How to Setup a Virtual Safety Office (VSO)

So you are interested in setting up a VSO? Do you have existing or prospective clients that fit into the following categories with fewer than 40 employees?

  • Corporate flight departments;
  • Airports;
  • Aviation Maintenance Organizations (AMOs or MROs);
  • Drone operators;
  • Agricultural operations;
  • Sight-seeing tour operators; and
  • FBOs.

With your Virtual Safety Office, are you able to provide critical SMS activities, including:

  • Creating or updating their SMS manuals;
  • Collecting safety event data;
  • Conducting risk assessments and analyses;
  • Documenting risk management activities;
  • Provide SMS training for both employees and managers;
  • Performing safety promotion activities (newsletters & surveys)?

Services Provided by Your Virtual Safety Office (VSO)

Your VSO allows smaller operators to benefit from an SMS at a reasonable cost. The services you provide, and the fees charged, is between you and your clients. By providing a dedicated, trained Safety Analyst Mentor (SAM), your clients must be assured that critical SMS activities are not left to chance, including:

  • SMS database administration
  • Hazard /Safety event identification, analysis, tracking and assignment
  • Trend analysis
  • Safety risk assessments
  • Risk management reports
  • SMS training by a true subject matter expert
  • Tracking and following up on SMS activities
  • Performing safety promotion activities (surveys and newsletters)
  • Updating SMS related documentation.

We recommend that you offer a "one-stop-shop-full-meal deal" addressing all client SMS needs. If you need assistance in a particular area, we can offer guidance. We are here to support you to ensure you have tools available to help you succeed.

Steps to Setup VSO

If you are an SMS consultant providing SMS-related services to your clients, you can earn additional revenue by expanding your service offering. SMS Pro is a secure aviation SMS database platform that will allow you to manage the SMS of multiple clients from one system. Since SMS Pro's VSO program focuses on a complete SMS offering, one of your first steps will be to learn SMS Pro capabilities.

We recommend watching these SMS Pro demo videos. Don't worry if these videos don't answer all your questions. Inside SMS Pro, there are many step-by-step tutorial videos to reduce the learning curve.

So how do we recommend you start your VSO? Here is a suggested workflow, which we'll summarize into a list later on.

Understand SMS requirements.

Each client in your VSO portal will be a division. You control access by setting user permissions. To understand SMS Pro divisions, please learn about them here:

Register your intent to start your VSO;
Learn SMS requirements

Using SMS Pro for Your Virtual Safety Office (VSO)

Objective: Provide a portal to a virtual safety manager that can manage the SMS for multiple clients.

Assumptions for VSO Management

  • No more than 20 clients (operators) per portal.
  • Each client is a division in SMS Pro with < 40 employees
  • Users can see only issues in their division
  • SAM is the SMS Pro point of contact for support

Users have little interaction in SMS Pro except to:

  • Submit hazard reports (reported issues);
  • Read & sign off on safety messages;
  • Read safety newsletters; and
  • Perform initial/recurrent SMS training.

Offered Modules and Permissions

VSO Costs to Operators

For each client, SMS Pro costs are:

  • $1,000 initial setup; and
  • $1,200 annual subscription ($100 monthly).
What will you charge your clients for your VSO service? That is between you and your clients.

 

Frequently Asked Questions about VSO

Q: Can an operator move to their own portal at any time?

A: Yes. Your client can contact SMS Pro to purchase their own portal. There will be a $1,000 one-time setup and data migration fee. Their minimum monthly costs will be $299.

 

Setup Your Virtual Safety Office

Free Download Resources Supporting New Aviation SMS

These selected resources are invaluable in assisting your team to quickly and efficiently implement a new aviation safety management system.

These resources are applicable to:

  • Airlines
  • Airports
  • Aviation Maintenance Organizations
  • ANSP
  • FBOs
  • Flight Schools
  • Smaller flight operations

Download Safety Policy

Duties & Responsibilities of Key Safety Personnel

Free Download Template for Safety Accountabilities

Org Chart

How to Create an Org Chart for Aviation Safety Management Systems

Gap Analysis Checklists

Download Free Gap Analysis Resources