexpensively without the long and expensive process of launching a new service.

*Work was performed under the previous business name, Valence

Spaceflight

Enterprise Application Design and Development

Background

Spaceflight is a premier launch services and mission management provider, offering routine, cost-effective access to space.

With the growing industry of smallsats, the demand for routine, cost-effective access to space has increased exponentially. Demand, coupled with the growing number of launch vehicle providers, created an opportunity for Spaceflight to assist in identifying, booking, and managing rideshare launches.

With a suite of products and services including satellite infrastructure, rideshare launch offerings, payload integration, and global communications networks, Spaceflight enables organizations to get launched, achieving their mission goals – on time and on budget.

Kopius has worked with Spaceflight since 2020 when we built Book My Launch and the first iteration of Mission Control, which is a task management and ticketing system that allows Spaceflight Mission Managers to manage the tasks such as testing, documentation, and communication.  Mission Control also provides a Resource Center, giving customers access to reference documents, templates, and information about their Spaceflight team.

Spaceflight smallsat

Challenge

Prior to Mission Control, Mission Managers had to patch together ad hoc management solutions, leaning heavily on decentralized documents, emails, texts, and endless phone calls.

Spaceflight needed a system to link the self-service model of Book My Launch to the backend systems used by Mission Managers. The company also needed to enable Mission Managers to support more customers as the business scaled and to provide customers with a single source to view all their mission information.

Spaceflight’s team had a strong vision for the end product and its business impact but had not previously worked on a software development effort of this nature. Spaceflight needed a partner that could guide them through the process.

Spaceflight continued its engagement with Kopius, building upon the knowledge and relationships built during the Book My Launch project.

“We could tell that Kopius* was excited about this project and was really engaged,” says Kristen Smithson, Spaceflight vice president of business operations, “When the whole team came to the office and gave a presentation, they spoke to all our needs, and we were impressed. Kopius was able to speak to the backend setup as well as how we would design it. The end-to-end capability made a difference.”

Solution

Mission Control was developed in a phased approach, with Phase 1 relying on out-of-the-box software for task management and Phase 2 relying on custom-built software for Spaceflight’s unique workflows. The phased approach enabled faster process improvement and provided user feedback that contributed to a more successful software solution in Phase 2.  

“Our primary objective was to simplify the user experience to support the adoption of the tools,” said Alice Watkins, Kopius Technical Project Manager, “In addition to adding features to make the system easier to use, we were ruthlessly focused on streamlining the experience. We improved the ease-of-use, the booking process, and functionality for Mission Control.”

Because Mission Control’s intent is to digitize and streamline processes, understanding those processes was critical to success.  As is the case with many fast-moving and young companies, processes had been defined at a high level but had not yet been documented at the level of granularity needed to design and develop the right software solution and user experience.

Kopius conducted dozens of research sessions, bringing designers and engineers together with Spaceflight users to explore processes and user needs. Q & A sessions were insightful and benefited from Kopius participants with strong user experience practices with deep engineering skills. Part of Kopius’ role was to capture ideas that were still forming among the Spaceflight teams and to advise Spaceflight about how to use those ideas to create a better solution. These working sessions revealed the “hidden steps” in Spaceflight’s processes, which are critical to achieving adoption by Mission Managers.

Kopius also conducted user experience research and provided UX design, interface design, software engineering, testing, and QA to Spaceflight. In addition to features that allow Mission Managers to manage customers, create tasks, and easily see what the customer can see, Kopius also built filtering functionality so Mission Managers can easily manage their work and assignments.

In Phase 2, Kopius restructured tasks and workflows, created task management systems, built a notification system that triggers emails when a customer submits a task, improved the user database, and implemented multifactor authentication via text messages to increase security.

Following the release of Phase 2, Kopius collected user feedback for future enhancements and conducted internal training and client onboarding.

“I appreciate that Kopius was good at guiding us through the technical aspects of the project while also always treating us as equals. We felt like engaged and respected partners,” said Tony Frego, vice president of mission management, “Kopius also got to know our business at a detailed level, which is not easy. It’s cool that Kopius can talk about orbits with us now.”

Spaceflight Mission Control

Results

With Book My Launch and Mission Control, Spaceflight is transforming its business and the aerospace commercial space flight industry.

The Mission Control tool is scalable, flexible, trackable, and provides better records, impressively advancing Spaceflight from its previous ad hoc systems. Further, the onboarding of new Mission Managers is more consistent, and Mission Managers can save time and effort compared to previous processes.

And because Mission Managers can better manage customers, customers are expected to have a better experience with Spaceflight and demonstrate higher satisfaction – ultimately leading to future bookings and a stronger business.

*Kopius performed this work under it’s previously known business name, Valence.

United Launch Alliance

Augmented Reality Application

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth and to other bodies in the Solar System.

Challenge

With a new rocket in development, United Launch Alliance needed to engage its target audience at the largest and most influential event in the space industry. This event is sponsored by large, innovative, and competitive brands, so it was imperative to differentiate from the competition with an experience within the event.

Solution

The physical size of a rocket prevents it from being transported and shared for marketing and sales opportunities, but much like a car, there’s a certain impressiveness to a rocket’s physicality.

Kopius* conceptualized, designed, and built a fun and immersive end-to-end experience. The solution included a mobile augmented reality application called ULA Anywhere that created life-sized rockets in virtual showrooms, social media photo sharing, and a mission-based game employing light simulation-based physics to demonstrate the complex rocket trajectories and satellite orbits.

By using augmented reality on mobile devices, Kopius could help ULA engage a diverse audience for sales opportunities and to increase brand awareness and affinity.

Technologies used included augmented reality, iOS application development, and Android application development.

Results

The ULA Anywhere experience differentiated ULA from its competitors, expanded the brand’s reach beyond the event’s walls, and created IP that could be repurposed for future events, increasing total ROI.

*Kopius performed this work under its previously known business name, Valence.

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Spaceflight

Book My Flight Web Application

Spaceflight is a premier launch services and mission management provider, offering routine, cost-effective access to space, helping customers to explore beyond our planet.

Traditionally, access to space has been limited to government entities due to cost. Sending satellites into orbit once required purchasing an entire rocket; however, with the growing industry of smallsats, the demand for routine, cost-effective access to space has increased exponentially. Demand, coupled with the growing number of launch vehicle providers, created an opportunity for Spaceflight to assist in identifying, booking, and managing rideshare launches.

With a straightforward and cost-effective suite of products and services including state-of-the-art satellite infrastructure, rideshare launch offerings, payload integration and global communications networks, Spaceflight enables commercial, non-profit organizations and government entities to get launched, achieving their mission goals – on time and on budget.

Challenge

Spaceflight’s services are delivered by using a network of launch providers, each with distinct booking and management processes. To be an industry leader, Spaceflight needed its customers to be able to reserve and manage satellite launches from its website. Spaceflight also needed to provide the industry with an aggregated launch schedule for all possible launches.

In addition to the website needing new functionality, the visual design of the website was not competitive and needed to be refreshed.

Further, Spaceflight was challenged by inefficiencies in its internal operations, and complicated customer communications.

Solution

Kopius* was engaged to design and develop a web application to address the booking process for Spaceflight customers. The solution allows users to make a payment, reserve their launch, and to manage all steps of the launch process through an integrated portal.

The process started with UX exercises to plot the ideal user experience and typical user requirements when incorporating this functionality into the existing site. Applying the UX and UI principles designated by Kopius’ design team, the engineering team build the web application, which enables customers to specify launch and satellite criteria, which is matched with an optimal reservation using a cloud-based serverless architecture and a React framework. Kopius used a complex launch capacity matching algorithm, coupled with multiple existing systems to speed time-to-market.

The design team re-skinned the website to deliver a cohesive and competitive visual identity along with enhanced functionality.

Technologies used include Amazon Web Services GovCloud Services, DynamoDB, API Gateway, S3, SES, Cognito, Lamda serverless-based architecture, CloudWatch, and Secrets Manager. Third-party connected services include Smartsheet, Box, Jira, and Strip.

Results

The client experienced the brand elevation that comes from a beautiful customer-centric web application, with a simple, easy-to-use experience. The web application was well-received upon introduction at a major industry conference, demonstrating how space launch services can be simplified. The effort advanced Spaceflight’s mission to offer best-in-class launch provider services.

React Framework

*Kopius performed this work under its previously known business name, Valence.