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The ERP implementation at Vertical’s Bristol, U.K., headquarters was moving along on schedule. And then the U.K. ordered its pandemic lockdown in March. At this point, Vertical was running real-world scenario testing of the cloud-based ERP system by Rootstock Software, which runs on the Salesforce cloud platform.
The implementation became a remote project out of necessity. But the company, which is developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has been able to stay on schedule, and the onset of remote work brought a critical benefit.
“We were more focused because we had to be,” said Steven Baxter, head of programs at Vertical Aerospace. Baxter oversees the ERP project.
On time, on schedule
“One of the stipulations by Rootstock was ‘We need your time to have an effective implementation,”’ Baxter said. “And they definitely got our time by working remotely under lockdown conditions.”
The remote work resulted in a loss of “personable interactions,” the types of normal exchanges that happen in an office, Baxter said. Working remotely “has also given a lot of people a lot more time to focus because there are less distractions,” he said. That’s true for him, at least. The focus kept the project moving along on schedule.
Vertical, founded in 2016, has 130 employees. It is working on its third electric aircraft prototype, which will hold four passengers and a pilot, have a 100-mile range of travel and a top speed of 150 miles per hour. The previous two prototypes did not hold passengers.
The eVTOL aircraft perform a vertical takeoff, move into wing-born flight and then transition back to a vertical landing. Baxter said the company plans to build the latest model by the end of the year and have it certified for passengers by 2024.
