How Plane Fax Saved 1,000+ Hours Annually and Cut Maintenance Costs by 50%
Plane Fax runs advertising for aircraft dealers and brokers. Its Salesforce-based system was expensive to maintain, and staff still processed every ad order, approval and FAA report request by hand. We replaced it with a custom platform where customers manage their own ads, listings and reports, and the system handles the scheduling.
The impact
What changed for the Plane Fax teamsaved every year, based on four hours reclaimed per workday over 250 working days.
reported improvement in employee productivity.
reported reduction in maintenance costs, compared with the old Salesforce-based system.
to enter a customer's ad. That's the Plane Fax team's own number, from their video below.
Hours, productivity and maintenance costs: as reported by Plane Fax. Ad entry times: the Plane Fax team, in their video review.
- Client
- Plane Fax
- Industry
- Aviation and aircraft marketplace
- Services
- Custom software development, workflow automation, advertising process automation, customer self-service portal, system modernization
- Key capabilities
- Automated ad scheduling, self-service advertising orders, aircraft listing management, centralized report requests, custom workflow management
- Platform
- Custom web application
- Team
- AI Automation Agency 360
Paying for software and still doing the work by hand
Plane Fax's aviation advertising business relied on a Salesforce-based system that was expensive to maintain and difficult to customize. Despite the software investment, employees still spent hours processing advertising orders, coordinating approvals, scheduling campaigns, and fulfilling FAA report requests.
Customers depended on staff for routine tasks, adding more administrative work to an already demanding operation. Meanwhile, the limitations of the existing system made it harder to introduce new features without increasing complexity and costs.
Plane Fax needed more than a software replacement. It needed a way to reduce repetitive work, give customers greater independence, and build a platform around its actual business processes.
01Manual ad processing consumed 1,000+ hours annually
Every advertising order required employees to prepare ad materials, coordinate approvals, and schedule email campaigns. These repetitive tasks consumed an estimated 4 hours daily, or 1,000 hours annually. That was valuable employee time tied up in routine administration instead of customer service, business development, and other higher-value work.
Each square below is one hour of a 40-hour working week, before and after the new platform.
20 hours back every week. Over 250 working days, that's more than 1,000 hours a year.
| Task | Before | After |
|---|
02Customers depended on staff for routine tasks
Customers couldn't independently manage every part of their advertising and reporting activities. Submitting orders, managing aircraft listings, and accessing completed reports often required employee assistance.
Each request added another task to the team's workload. As these interactions accumulated, routine customer support became an operational bottleneck.
03Maintenance costs kept rising without eliminating manual work
Plane Fax was spending an estimated $20,000 annually maintaining its Salesforce-based system, yet significant parts of its daily operations still depended on manual processing.
The system was costly to maintain and difficult to customize around Plane Fax's needs. The business was paying to support its existing software while continuing to absorb the labor costs of working around its limitations.
04Limited flexibility restricted growth
Adding features and adapting workflows within the existing system was difficult and costly. Vendor dependence also limited Plane Fax's control over its technology roadmap, making it harder to evolve the platform around its business needs.
Automating the work behind every ad, listing and report
AI Automation Agency 360 replaced Plane Fax's restrictive Salesforce-based system with a custom platform. The goal was to remove repetitive coordination wherever automation made sense, give customers control over routine activities, and centralize work that previously required more manual handling.
Crucially, the solution retained human oversight where it mattered. Employees could review and approve advertising submissions, while the platform handled the repetitive scheduling steps that followed.
Animated example of a flyer order at Plane Fax. The customer uploads photos and specs and pays online. Plane Fax staff approve the flyer with one click. The system then books a send slot and emails it to more than 4,000 dealers and brokers.
Watch one flyer go from upload to inbox, or click the buttons yourself
Automated advertising workflows after approval
Previously, processing an advertising order meant employees had to gather materials, prepare the ad, coordinate customer approval, and arrange its distribution. Each order created another sequence of tasks for the team to manage.
AI Automation Agency 360 built a self-service advertising workflow where customers can create ads, upload images and other materials, configure their options, and preview line ads before submitting their orders. Staff can review submissions and approve them, after which the system automatically schedules the ads.
The impact: Employees no longer need to coordinate every step of every order. Their involvement is focused on review and approval, while the platform handles the repetitive work that follows.
Putting routine customer tasks on autopilot
When customers depend on staff to complete routine tasks, even straightforward requests create more work: submitting an ad, updating a listing, or checking whether a report is ready. Multiply those interactions across an aviation advertising network, and small administrative tasks become a significant operational burden.
AI Automation Agency 360 brought these activities into a centralized customer dashboard. Customers can manage their aircraft listings, submit advertising requests, and access completed FAA reports from their accounts, without needing staff to handle every interaction.
The impact: Customers gain more control over their own activities, while employees spend less time responding to routine requests and managing information on customers' behalf.
Animated example of a Plane Fax customer dashboard. The customer extends a line ad by three days and pays with credits, changes the asking price on an aircraft listing, and downloads a finished FAA report. All three jobs are done without calling or emailing Plane Fax staff.
Watch the customer, or click any button to try it
Turboprops2016 KING AIR 350, 2,100 TT, PRO LINE 21, NDH
Animated example of an FAA report order at Plane Fax. The customer types the tail number N685AS and orders a report. The request lands in the staff queue, a Plane Fax specialist uploads the finished report once, and it appears in the customer's account with a notification. The report shows 0 NTSB accidents, 0 major repairs, 0 airworthiness directives and 1 service difficulty report.
Watch an FAA report go out and come back, or click the buttons yourself
- NTSB accidents0
- Major repairs (Form 337)0
- Airworthiness directives0
- Service difficulty reports1
-
N685ASNew request
-
N512JWDelivered 8:40 AMDone
-
N77PCDelivered yesterdayDone
Centralized FAA report requests and fulfillment
FAA report fulfillment involved another workflow that required coordination between customers and Plane Fax employees. Requests needed to be received, reports prepared, and completed files made available to the customer.
AI Automation Agency 360 incorporated the process into the platform. Customers submit report requests through their accounts, employees can view incoming requests in their staff dashboard, and completed reports are uploaded for customers to access when ready.
The impact: Requests, fulfillment, and delivery are managed within one platform, reducing the need for scattered manual coordination and giving both customers and staff a more organized process.
A custom platform with greater flexibility and control
Automating individual tasks would only solve part of the problem if Plane Fax remained tied to a system that was expensive to maintain and difficult to extend. Its existing Salesforce-based setup limited flexibility while leaving substantial manual work in place.
We built a custom platform around Plane Fax's actual operations, giving the business greater control over its workflows and a foundation for future features. Instead of adapting every new requirement to the limitations of its previous system, Plane Fax could evolve the software alongside its business.
The impact: Workflow automation and a purpose-built platform addressed two connected problems: the time lost to repetitive work and the cost and constraints of maintaining the system behind it.
Technologies we used for automation
What the new Plane Fax platform runs on- Django (Python)The back end that runs orders, approvals and scheduling
- PostgreSQLThe database for listings, orders, credits and reports
- HTMX and jQueryThe interactive parts of the customer and staff dashboards
- Tailwind CSSThe interface styling
- Celery and RedisScheduled jobs that send approved ads on the right day
- StripeOnline payments for line ads, flyers and credits
- SendGridSends the Daily Edition and flyer emails
- Amazon S3Stores aircraft photos, spec sheets and FAA reports
- AWSHosting
- CloudflareSecurity and speed in front of the site
1,000+ hours reclaimed. 50% lower maintenance costs.
By combining workflow automation, customer self-service, and a purpose-built platform, AI Automation Agency 360 helped Plane Fax reduce the administrative burden of its advertising and reporting operations while lowering maintenance costs.
The reported outcomes reflect improvements in employee productivity, time spent on repetitive tasks, and the cost of maintaining the software.
Annual hours saved, based on four hours reclaimed per workday over 250 working days.
Reported employee productivity improvement.
Reported reduction in maintenance costs.
And here's a single line ad, then and now.
- 0:00 Open the customer's email
- 0:25 Copy the ad text and details
- 1:00 Retype it into the old system
- 2:30 Check category and run dates
- 3:20 Write and send the invoice
- 4:10 Add it to the Daily by hand
- 0:00 Open the order. It's complete and already paid
- 0:10 Read the wording
- 0:20 Click approve. The system schedules it
Total times (5 minutes and 30 seconds) are from the Plane Fax team's video review. The step breakdown is our reconstruction of their old process.
What the Plane Fax team says about it
AI Automation Agency 360 is the AI and automation team of Idea Maker, a software company that has been building custom platforms since 2016. Plane Fax worked with our team at Idea Maker and recorded this review after the new system went live.
Plane Fax team · video review, November 2024
-
Now it takes maybe 30 seconds. It used to take five minutes.
On entering a customer's ad -
The way our clients input their ads or their FAA file requests, it goes straight to us. It's completely streamlined.
On orders coming in -
Our old system worked, but this is just a million times better.
On the new back office
Still taking orders through an inbox?
Plane Fax sells aviation ads, but the problem is everywhere. If customers email you what they want and someone on your team types it into another system, chases the payment and confirms it later, most of that work can run on its own.
- Order intakeForms that collect everything you need the first time, with payment.
- ApprovalsOne place to review and approve, with the rest scheduled automatically.
- Recurring sendsNewsletters, digests and reports that build and send themselves.
- Fulfilment queuesRequests routed to the right person, finished work delivered to the customer.
- Subscriptions and creditsRenewals, balances and rollovers handled without a spreadsheet.
Questions about order automation
What people ask us before automating their own orders. Got another one? Ask us directly.
How do you automate manual order processing?
Start where the order enters. Replace the email or phone call with a form that collects everything you need and takes payment. After that, the order can be routed for approval, scheduled and fulfilled automatically, with people only stepping in where judgment is needed. For Plane Fax that cut the time to enter an ad from 5 minutes to about 30 seconds.
Does a customer self-service portal reduce support calls?
Yes, as long as customers can see the status of what they bought. Most support calls are "did it go through?" or "can you change this?". When customers can check and edit their own orders, those calls mostly stop.
Can you automate approvals without losing quality control?
Yes. Keep the approval itself human and automate everything around it. At Plane Fax an admin still checks every ad, but it takes one click, and the scheduling and sending happen on their own afterwards.
How long does it take to replace a legacy order system?
It depends on how many products and user types you have. A single workflow, like order intake with payment, can go live in a few weeks. A full replacement like Plane Fax, with six products and four kinds of users, usually takes three to six months.
Can the system handle subscriptions, credits and payments?
Yes. Plane Fax runs monthly subscriptions, one-off purchases, multi-pack discounts and line ad credits that roll over every month, all in the same system and without a separate spreadsheet.
Do I need AI to automate my workflow?
Not always. Plane Fax's orders follow clear rules, so plain automation was the right tool. AI earns its place where people read or write: drafting ad copy from an aircraft's specs, pulling details out of uploaded spec sheets, or answering customer questions from order data. We recommend it where it saves real time, not by default.
