GoDirect Trade - revolutionizing the aerospace spare parts marketplace

What is Honeywell’s GoDirect Trade platform and how does it work? By Sathish Muthukrishnan, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Honeywell Aerospace.

  • Thursday, 23rd May 2019 Posted 5 years ago in by Phil Alsop

GoDirect Trade is a revolutionary e-commerce platform that is powered by blockchain technology to help aviation professionals buy and sell parts with confidence. The platform improves access to new and used aircraft parts for airlines, air transport and business aviation customers, by offering transparent pricing -- an industry-first -- and the option to buy inventory directly from its website. It has been built with the costumer experience in mind and replicates the buying and selling process akin to major consumer e-commerce websites. For example, GoDirect Trade includes a “shopping cart” and immediate check-out option, replicating the online shopping experience that most of us use in our everyday lives.

 

Building upon experience from the Honeywell Aerospace Trading business, GoDirect Trade creates stronger connections between buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers can directly contact one another via the platform, streamlining and speeding up the process as well as ensuring highest levels of customer satisfaction.

 

What challenges does Honeywell aim to address within the aviation industry through GoDirect Trade?

GoDirect Trade is the answer for the aerospace spare parts marketplace, which is in overdue need of a major overhaul to streamline what is currently a slow, cumbersome and lengthy buying and selling process.

 

Previously, aviation customers who wanted to buy parts had to call numerous companies and wait days or even weeks to price a part. They also risked buying from a company that does not have the inventory immediately in stock, further delaying the time it took for a part to arrive.

 

Aviation customers want a platform that is transparent in pricing and customer reviews, which did not exist until the introduction of GoDirect Trade. They also want a one-stop shopping experience, instead of researching multiple sites or calling multiple shops to find one part.

 

Currently, less than 2.5 percent of all transactions in the spare parts industry are done online and that is where we saw an opportunity for this solution. By listening to what buyers and sellers want, Honeywell has developed a first-of-its-kind solution to meet and exceed the industry’s expectations. GoDirect Trade is advancing and pushing the aircraft spare parts market into a promising, unknown territory and ushering in an era of new customer experiences.

 

Why is blockchain a key feature of the platform?

When buying parts online, customers need to know that the seller is legitimate and that the parts are authentic, safe and being sold at a reasonable price. Honeywell leverages blockchain technology to securely capture as much information about a part as possible. For example, if a part is listed, repaired, birthed, or dismantled from an aircraft, the ledger is updated with the event information. With this immutable information on the Honeywell blockchain, GoDirect Trade provides parts pedigree data  that naturally creates trust between the buyer and seller.