Helping one of America’s most trusted airlines stay dependable, efficient and on-time

The RPC Team designed, developed and provided ongoing support for advanced web and mobile applications designed to track and improve efficiency within the fleet’s operations. These applications took the heavy lifting for tasks involving scheduling, logistics, budgeting, reporting, surveying and auditing how planes are maintained out of the hands of the maintenance crew and into an intelligent company-wide ecosystem. Every day, Southwest crews use the product we helped create and support to make sure all passengers arrive at their destinations safely and comfortably.

Challenge

Non-Scalable Legacy Technology
Vendor Management
Budget Management
Industry Compliance
Data Integrity & Storage Limitations
Manual, Repetitive Data Entry for Users
Limited Access for Users in the Field
Communication Gaps
Lack of Agile Development Process
No Cloud Hosting or Support

Technology

Ruby On Rails
ReactJs
PostgreSQL
Redis
AWS Cloud Services
Terraform
Ansible
Jenkins
Selenium
Prometheus
Grafana
Git

Services

Custom Software Development
Web App Development
Mobile App Development
Legacy Modernization
UI/UX Design
Development Operations & Cloud Hosting
24/7 Infrastructure Monitoring & Production Support
Product Security
Long Term Strategic Partnership

The Travel Business is now moving too fast for manual and outdated processes.

Southwest has flights to over 100 destinations in 40 states including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. This has all been accomplished without using the hub and spoke system of other major airlines, in favor of a point-to-point system combined with a rolling hub model in its base cities. The airline has more than 60,000 employees and operates about 4,000 departures a day. As their markets continued to expand, their legacy technology proved unable to keep up with their business needs.

Once they engaged with RPC, we transformed their legacy Access database into an automated, mobile-friendly global compliance management system. Our team of experts worked with the Southwest product owners to understand their current state and what their vision for the future to produce our product roadmap. After analyzing their corporate technology stack, we made a variety of custom web/mobile software development, reporting and custom infrastructure implementation options that could work within their enterprise. After discussions with their internal IT department, we narrowed the tech stack down to what was best for their future scaling abilities and corporate IT integrations.

After 6 months, we had our MVP up and running and started beta testing with select markets. Using agile development practices, continuous integration and deployment methods (CI/CD), we continued to test the product over the next few months before going live. Once we confirmed the application was bug free and optimized to scale, we rolled the system out company wide. RPC has remained a strategic partner for 6+ years designing, building and supporting 24/7 a variety of business units that are critical to the success and safety of the airplanes. With over 3000 employees and vendors using the applications daily, Southwest can now more efficiently track each step of the process to better service their planes and keep their customers safe and comfortable.

Why Southwest Chose RightPlace

Expertise:

RightPlace was chosen in part based on our expertise with web based applications and leading development practices - but also because of our ability to create great cloud-based solutions. While considering the cloud as part of the enhanced infrastructure, RPC’s extensive experience with hosting and 24/7 support solidified the decision that they were the right partner to deploy and manage a real-time cloud-based application.

Customer first model:

As with the beginning of every new relationship, we are relentless on customer intimacy, learning all the details of the customer’s current state and to become acutely aware of their existing business process. This made RPC the right choice to deliver on new business initiatives and become a long term strategic partner.

Technology Choice:

Here at RPC, we know there are many different technology choices out there and picking the right combinations can be a challenge. We are truly technology-agnostic and always implement a variety of technologies that are the best fit for each customer’s unique use case.

Practical solutions for messy realities.

RightPlace Consulting helps businesses diagnose operational friction, identify choke points, and implement practical solutions across workflow, data, CRM, automation, software, and AI.

We don't sell technology for its own sake. Our job is to understand the challenge, clarify the path forward, and make the work easier to navigate.

Leadership

Strong technical outcomes start with understanding the fundamentals.

Richard PanterFounder & Chief Executive Officer

Richard Panter is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RightPlace Consulting. Since founding RPC, he has built the firm around a practical belief: strong technical outcomes start with understanding the business problem clearly, assembling the right team, and keeping delivery focused on measurable value.

Richard began his technology career recruiting, assembling, and leading high-performing software and data teams for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to early-stage companies. That background shaped RPC's core approach to client work: diagnose the need, align the right expertise, and build solutions that support how the business actually operates.

Over more than a decade leading RPC, Richard has overseen custom software, data, analytics, mobile, web, cloud, and enterprise application projects across industries including mobility, transportation, financial services, consumer technology, and public-sector services.

Today, Richard focuses on RPC's business strategy, client relationships, operational execution, and delivery oversight. He works closely with clients to understand where systems, teams, workflows, or technical constraints are slowing the business down, then helps align the right resources and implementation path to solve the problem. His relationship-driven, execution-focused leadership helps RPC remain transparent, practical, and accountable from diagnosis through delivery.

Technology is only as strong as the business logic behind it.

Zach ArringtonOperations, Product Strategy & Technical Execution

Zach Arrington works at the intersection of operations, product strategy, and technical execution. At RPC, he helps clients diagnose operational blockers, translate messy business problems into scoped technical work, and ensure that proposed solutions are practical, buildable, and tied to measurable business value.

Zach began his career in financial services, spending more than a decade as an analyst, OSJ, and operations director for independent wealth management firms and broker-dealers. That experience gave him first-hand exposure to regulated environments, operational risk, manual workflows, reporting needs, client service complexity, and the real cost of poorly designed systems.

He later transitioned into technology leadership, specializing in product ownership, software delivery, technical architecture, and management of onshore and offshore development teams. Zach has led large-scale platform initiatives, including FieldWatch, which under his leadership became the leading digital marketing compliance application for direct sellers. His work has often required bridging executive goals, user needs, operational constraints, engineering execution, and go-to-market strategy.

At RPC, Zach's role is to help clients move from "something is not working" to a clear diagnosis, practical scope, and executable plan. His combined background in finance, operations, product, and engineering allows him to identify whether a blocker is rooted in workflow, data, CRM, reporting, user experience, automation or system design, and to help shape a solution that teams can actually adopt and maintain.

How We Work

Diagnose before prescribing

We clarify the real blocker before recommending a tool, platform, or build.

Measure what matters

We focus on practical improvements: cleaner handoffs, clearer data, faster execution, and less manual work.

Build for operators

Our work has to make sense for the people who actually use the system.

About RightPlace Consulting

Since 2013, RPC has helped organizations build systems, modernize workflows, improve visibility, automate recurring work, and create software that supports real business operations. Our goal is practical improvement: better handoffs, clearer data, less manual work, stronger execution, and measurable relief for the teams doing the work.

Featured Story

Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Management for Mercedes-Benz

Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Management with Demand Prediction

Successful autonomous vehicle pick up and drop off of customers
Deployment of first iteration of autonomous vehicle fleet management system