Building a Comprehensive Digital Experience for an Aircraft Configurator

PACE GmbH, an acclaimed provider of trailblazing software products for the global aerospace and aviation industry, has launched Pacelab ACE, a comprehensive digital aircraft configuration environment that efficiently navigates the complex definition process in a single, clearly structured workflow. We helped PACE design and implement the user interface for Pacelab ACE’s new web-based client application. Pacelab ACE received exceedingly positive feedback from the international aircraft configuration community, with several customer implementations already underway.

PACE introduced a major revamp of their aircraft configuration tool. Originally conceived as a desktop-only application for aircraft engineers, the company kicked-off a major innovation project for the software in 2018. To help manufacturers, suppliers and aircraft buyers on their digitization journey, PACE has launched a comprehensive digital aircraft configuration environment which efficiently navigates the elaborate definition process in a single, clearly structured workflow. Marketed as Pacelab ACE, the set of inter-operating tools combines server-based business logic, web-based client applications and Pacelab Cabin’s industry-proven configuration capabilities with the latest communication and collaboration technologies.

We helped PACE to design and implement the user interface for Pacelab ACE’s new web-based client application. To fully leverage the cloud-based solution and to meet the demand of customer-facing business stakeholders, sales representatives and consultants, it was crucial to deliver a versatile, intuitive and continuous digital experience on tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices, making it easy for geographically dispersed teams to collaborate and align on decisions. As a project kick-off, we conducted a two-day, on-site product design workshop with PACE to prioritise the scope and create user personas with customer journey maps. Our business analysts, product designers and architects regularly visited PACE for 1-2-week workshops to refine the project vision, scope and prototypes. For our client’s convenience, we also set up a nearshore team in Berlin. Amazon Web Services played a crucial role in supporting the cloud-based Pacelab ACE application: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) ensured resource isolation and controlled access, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) provided scalable computing capacity, Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) facilitated efficient container orchestration, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) ensured traffic distribution for high availability, and Simple Storage Service (S3) offered durable storage for assets and user data. Notably, EKS's robust container orchestration capabilities significantly improved workflow efficiency and scalability for Pacelab ACE.