VRP Consulting has been working with Rolls-Royce on the Yocova platform for the last 18 months. Our cross-functional hybrid team of local UK-based and near-shore Belarus-based resources has been instrumental in ideation, design, architecture and delivery of the groundbreaking Salesforce platform so far, working closely with Rolls-Royce and their partners.
The team got together recently via Zoom to discuss the program, its inception, innovation and the fun we have had creating something new and special for the aviation industry.
Aviation, before the pandemic, had reached thousands of flights carrying 12 million passengers a day. Over 65 million jobs are supported globally in aviation and related tourism with Rolls-Royce plc leading the way in power systems including jet engines for airlines, business jets and military fighters, nuclear power for marine, and electric powered aircraft. When the chance came to pitch for this project, we jumped in, and probably didn’t fully realise the full power and disruption to the industry that we were embarking on.
The idea of the project emerged 2 years ago. The R2 Data Labs division of Rolls-Royce plc was eager to create a collaborative, data exchange and marketplace that could unite airlines, aviation mainframe & component manufacturers, software and data companies to exchange ideas, create new products and solve business problems faster within the aviation industry. And our resources – the architects, consultants and developers of VRP Consulting – helped to implement this idea.
The platform is called Yocova. On Yocova, members can publish applications developed on any platform: Java, .Net, PaaS applications, desktop or mobile applications – it is a completely open platform. Besides being a marketplace, Yocova is also a data incubator and community, which means that people can work together on ideas and create new solutions for the aviation industry. Yocova has grown in relevance during these challenging times for the aviation industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts who have any connection to the aviation industry can exchange their views and give advice on how to recover from the crisis.
How did we manage to get this project? It started as a small proof of concept spear-headed by our UK office and designed and delivered by our expert technical teams in Belarus. After successful launches of the alpha and beta platforms as well as the official market launch in February 2020, our team has grown and we continue to release new features to the platform.
Every day we meet to discuss new ideas and work in a very agile way with our client stakeholders and other partners. To my mind, the uniqueness of the project is that we work out the best options to leverage the platform, and help the client navigate the most effective path forward to constantly deliver benefits and maintain the long-term vision.
We are pleased to note that in addition to developing the marketplace for Rolls-Royce plc, we also collaborated with another data vendor to design and publish our own application on Yocova, during one of the many data pioneer programs launched by the Yocova team. Many aviation software companies took part in that competition and we were trusted and invited to participate as well.
It’s been a pleasure to work on such an ambitious project with a team of bright, enthusiastic and talented individuals. We have been challenged with complex and rapidly changing requirements and have met them with a determination to exceed client expectations. Despite our global distribution, we collaborate effectively with Rolls-Royce as well as designers and other ISVs to create one focused product team. We feel part of an innovative and ground-breaking project which drives us forward on a daily basis and makes us proud to be a part of something special!
It’s incredibly exciting to work on this project, as we cooperate with people from different countries with vastly different backgrounds and create something unique. That’s really inspiring.
It’s been a new challenge to organize communication within the project so that people across many stakeholders and companies understand each other, talk easily and enable rapid, successful development.
It’s my first big project, and I’ve gained tremendous experience. Working with an incredible team and tackling exciting tasks. It has been challenging but at the same time inspiring.
“When you talk about a project in hindsight, everything seems easy, simple, and clear, but in fact, there were a lot of difficulties we had to overcome during development. We had to review the architecture several times and solve non-trivial tasks, but thanks to the expertise of our team we managed to solve every challenge that arose. Now, we’re looking forward to the next phases.”
Participating on Yocova has been a real opportunity for our global team to work together through our hybrid delivery method. Our approach is instrumental in assisting manufacturing companies in navigating the turbulent times of the fourth industrial revolution and the current pandemic. Learn more about how manufacturing business can leverage Salesforce.
VRP recently won the global Salesforce Partner Innovation Award 2020 in the Manufacturing & Energy sector for our work with Rolls-Royce on the Yocova platform. Yocova is transforming aviation by providing data exchange, collaboration and a marketplace helping airlines & manufacturers to solve business challenges such as safely returning fleets to the air.
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