Improved Technology Drives Stronger Customer Support
November 4, 2026
Ongoing IT infrastructure upgrades will give King Aerospace customers clearer project visibility, reduce paperwork and help employees make faster, better-informed decisions.
Operational dashboards, expanded customer access and a planned enterprise resource planning (ERP) upgrade reinforce the company’s commitment to servant leadership and its Cornerstone Principle of “Quality in Everything/No Excuses.”
“Our people deliver on our promises to customers, and we need to give them the tools to do that well,” says King Aerospace President Jarid King. “These investments will help our teams spend more time on the aircraft, make better decisions and keep customers informed as their projects move forward.”
Current ERP dashboards enable the company to track labor efficiency, incident reporting and revenue-generating hours. Each refresh draws directly from operational data, allowing teams to compare performance against goals and past results.
“We have trend lines that show us if something’s not going in the right direction, so we can put a stop to it,” says Chris Ranno, King Aerospace IT manager. Color-coded indicators flag areas needing attention, helping teams address problems while work continues.
The upgrades will connect more of the business, from proposals and production planning to accounting and payroll. Chief Revenue Officer Keith Weaver expects the new customer relationship management tools will streamline sales tracking, proposal management and customer feedback.
“This new automated format, compared to manual data input in Excel, will help us track business development and sales better for years to come,” he says.
King Aerospace is also testing a customer portal to share current aircraft status, parts information and work progress. The initial trial involves one customer, with plans to expand access based on customer needs and contract requirements.
“It’s a look into what’s happening with their aircraft,” Ranno says, “which gives them an idea on the delivery status. We intend to provide this to any customer that asks for it or has it in their contract.”
Putting Digital Tools Where the Work Happens
That’s only Phase I, however. King Aerospace will soon swap its current ERP platform to Pentagon 2000, which will better support its commercial, private and government operations, in part by bringing mobile capabilities and electronic workflows to the hangar floor.
“We’ve been using paper task cards, paper maintenance work orders and such for a long, long time,” Ranno says. “That’s going to move now to the industry standard, mobile and electronic format.”
Technicians will be able to enter updates from their work stations, giving planners faster access to information needed to assess progress and schedule tasks. Less physical paperwork will help employees focus on the aircraft, while timely updates will help teams answer customer questions.
“This will speed that process up immensely,” Weaver adds.
Ranno targets an initial rollout of the new platform in late November or early December. The staged rollout will begin at the home office and King Aerospace-Arkansas before expanding to other locations.
A passwordless authentication program will soon be piloted at the Arkansas facility that, in addition to simplifying the employee login process, also limits access to information needed for each job and establishes an audit trail.
“Employees will simply walk up to a kiosk, swipe their badge and have everything they need at the ready for the day’s work,” Ranno adds. “We just want to be able to have it as easy as possible, while also ensuring hardened security.”
Preparing People and Systems
King Aerospace is pairing these investments with employee training, additional IT support and stronger recovery capabilities to keep customer projects on track.
The company achieved Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Level 2 in March 2026. That effort included establishing incident response and disaster recovery policies and procedures to address equipment damage or network disruptions.
“You have to be able to recover pretty quickly to keep the business moving in the event that something goes down,” Ranno says. “We are now more resilient with a greatly enhanced ability to continue business operations.”
King Aerospace also plans to expand its IT team, including a permanent data analytics position. A new network administrator role would provide dedicated support at its Bentonville, AR, facility and assist other locations as needed.
Customized training and test databases will help employees build proficiency before using the updated ERP platform on customer projects. Home office accounting and business development teams will help lead the transition alongside King Aerospace-Arkansas operations, building experience to support the broader rollout.
“We want to make sure that we are experts in all those areas,” Ranno says. “We don’t want to be training on the spot while these projects are occurring in real time.”
Weaver emphasized that employees’ experience using the system will ultimately demonstrate its value to customers. “I’m excited by what I’ve seen in demonstrations,” he says. “The real proof is going to be in the execution.”