Shauli Zacks
Published on: October 9, 2025
SafetyDetectives recently interviewed Ralph Merhi, CEO of ERP.Aero, to discuss how the company is redefining aviation management software for the modern aerospace industry. In this conversation, Ralph shares the story behind ERP.Aero’s creation, how it ensures data integrity and compliance in one of the world’s most regulated sectors, and how technologies like AI and automation are driving the next generation of aviation intelligence.
Can you share the story behind ERP.Aero — what inspired its creation, and how has the platform evolved to meet the unique needs of the aerospace industry?
ERP.Aero began with a small group of aviation veterans who were running their own parts and repair businesses, and ran into the same wall every day. They needed a system that could handle the real flow of aviation work: RFQs, vendor quotes, certs, inventory, compliance, and customer communication all in one place. But it didn’t exist. Every “solution” on the market was either a patched-together ERP or a spreadsheet with lipstick. So they did what problem-solvers do — they built it for themselves.
When the first version came to life, they realized they’d done more than fix their own problem. They’d built something the entire aviation supply chain had been waiting for. That’s when the idea shifted from “this helps our business” to “this is the business.” ERP.Aero was born out of that moment, from necessity first, and vision second.
My own journey crossed paths with that vision a little later. I’ve been in aviation since 2007, starting at PartsBase, where I learned the business one RFQ at a time. Like many people, I didn’t expect to stay, but the industry pulls you in. Over time, I helped launch Govgistics, a defense procurement platform, and became its President. Nearly twenty years in, I’d seen every version of the same problem: companies trying to grow with systems that weren’t built for them.
That’s what drew me to ERP.Aero. The goal wasn’t to make another ERP — and I saw that. It was to make aviation operations make sense again. Over the years, it’s evolved from a quoting platform into what we now call an Aviation Intelligence OS — one screen that unifies quoting, sourcing, inventory, repairs, certs, and financials. The vision hasn’t changed since day one: eliminate the “good enough” chaos, let teams focus on the right work, and give aviation companies a system that finally works the way they do.
Aerospace is a highly regulated and data-sensitive field. How does ERP.Aero ensure the security, traceability, and compliance of customer data and operational records?
Aviation runs on trust. Every quote, shipment, cert, and approval has to hold up under audit. That’s why ERP.Aero was built from day one with compliance at its core, not as an afterthought.
Every record in the system is traceable from start to finish. When someone uploads a cert, approves a quote, or updates an order, the system automatically logs who did it, when it happened, and what changed. Those trails never disappear, so our customers can always show proof of process — which is something regulators and customers both expect.
All certifications, from 8130s and CoCs to teardown and trace docs, live directly inside ERP.Aero. They stay linked to the right part, quote, and order automatically, rather than being stored in folders or drives somewhere else. That means when a customer asks for documentation or a repair station faces an audit, everything is already organized and searchable.
Access is also tightly controlled. Each user has defined permissions, so technicians, buyers, and managers only see what’s relevant to their role. Behind the scenes, all data is encrypted in transit and at rest, backed up securely, and monitored for performance and reliability.
In aviation, compliance isn’t a checkbox. It’s the foundation of credibility — and ERP.Aero’s job is to make that foundation visible, reliable, and always audit-ready, so teams can work faster without ever compromising traceability or security.
Cloud-based ERPs face increasing scrutiny around data privacy and uptime. What steps does ERP.Aero take to ensure reliability, scalability, and secure global access for clients?
I believe reliability is everything in aviation. When a sales team, warehouse, or repair station depends on a system to run their day, downtime isn’t just inconvenient — it’s not an option because it stops the business. That’s why ERP.Aero was designed from the ground up to be stable, fast, and secure for teams around the world.
Our platform runs on modern cloud infrastructure powered by AWS and with built-in redundancy and real-time monitoring. Data is continuously backed up, and systems are watched around the clock to prevent interruptions before they happen. We keep everything centralized within ERP.Aero’s native architecture rather than depending on outside plug-ins, middleware, or disconnected tools, which means fewer moving parts and fewer points of failure. And as a result? Our uptime is 99.999% since day one.
Every customer environment is encrypted end to end, with 2FA and CAPTCHA, and with access managed by strict permissions and role controls. The teams using ERP.Aero get secure, global access without compromising data privacy or compliance requirements. Whether a user is in Miami, Dubai, or Singapore, they’re working from the same live data with the same reliability.
Scalability is built into the system, so as customers grow, ERP.Aero grows with them. Adding new users, locations, or modules never requires rebuilding the system or waiting on lengthy updates. And our customers know everything scales natively in real time.
For aviation businesses that can’t afford uncertainty, reliability isn’t a feature — it’s the promise. ERP.Aero’s mission is to deliver that confidence every single day.
How do emerging technologies like AI and automation influence ERP.Aero’s roadmap — are there features in development that will further streamline aerospace operations?
AI and automation are not buzzwords for us — they’re the next logical step in solving real problems aviation teams face every day. We were among the first to deploy AI into aviation ERP in 2024. The goal isn’t to replace people; it’s to take away the repetitive, error-prone work so teams can focus on decisions that actually drive value and help your team perform like the top 10%. It’s a dream come true.
Our AI layer, called ELIA, learns from how each company operates. It studies patterns in quoting, sourcing, and inventory movement, and customer accounts. Then it uses that knowledge to guide users in real time. For example, it can flag missing certs before a quote is sent, suggest alternates when a part is out of stock, make next-step suggestions, or prioritize RFQs based on historical win rates and buyer behavior. And the best part? It’s trained on each customer’s quality system and SOPs.
Automation plays a huge role behind the scenes. Vendor quotes are captured automatically from emails and PDFs (and with certs/docs), linked directly to the right RFQs, and scored by responsiveness and pricing. Compliance alerts pop up before issues become delays, and teams can see where every part, cert, or repair stands without digging through folders or spreadsheets.
It’s exciting and keeps our roadmap moving and growing. Looking ahead, we’re building even more intelligence into the platform — predictive sourcing, smarter demand forecasting, and automated compliance checks that help companies stay audit-ready at all times.
In short, AI and automation aren’t side projects for ERP.Aero. They’re how we make aviation faster, safer, and more accurate — not in theory, but in the way people actually work every day.
Looking ahead, what’s your vision for ERP.Aero and the aerospace industry’s digital transformation over the next five years?
That’s a great question. The way I see it, the next five years in aviation won’t just be about going digital — because that part’s already happened. The real shift will be from systems that record what happened to systems that shape what happens next. In other words, systems that enhance your teams and allow them to be better versions of themselves.
Our vision for ERP.Aero is to make that shift real. We want to give aviation companies a single source of truth where quoting, sourcing, repairs, certs, compliance, and financials all work together in real time. No more chasing information across departments, no more figuring out which is the right spreadsheet version, or reconciling reports at the end of the week. The system should do the thinking. This means surfacing what’s late, what’s profitable, and what’s at risk before a human ever has to ask.
That’s where the industry is headed: from reactive to predictive, from manual oversight to intelligent guidance. ELIA, our built-in AI layer, will play a big role in that. It will keep learning from every quote, transaction, and repair, offering insights that help teams act faster and more accurately.
Five years from now, I believe the aviation companies who win won’t just have the best data — they’ll have the clearest visibility and the fastest execution. ERP.Aero’s job is to give them that advantage, every day, on one screen. Streamline. Scale. Succeed.
