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Background

Aerox® Aviation Oxygen Systems is a leading designer and manufacturer of oxygen systems and accessories in the aviation industry. Based in Florida, Aerox had been a part of a larger organization since 1981. In 2020, the Ashton family acquired Aerox and assumed control of its operations.

CEO Scott Ashton is an aerospace engineer with experience in the gas turbine and controls realm. He is an accomplished pilot with an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate and is rated in airplanes, gliders and helicopters.

Scott sat down with Wind River to share his journey from frustration with a credit card processor to finding a true payment partner to help him with his business needs.

Success Snapshot

Dilemma

Aerox’s existing payment processor provided substandard service and was nearly impossible to contact for support.

Objectives

Aerox needed a payment provider that:

  1. Values a relationship-oriented partnership and would promptly respond when needed
  2. Provides payments expertise for all aspects of the payment process
  3. Offers a hassle-free and simple process for switching payment providers

Solution

Working with Wind River allowed Aerox to:

  • Simplify their accounting by allowing them to generate invoices and accept payments directly from their ERP
  • Easily access their daily credit card activity and generate reports via a user-friendly dashboard
  • Feel more confident in their security as they no longer needed to share payment gateway passwords with others in the company

Results

  1. Accounting is much simpler.
  2. Reporting is easier using the dashboard.
  3. Accounts receivable invoices get paid faster.
  4. Service and support are just a phone call away.
  5. Pricing is transparent.
Evaluating Service Providers

Scott Ashton, CEO, Aerox Aviation Oxygen Systems

“When we acquired Aerox in 2020, we knew we’d need to source many of our own vendor relationships. Things like payroll, health insurance, and credit card processing had all been previously handled by the parent company. We retained only a few of those existing relationships. One of the service providers that we would need to change was our Enterprise Resource Planning system since we were going to be migrating off of former parents’ system. In performing our due diligence, we were impressed with the software provider Masterplan ERP, so we selected them and initiated that change as soon as possible.

Many of our other relationships required a change too. For example, we immediately moved the banking relationship to a smaller, community bank where we were more likely to receive attentive and relationship-focused service.”

WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO SWITCH PAYMENT PROVIDERS

“The incumbent credit card processor was one of the big guys in the industry. We actually considered retaining that relationship because we thought it would be a huge, labor-intensive task to unwind the process that was already in place. That turned out to not be the case.”

UNACCEPTABLE SERVICE BROUGHT ON THE CHANGE

“We knew a change was imminent when we found it nearly impossible to get any kind of help from that payment processor. Providing substandard service to our customers is not how we run Aerox, and it’s not acceptable service from our vendors. Once we knew we needed to make the change, we identified our top criteria for a new partner:

 

 

  1. Relationship-Oriented: We needed a payment provider that cared about our business and would promptly respond to our needs.
  2. Expert Guidance: We are aviation experts, not payment experts. We needed a partner that would happily lend its expertise to our payment processes whether they be remote, online, or at our location.
  3. Easy Transition: We needed a hassle-free and simple process for switching our payment providers.
MASTERPLAN ERP AND WIND RIVER PARTNER ON THE SOLUTION

“During this time, Masterplan ERP had upgraded its integrated payments partnership and introduced us to its new partner, Wind River Financial. Wind River smoothed out the integrated payment experience, expanded the payment capabilities, and brought a relationship-focused approach to Masterplan and its customers.

The convenience of processing payments directly in our Masterplan ERP was huge for us. It enabled us to:

  • Simplify our accounting by allowing us to generate invoices and accept payments directly within our ERP
  • Easily access our daily credit card activity and generate reports via a userfriendly dashboard
  • Feel more confident in our security as we no longer needed to share payment gateway passwords to others in the company

We really didn’t want to spend a lot of time on payments, and we discovered we didn’t need to.”

“Making the payment transition to Wind River was remarkably easy. The transition of our ecommerce platform only took half an hour.”

PUTTING WIND RIVER’S SERVICE TO THE TEST

“Wind River provided us with a dedicated relationship manager to help us with service and support. We found we needed to put that service to the test early in the relationship when we were exhibiting at a trade show. We had remote payment acceptance set up at our booth but discovered something was not working properly. Within about three minutes, we had a response from our Wind River relationship manager and a solution to our problem. That level of service would never have happened with our previous payment provider.”