September 16, 2025 • 26 mins
Mallaghan unveils their groundbreaking e-commerce platform designed to revolutionize how customers access and order replacement parts for their ground support equipment. After 18 months of development and data preparation, this intuitive system allows users to search by serial number, part number, or common nouns with integrated images for easy identification.
• Built on the Shopify platform with full integration capabilities for maintenance management systems
• Features customized pricing based on existing customer agreements
• Includes real-time order tracking from processing through delivery
• Maintains shopping carts for 60 days for convenient reordering
• All 60,000+ part descriptions rewritten in noun-first format for improved searchability
• Future plans include expanding beyond parts to service programs and PM kits
• Platform designed to complement rather than replace Malahan's personal customer service
Join us at GSE Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday at 1:00 PM for the official launch of Malahan's e-commerce platform at their booth, where the team will provide demonstrations and help set up customer accounts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Weitzel (00:00):
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This is Brad Compton, this isLuke Brown, this is Jeff Barrett
, this is Tessa Farson, and youare listening to the GSE Podcast
(01:07):
.
All right, well, welcome toanother edition of the GSE
Podcast.
All right, well, welcome toanother edition of the GSE
Podcast.
This is a special edition todaybecause we have a launch that
we're going to talk about.
That is going to happen at theGSE Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday
morning of the show.
So I got a call from JoeGriffith from Malahan this is
only the second time he's donethis to me and surprised me with
(01:28):
a new podcast, but it's alwaysgood to get great content out
there and these launches arereally special, and this is the
second time that I think thatJoe has decided to do a really
cool launch at an expo.
Last year he did the Skybelt.
Is it the Skybelt, joe?
Joe Griffith (01:46):
Well, we did the Skybelt, but it was the electric
lab truck for.
Matt Weitzel (01:50):
Lisbon, you're right, and the electric lab
truck for Lisbon, so, anyway.
So Joe is back on the podcast,but he's got a couple of people
with him, so why doesn'teverybody kind of go around?
And we're going to make themlisten a little bit longer to
figure out what this speciallaunch is.
So go ahead.
I'm going to start with MichaelBloomfield.
This is your first time on thepodcast.
Michael Bloomfield (02:08):
First time.
Yeah, I was brought on reallyas a consultant and advisor to
buy Joe and the parts team toenhance the business, make a
better customer experience forMalahance customers that need
replacement parts for theirmachines and we, you know, in
(02:29):
the last year and a half or sowe did a tremendous amount of
work fixing, rearranging anddressing up the business.
Matt Weitzel (02:36):
Yeah, and Michael Bloomfield, I should have said
that you needed no introduction,but I missed that.
But, joe Griffith, go ahead.
Joe Griffith (02:44):
Yeah, no, I Joe Griffith, Chief Commercial
Officer for Malahan, and Matt,thank you for the opportunity.
I always like to spring thesethings on you A little bit of
surprise, so I appreciate yousupporting us.
As Michael said, we've done alot of really exciting things
with Malahan in the past coupleof years, both in terms of
product launch, but also newsystems and new ways to bring
(03:04):
value to our customers.
So I really appreciate thatopportunity.
You know Michael needs nointroduction, but I do feel like
I need to say for the newgeneration that's coming into
GSE.
Michael founded and built SageParts and really took it to
become a preeminent leader inthe spare parts business.
So Michael sold the businessand went into working with
(03:27):
companies and projects and wetook the opportunity to bring
him on board and use hisexperience and knowledge to
really take our business to thenext level.
So I'll hand it over to Steviefrom here.
Steven Fearon (03:40):
Thanks, joe, stephen Fern, so head of
customer care and after salesservices with Malahan, glad to
be here today.
Matt, I think me and you had acouple of exchanges a few times
about doing this, so it's tough,joe, to bring us together.
We're on no better time, Isuppose, with this exciting
launch we have now on Tuesday.
So, again, just with the helpof you know, obviously, joe and
(04:01):
Michael, we've got this excitingopportunity to launch something
a little bit different, wethink you know, especially from
an OEM within the industry.
So, looking forward to Tuesday,and I'll pass it over to Ryan
from there- Thanks, stevie.
Ryan McElhone (04:14):
Yeah, I'm Ryan McElhoney.
I'm spare parts manager forMalahan, so when Stevie would
oversee the parts business as awhole, I'd be more hands-on in
the day-to-day side of thingsfor both the rest of the world
and america, and so we both havea lot of ideas over the past
several years between the two ofus and and joe as well about
(04:36):
how we can really kick start thebusiness and move it forward
and take it to the next levelfrom where it's been at over
previous years, and this has ledus till today and till next
week.
So we're extremely excitedabout what the future holds for
Malahan and Malahan Parts.
Matt Weitzel (04:54):
That's perfect, yeah, so all right, joe, let's
get the big announcement outthere.
I think everybody knows thatit's something to do with parts,
so go ahead.
Joe Griffith (05:02):
Something to do with parts?
But no, really, matt.
It's about how do we make partseasier and more accessible and
faster and more convenient forour users.
So you know, malahan's built abrand and a reputation on
delivering high qualityequipment but also delivering
exceptional post-sale support,be it service, warranty or parts
(05:24):
.
And, as we looked at ways thatwe can improve that experience,
one of the ways is just tryingto create a quicker and more
seamless parts procurementprocess.
So if we think about what's thebest way to buy things, well,
you look at Amazon or you lookat other e-commerce platforms.
So we said, well, why don't wejust do that, amazon or you look
(05:46):
at other e-commerce platforms?
So we said, well, why don't wejust do that?
Why don't we create a reallyseamless e-commerce platform
that allows customers to go in,type in their Malahan serial
number or the part number of thepart that they have, or search
by descriptive nouns, and makeit very easy for them to buy
parts directly from the OEM.
I think what we find a lot ofthe time is that the big players
(06:07):
you know Michael's, alma Mater,sage or Napa they're looking
for these parts and we need tomake it easy for them to get the
parts from us, and from us theyget the right part, very high
quality, and we have to price itto where it's.
It's, you know, a value to them.
It's a value add to them.
So this is really all aboutlaunching our malahan e-commerce
(06:30):
platform at the gse expo in lasvegas on tuesday.
Stevie, keep me right.
One o'clock, I think we'redoing it.
Ryan McElhone (06:36):
One o'clock, vegas time yes, that's right,
I'll keep you right up, allright, I usually keep stevie
right too all right, thanks,right, you have to edit that out
, matt.
Joe Griffith (06:43):
That's all right, I usually keep stevie right too.
All right, thanks, ryan.
You have to edit that out, mattthat's all right but but no, so
we're launching that in vegas,and really it was.
It was instrumental to bringstevie, ryan and michael into
the conversation.
You know, stevie, as ryan says,oversees the, the post-sale
support, which includes serviceand and parts.
But Ryan's in it every day.
(07:05):
He's engaging with ourcustomers, he's working to try
and get our parts out as quicklyas we can.
And then Michael brought areally interesting dynamic with
Sage.
Sage was a pioneer in buildingan e-commerce platform and
e-Sage program that made it easyto procure parts, and this has
basically taken it to the nextlevel.
(07:25):
So I'll let Stevie speak to itanything he wants to say and
then take it from there.
Steven Fearon (07:32):
Yeah, no, look, I'm not very excited about
what's happening on Tuesday andwhat we're doing.
So you know, sort of, whenMichael came on board with us
about 18 months ago, you know hetook a look at the Malahan
parts business from the outside.
You know, obviously with allhis experience, you know, and
with his previous company andstuff.
So you know the big thing thatcame out of it was a big data
(07:55):
cleanup on our side.
So you know we've thousands andthousands of part numbers and
sort of how we always work waswe leveraged off you know our
operation side of the business.
So basically, you know wherethey're sourcing their parts,
you know how they, how theydescribe their part numbers, all
that sort of stuff.
So, michael, you, so Michael'sbasically done an incredible bit
(08:19):
of work 60,000 part numbers.
Maybe he's been in the middleof rewriting descriptions,
different things like that there.
So what did come out ofMichael's first observations was
right, we need to move toe-commerce and that's the end
game.
So ourselves and all our OEMshave tried things like this
before where, you know, it'sonline portals and stuff, all
(08:42):
stuff that's been done in-houseas such.
But so what we want to dodifferently this time, we took
on some third-party developers.
So a local company, voodoodigital, who's designed our
website it's going to be poweredby the Shopify platform and
then also Eureka Solutions andother companies, so they do the
Sage's ERP system for all ourparts, so they do the
(09:05):
integration to Shopify.
So basically, we've outsourcedall this because we want it to
be slick, we want it to be userfriendly and again, as Joe
touched on how we've sort ofworked, this was you know, no
matter what you do, whether it'sjust a simple noun, whether
you've got the Malin part number, the serial number you're going
(09:29):
to find the part you need foryour machine.
Again, it's all about making ituser-friendly and seamless.
So that's sort of the journeywe're on and launching it on
Tuesday, so looking forward toit, yeah.
Matt Weitzel (09:40):
So Michael, how long did this take to build?
Michael Bloomfield (09:44):
out Well in terms of timeline, it's a little
hard to define because, asSteve was mentioning, you know,
first things first was to cleanup all of the data.
So, rather than just dealingwith the parts that they sell
day in and day out on e-commerce, you really have to have a much
(10:04):
broader offering than just youreveryday business.
So we scoured through all ofthe billing materials, all the
production data and pulled outall of the items that we felt
that were potentially sellableand pulled out all of the items
that we felt that werepotentially sellable.
So we just didn't look at whatwe normally sell, but we looked
at things that we could makereadily available for customers
(10:25):
when they do their search.
Okay, so now they do theirsearch, how are they going to
find the number if they don'tknow the part number?
So we took all of thedescriptions and we changed the
format to a noun commadescription measurement-type
format.
So we rewrote every one ofthese part numbers individually
(10:45):
to extract all of the commonnoun.
So a user can come in and ifthey're looking for a filter or
if they're looking for a relayor if they're looking for any
item, that they can go right tothe noun description.
So today now, with the way thee-commerce system works, if
they're looking for a filter andjust type filter, all of the
(11:06):
filters in the system would comeup, but that's pretty vast.
So then we had to tie that backto the model numbers and to the
actual serial number of theunit.
So the way the Malahane-commerce system is going to
work is a customer can go in,put their model number in, put
in a common noun, if they wantor not, or put in the serial
(11:30):
number if they want or not.
The more filtering you do, ofcourse, the clearer it gets.
So, ok, so all of that's great.
So they found the item.
So now how are they going toknow what that item is Now?
We took now images of very manyof the parts, anything that we
can get our hands on, we haveimage.
So an image can come up alongwith the result.
(11:52):
And that's why I say it'sdifficult to define a timeline,
because we started rewriting thedescriptions before we decided
to move towards e-commerce.
So it's been a process, asSteve mentioned I started.
It's been about 18 months andit's about 18 months of work to
get us to this point.
Really.
Matt Weitzel (12:10):
Yeah, it's no easy task building a parts website.
I have been a part of onebefore and it is a ton of work
to make it user friendly.
To get all those photos is justfeet of strength, right, so
sounds like you all put in a tonof work.
Can't wait to see it.
So will there be parts diagramsas well, available?
Michael Bloomfield (12:30):
not yet.
Yes, yes, in the future, okay,we'll move towards all of that.
But as you know, matt one it'sit's a stepping process, one
step at a time.
Matt Weitzel (12:39):
A hundred percent.
Yeah, I mean the pictures arealmost better, right, because a
lot of times you're looking atthe part that you need and you
just need to get that visualconfirmation that that's the
right part that you're going tobe ordering.
So you'll have like a drilldown option then, I guess by
model, by model and serialnumber.
Okay, oh, wow.
(13:00):
So you'll actually be able totype in your unit serial number
and then drill down from there.
Michael Bloomfield (13:05):
Yes.
Matt Weitzel (13:06):
Well, most people do have that, so you know, I
mean, if they don't have that,they got a lot of problems going
on.
So I mean data plates do gomissing occasionally, but I mean
, that's a good starting point.
Michael Bloomfield (13:17):
It's a great starting point and even just
description info.
You could put in a portion ofdescription, the entire
description, any common wordthat might exist in a
description, and it'll filter onany which way.
We identified a platform for usthat would be extremely
(13:37):
flexible from a how do you findthe part standpoint?
Matt Weitzel (13:41):
So I type in my serial number.
I find the part that I need.
How does my checkout look?
Michael Bloomfield (13:47):
Well, checkout is pretty typical.
As Steve mentioned, we're usingShopify as our main e-commerce
engine, so the checkout is goingto be very typical to what
people see on any othere-commerce site.
The only difference here isit's not a consumer site, so the
customers are all predefined.
All our account numbers areentered, all of their
(14:09):
particulars as to how they wouldnormally make payment and
shipping requirements, and allof that is pre-installed, so the
checkout for them becomes eveneasier than most e-commerce
sites at this point.
So it's all predefined.
So it'll go to a shopping cartand then complete the order, and
that's all they need to worryabout.
Matt Weitzel (14:30):
So they can put in a PO number or they can use a
credit card, kind of depends onhow they want to do it.
And then how are the customersgoing to get their login
information?
Joe, so tomorrow I'm ready tostart using well, not tomorrow,
but on Tuesday I'm ready tostart using this thing.
At 1 pm.
How do I go in and sign in andall that kind of stuff?
Joe Griffith (14:52):
I'm going to hand that to Ryan to let him speak to
how he plans to manage theusernames they tell me.
Just enough to keep me introuble.
Matt Weitzel (14:59):
I understand that.
That makes sense to me.
Ryan McElhone (15:01):
Yeah, look, we're going to contact all the key
people, key customers, andintroduce the fact that we've
already spoke to several andintroducing the fact that we're
going to go live with this andthat they will have unique
logins specific to them.
The aim is to have an adminwithin each customer base that
(15:23):
can then hand out additionallogins to whoever they see fit
be it guys on the ramp or guysin the workshop or whatever so
that there's full access to itfrom their perspective and then
just from there.
I suppose one thing michaeljust touched on there was the
pricing side of things.
So whenever they have thatlogin and that's distributed to
(15:45):
them, they log on, all thepricing that's set up will be
unique to them.
It'll be specific to them.
With any discounts that havebeen previously arranged or any
pricing that framework oragreements that have been in
place, that'll all be built intoit from our side.
So they don't you know thepricing that they get will be
specific to them.
Matt Weitzel (16:06):
That's perfect, yeah, and then what about order
history and all that kind ofstuff and shipping?
And you know, kind of update meon that once I've kind of
completed the order.
What does that look like?
Ryan McElhone (16:31):
order.
Once the order is complete,then we'll obviously it'll work
its way through our ERP systemand then any updates on what's
happening with the order willthen transfer across directly to
Shopify for you to get livesort of data on where your
order's at, whether it's beenpicked, whether it's been packed
, whether it's been dispatched,and then, once dispatched, then
you'll obviously have trackingdetails that are applicable for
you to track your order till ithits you.
(16:53):
And then again, very simplesetup that you can copy orders
that you've placed previouslyAll extremely user friendly.
Any baskets that you've createdwill stay live for 60 days,
think we're we're working on atthis stage.
So if you create quotes in theportal that you don't actually
(17:15):
action or pull across to a liveorder, that'll stay there for
you to go back at any point intime to go in and finish out
that order and and then completeit through the system to us.
Joe Griffith (17:26):
Yeah, I think the the other.
The other big piece of this isgoing to be integration, and so
you know, think about all thesemajor airlines ground handlers.
They use the likes of EBIS, orthey use AssetWorks, or they use
Lytics, they use any number ofdifferent management or web
maintenance platforms.
This system can integrate intoany of those, into SAP, into
(17:51):
NAPA's procurement, and itallows them to build the
connection within their ownfunctionality.
So if the customer chooses,they can just simply upload the
Malahan connection into theirAriba, SAP, whatever system
they're using, and procure theparts that way, and then it
connects over into our systemand this is going to make us
(18:13):
more efficient on the customerfacing side.
But there's also a tremendousbenefit internally that all of
our internal processes are goingto move on to this system as
well, and it'll make the partsprocessing turn time a lot
quicker.
Matt Weitzel (18:28):
Yeah.
So this is basically just goingto kind of, I guess, catapult
you guys into the next level ofservice, because you know, I
know your service level hasalways been extremely high.
This just makes it that muchbetter for the customer to have
that kind of support andtracking and everything else on
on the part side now as wellthat's exactly right.
Ryan McElhone (18:49):
yeah, suppose one thing I will add that we're
keen to keep to is the personaltouch.
Whilst we want to have the, wesee this as the next stage in
the development of Malahan parts.
We're keen to emphasize thatwhat our business has been built
on is the fact that we'realways available Emails, phone
(19:09):
calls for pricing, for advice onparts, for information on
whatever the customer needs.
We're not going to lose thatwith this.
That's still going to be there.
This is just trying to makeeveryone's sort of transactional
processing of the order easier.
Matt Weitzel (19:29):
Yeah, for sure, and you know it is important to
have those personalrelationships and you know, and
to know that you're only a phonecall away, but I'm guessing
that everybody has realized that, and that's the reason they're
buying Malahan, but this willallow them to.
If they need a part, though,and if in a few minutes they can
grab, you know they can grab apart really quickly and get it
tracked to the system, so it'sjust another level of customer
(19:51):
care.
I think that'll really help out, and I think this is great that
you guys are doing this andlaunching this at the show, and
obviously having Michaelinvolved.
I mean, this is big guys.
Steven Fearon (20:04):
Yeah, it is Matt, and I suppose it's worth
mentioning this is obviously ourfirst go at this here.
We have big plans to expandthis out even further.
You know it's an e-commercesystem, but you know we want it
to be more than just buying apart.
We want to look at differentsales programs.
You know seasonal promotionseventually then to you know
(20:24):
building service kits for yourproduct and stuff like that.
So, like I say, it's the firstgo at this, but it's endless
what we can do on this platform.
You know and that's our planyou know, with Joe and Michael
and Ronan and Niall, theirinvestment in this here.
They're trusting us with this,so we've big plans here.
Matt Weitzel (20:42):
Yeah, so this is just kind of the beginning,
right.
We're going to launch this as apart, but it's going to
eventually expand into more.
Steven Fearon (20:49):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's our plan.
Like you know, there's many,many things.
It's not just replacement parts, it's services, it's PMs, it's
all that sort of stuff.
So we want to basically packagethat all together in here.
That you know it's as simple asentering your serial number,
getting whether it's your A, b,c, service.
That you know you've got themkits under one part number.
(21:11):
You order it, you geteverything at the one time.
So better planning for the guysin the shop and especially in
the off season, for the likes ofde-icing things like that that
didn't be de-ice ready come thewinter.
Matt Weitzel (21:22):
Yep, for sure.
Well, this is going to beawesome.
So are we going to have, when Icome to your booth, how's this
going to look?
How's this announcement goingto happen?
Are we going to have like a bigscreen TV, like 85 inch?
What are we?
Joe Griffith (21:36):
doing here?
Yeah, no, laura, set us up withsome AV for it so we can
display the functionality of thesystem.
We've got breakout rooms set upso that the team can take you
guys in.
We can work on setting updifferent logins for it.
We can work on how thedifferent assets that our
customers have currently sit inthat system, and so that will
(21:59):
help us with setting it up,socializing it.
But at the very least there'llbe a monitor there and we'll
talk through how the system willwork.
Matt Weitzel (22:10):
Nice, Okay, and then.
Well, I mean, are you so?
Who all's going to Vegas here?
Are we all going to Vegas?
Everybody on the call?
Steven Fearon (22:17):
Everyone else.
Matt Weitzel (22:18):
Everyone here.
Joe Griffith (22:19):
We're all going to Vegas.
So us and Laura Ronan Malahan,niall Malahan, all the sales
team, lorcan Dorman, peterO'Hagan, all our service
engineers.
It's going to be very wellattended from the Malahan side.
Matt Weitzel (22:33):
Yeah, that'll be awesome, all right.
So what questions haven't Iasked here, guys?
What haven't we covered?
Steven Fearon (22:39):
I think, we've pretty much covered quite a bit
there, especially on thee-commerce website and stuff
like that.
And then obviously Joe'stouched on the team who's going.
Ronan and Al obviously is going.
You know we've got ourcommercial team and then Joe's
touched on our service engineersare going.
So obviously this is thee-commerce launch in Vegas, but
(23:01):
what we have put a big emphasison is customer care as a whole
and you know, taking our serviceengineers and stuff like that,
like they're well-known in theindustry, now One of them's
slowly becoming a legend in theindustry, so he's going to be
there.
Joe Griffith (23:17):
We jokingly say that at this point the service
engineers are the most popularand well-known folks in Malahan
than the salespeople.
They come in and show theseguys how to use their new
equipment and fix any problemsthey're having.
And they come on to the boothand they're like, hey Joe,
where's Lorcan?
And I said, wow, ok, well, Iguess they're the stars of the
(23:40):
show now.
Matt Weitzel (23:41):
Those people always are, because they're the
people who get things done right.
Joe Griffith (23:47):
It's like Billy Ash you know the one you did
with Billy there.
You know Billy's an industrylegend, lorcan's well, on his on
his way there, and Peter aswell, and all the guys you know,
if you deliver, if you, if youhelp folks to help them out of
problems or questions they have,you know you become more your
friend, a colleague, and that'swhat creates legends.
Matt Weitzel (24:07):
That's what creates legends.
Oh man, we should have justended on that.
But speaking of legend, we dohave Michael on the call, so
we're going to have to have himon for a full podcast.
So we've already beendiscussing that and we'll kind
of cover his GSE legacy infurther detail on another
podcast here very soon,hopefully before the end of 2025
(24:29):
.
So we'll get that set up inVegas and I appreciate
everybody's time today.
Thank you for choosing the GSEpodcast to do your soft launch
of your e-commerce website.
I think everybody's going toreally look forward to seeing
that in Vegas and logging in andbeing able to get the great
parts support from Malahan.
Thanks, matt, appreciate it andlook forward to get the great
(24:49):
parts support from Malahan.
Joe Griffith (24:50):
Thanks, matt, appreciate it and look forward
to welcoming everybody to thebooth in Vegas.
We'll do the launch, we'll haveall of our equipment.
We'll have the band.
Matt Weitzel (25:01):
We may have Abby singing again.
Oh yeah, and Abby singing.
Joe Griffith (25:05):
We've got to get Abby singing, so that's the new
component of the entertainment.
Matt Weitzel (25:10):
Well, what I've realized is that Abby's singing
comes up once a podcast, so youknow she might be the industry
legend before anybody else.
Honestly, Definitely.
Joe Griffith (25:22):
I look forward to it.
Thanks, Matt.
Matt Weitzel (25:24):
All right, thank you all so much.
Ryan McElhone (25:26):
Thanks Matt, thanks Matt.
Matt Weitzel (25:32):
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explore the dynamic world ofground operations, bringing you
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Thank you for listening to theGSE Podcast.
Until we meet again, staygrounded and keep pushing
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This is Brad Compton, this isLuke Brown, this is Jeff Barrett
, this is Tessa Farson, and youare listening to the GSE Podcast
(01:07):
.
All right, well, welcome toanother edition of the GSE
Podcast.
All right, well, welcome toanother edition of the GSE
Podcast.
This is a special edition todaybecause we have a launch that
we're going to talk about.
That is going to happen at theGSE Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday
morning of the show.
So I got a call from JoeGriffith from Malahan this is
only the second time he's donethis to me and surprised me with
(01:28):
a new podcast, but it's alwaysgood to get great content out
there and these launches arereally special, and this is the
second time that I think thatJoe has decided to do a really
cool launch at an expo.
Last year he did the Skybelt.
Is it the Skybelt, joe?
Joe Griffith (01:46):
Well, we did the Skybelt, but it was the electric
lab truck for.
Matt Weitzel (01:50):
Lisbon, you're right, and the electric lab
truck for Lisbon, so, anyway.
So Joe is back on the podcast,but he's got a couple of people
with him, so why doesn'teverybody kind of go around?
And we're going to make themlisten a little bit longer to
figure out what this speciallaunch is.
So go ahead.
I'm going to start with MichaelBloomfield.
This is your first time on thepodcast.
Michael Bloomfield (02:08):
First time.
Yeah, I was brought on reallyas a consultant and advisor to
buy Joe and the parts team toenhance the business, make a
better customer experience forMalahance customers that need
replacement parts for theirmachines and we, you know, in
(02:29):
the last year and a half or sowe did a tremendous amount of
work fixing, rearranging anddressing up the business.
Matt Weitzel (02:36):
Yeah, and Michael Bloomfield, I should have said
that you needed no introduction,but I missed that.
But, joe Griffith, go ahead.
Joe Griffith (02:44):
Yeah, no, I Joe Griffith, Chief Commercial
Officer for Malahan, and Matt,thank you for the opportunity.
I always like to spring thesethings on you A little bit of
surprise, so I appreciate yousupporting us.
As Michael said, we've done alot of really exciting things
with Malahan in the past coupleof years, both in terms of
product launch, but also newsystems and new ways to bring
(03:04):
value to our customers.
So I really appreciate thatopportunity.
You know Michael needs nointroduction, but I do feel like
I need to say for the newgeneration that's coming into
GSE.
Michael founded and built SageParts and really took it to
become a preeminent leader inthe spare parts business.
So Michael sold the businessand went into working with
(03:27):
companies and projects and wetook the opportunity to bring
him on board and use hisexperience and knowledge to
really take our business to thenext level.
So I'll hand it over to Steviefrom here.
Steven Fearon (03:40):
Thanks, joe, stephen Fern, so head of
customer care and after salesservices with Malahan, glad to
be here today.
Matt, I think me and you had acouple of exchanges a few times
about doing this, so it's tough,joe, to bring us together.
We're on no better time, Isuppose, with this exciting
launch we have now on Tuesday.
So, again, just with the helpof you know, obviously, joe and
(04:01):
Michael, we've got this excitingopportunity to launch something
a little bit different, wethink you know, especially from
an OEM within the industry.
So, looking forward to Tuesday,and I'll pass it over to Ryan
from there- Thanks, stevie.
Ryan McElhone (04:14):
Yeah, I'm Ryan McElhoney.
I'm spare parts manager forMalahan, so when Stevie would
oversee the parts business as awhole, I'd be more hands-on in
the day-to-day side of thingsfor both the rest of the world
and america, and so we both havea lot of ideas over the past
several years between the two ofus and and joe as well about
(04:36):
how we can really kick start thebusiness and move it forward
and take it to the next levelfrom where it's been at over
previous years, and this has ledus till today and till next
week.
So we're extremely excitedabout what the future holds for
Malahan and Malahan Parts.
Matt Weitzel (04:54):
That's perfect, yeah, so all right, joe, let's
get the big announcement outthere.
I think everybody knows thatit's something to do with parts,
so go ahead.
Joe Griffith (05:02):
Something to do with parts?
But no, really, matt.
It's about how do we make partseasier and more accessible and
faster and more convenient forour users.
So you know, malahan's built abrand and a reputation on
delivering high qualityequipment but also delivering
exceptional post-sale support,be it service, warranty or parts
(05:24):
.
And, as we looked at ways thatwe can improve that experience,
one of the ways is just tryingto create a quicker and more
seamless parts procurementprocess.
So if we think about what's thebest way to buy things, well,
you look at Amazon or you lookat other e-commerce platforms.
So we said, well, why don't wejust do that, amazon or you look
(05:46):
at other e-commerce platforms?
So we said, well, why don't wejust do that?
Why don't we create a reallyseamless e-commerce platform
that allows customers to go in,type in their Malahan serial
number or the part number of thepart that they have, or search
by descriptive nouns, and makeit very easy for them to buy
parts directly from the OEM.
I think what we find a lot ofthe time is that the big players
(06:07):
you know Michael's, alma Mater,sage or Napa they're looking
for these parts and we need tomake it easy for them to get the
parts from us, and from us theyget the right part, very high
quality, and we have to price itto where it's.
It's, you know, a value to them.
It's a value add to them.
So this is really all aboutlaunching our malahan e-commerce
(06:30):
platform at the gse expo in lasvegas on tuesday.
Stevie, keep me right.
One o'clock, I think we'redoing it.
Ryan McElhone (06:36):
One o'clock, vegas time yes, that's right,
I'll keep you right up, allright, I usually keep stevie
right too all right, thanks,right, you have to edit that out
, matt.
Joe Griffith (06:43):
That's all right, I usually keep stevie right too.
All right, thanks, ryan.
You have to edit that out, mattthat's all right but but no, so
we're launching that in vegas,and really it was.
It was instrumental to bringstevie, ryan and michael into
the conversation.
You know, stevie, as ryan says,oversees the, the post-sale
support, which includes serviceand and parts.
But Ryan's in it every day.
(07:05):
He's engaging with ourcustomers, he's working to try
and get our parts out as quicklyas we can.
And then Michael brought areally interesting dynamic with
Sage.
Sage was a pioneer in buildingan e-commerce platform and
e-Sage program that made it easyto procure parts, and this has
basically taken it to the nextlevel.
(07:25):
So I'll let Stevie speak to itanything he wants to say and
then take it from there.
Steven Fearon (07:32):
Yeah, no, look, I'm not very excited about
what's happening on Tuesday andwhat we're doing.
So you know, sort of, whenMichael came on board with us
about 18 months ago, you know hetook a look at the Malahan
parts business from the outside.
You know, obviously with allhis experience, you know, and
with his previous company andstuff.
So you know the big thing thatcame out of it was a big data
(07:55):
cleanup on our side.
So you know we've thousands andthousands of part numbers and
sort of how we always work waswe leveraged off you know our
operation side of the business.
So basically, you know wherethey're sourcing their parts,
you know how they, how theydescribe their part numbers, all
that sort of stuff.
So, michael, you, so Michael'sbasically done an incredible bit
(08:19):
of work 60,000 part numbers.
Maybe he's been in the middleof rewriting descriptions,
different things like that there.
So what did come out ofMichael's first observations was
right, we need to move toe-commerce and that's the end
game.
So ourselves and all our OEMshave tried things like this
before where, you know, it'sonline portals and stuff, all
(08:42):
stuff that's been done in-houseas such.
But so what we want to dodifferently this time, we took
on some third-party developers.
So a local company, voodoodigital, who's designed our
website it's going to be poweredby the Shopify platform and
then also Eureka Solutions andother companies, so they do the
Sage's ERP system for all ourparts, so they do the
(09:05):
integration to Shopify.
So basically, we've outsourcedall this because we want it to
be slick, we want it to be userfriendly and again, as Joe
touched on how we've sort ofworked, this was you know, no
matter what you do, whether it'sjust a simple noun, whether
you've got the Malin part number, the serial number you're going
(09:29):
to find the part you need foryour machine.
Again, it's all about making ituser-friendly and seamless.
So that's sort of the journeywe're on and launching it on
Tuesday, so looking forward toit, yeah.
Matt Weitzel (09:40):
So Michael, how long did this take to build?
Michael Bloomfield (09:44):
out Well in terms of timeline, it's a little
hard to define because, asSteve was mentioning, you know,
first things first was to cleanup all of the data.
So, rather than just dealingwith the parts that they sell
day in and day out on e-commerce, you really have to have a much
(10:04):
broader offering than just youreveryday business.
So we scoured through all ofthe billing materials, all the
production data and pulled outall of the items that we felt
that were potentially sellableand pulled out all of the items
that we felt that werepotentially sellable.
So we just didn't look at whatwe normally sell, but we looked
at things that we could makereadily available for customers
(10:25):
when they do their search.
Okay, so now they do theirsearch, how are they going to
find the number if they don'tknow the part number?
So we took all of thedescriptions and we changed the
format to a noun commadescription measurement-type
format.
So we rewrote every one ofthese part numbers individually
(10:45):
to extract all of the commonnoun.
So a user can come in and ifthey're looking for a filter or
if they're looking for a relayor if they're looking for any
item, that they can go right tothe noun description.
So today now, with the way thee-commerce system works, if
they're looking for a filter andjust type filter, all of the
(11:06):
filters in the system would comeup, but that's pretty vast.
So then we had to tie that backto the model numbers and to the
actual serial number of theunit.
So the way the Malahane-commerce system is going to
work is a customer can go in,put their model number in, put
in a common noun, if they wantor not, or put in the serial
(11:30):
number if they want or not.
The more filtering you do, ofcourse, the clearer it gets.
So, ok, so all of that's great.
So they found the item.
So now how are they going toknow what that item is Now?
We took now images of very manyof the parts, anything that we
can get our hands on, we haveimage.
So an image can come up alongwith the result.
(11:52):
And that's why I say it'sdifficult to define a timeline,
because we started rewriting thedescriptions before we decided
to move towards e-commerce.
So it's been a process, asSteve mentioned I started.
It's been about 18 months andit's about 18 months of work to
get us to this point.
Really.
Matt Weitzel (12:10):
Yeah, it's no easy task building a parts website.
I have been a part of onebefore and it is a ton of work
to make it user friendly.
To get all those photos is justfeet of strength, right, so
sounds like you all put in a tonof work.
Can't wait to see it.
So will there be parts diagramsas well, available?
Michael Bloomfield (12:30):
not yet.
Yes, yes, in the future, okay,we'll move towards all of that.
But as you know, matt one it'sit's a stepping process, one
step at a time.
Matt Weitzel (12:39):
A hundred percent.
Yeah, I mean the pictures arealmost better, right, because a
lot of times you're looking atthe part that you need and you
just need to get that visualconfirmation that that's the
right part that you're going tobe ordering.
So you'll have like a drilldown option then, I guess by
model, by model and serialnumber.
Okay, oh, wow.
(13:00):
So you'll actually be able totype in your unit serial number
and then drill down from there.
Michael Bloomfield (13:05):
Yes.
Matt Weitzel (13:06):
Well, most people do have that, so you know, I
mean, if they don't have that,they got a lot of problems going
on.
So I mean data plates do gomissing occasionally, but I mean
, that's a good starting point.
Michael Bloomfield (13:17):
It's a great starting point and even just
description info.
You could put in a portion ofdescription, the entire
description, any common wordthat might exist in a
description, and it'll filter onany which way.
We identified a platform for usthat would be extremely
(13:37):
flexible from a how do you findthe part standpoint?
Matt Weitzel (13:41):
So I type in my serial number.
I find the part that I need.
How does my checkout look?
Michael Bloomfield (13:47):
Well, checkout is pretty typical.
As Steve mentioned, we're usingShopify as our main e-commerce
engine, so the checkout is goingto be very typical to what
people see on any othere-commerce site.
The only difference here isit's not a consumer site, so the
customers are all predefined.
All our account numbers areentered, all of their
(14:09):
particulars as to how they wouldnormally make payment and
shipping requirements, and allof that is pre-installed, so the
checkout for them becomes eveneasier than most e-commerce
sites at this point.
So it's all predefined.
So it'll go to a shopping cartand then complete the order, and
that's all they need to worryabout.
Matt Weitzel (14:30):
So they can put in a PO number or they can use a
credit card, kind of depends onhow they want to do it.
And then how are the customersgoing to get their login
information?
Joe, so tomorrow I'm ready tostart using well, not tomorrow,
but on Tuesday I'm ready tostart using this thing.
At 1 pm.
How do I go in and sign in andall that kind of stuff?
Joe Griffith (14:52):
I'm going to hand that to Ryan to let him speak to
how he plans to manage theusernames they tell me.
Just enough to keep me introuble.
Matt Weitzel (14:59):
I understand that.
That makes sense to me.
Ryan McElhone (15:01):
Yeah, look, we're going to contact all the key
people, key customers, andintroduce the fact that we've
already spoke to several andintroducing the fact that we're
going to go live with this andthat they will have unique
logins specific to them.
The aim is to have an adminwithin each customer base that
(15:23):
can then hand out additionallogins to whoever they see fit
be it guys on the ramp or guysin the workshop or whatever so
that there's full access to itfrom their perspective and then
just from there.
I suppose one thing michaeljust touched on there was the
pricing side of things.
So whenever they have thatlogin and that's distributed to
(15:45):
them, they log on, all thepricing that's set up will be
unique to them.
It'll be specific to them.
With any discounts that havebeen previously arranged or any
pricing that framework oragreements that have been in
place, that'll all be built intoit from our side.
So they don't you know thepricing that they get will be
specific to them.
Matt Weitzel (16:06):
That's perfect, yeah, and then what about order
history and all that kind ofstuff and shipping?
And you know, kind of update meon that once I've kind of
completed the order.
What does that look like?
Ryan McElhone (16:31):
order.
Once the order is complete,then we'll obviously it'll work
its way through our ERP systemand then any updates on what's
happening with the order willthen transfer across directly to
Shopify for you to get livesort of data on where your
order's at, whether it's beenpicked, whether it's been packed
, whether it's been dispatched,and then, once dispatched, then
you'll obviously have trackingdetails that are applicable for
you to track your order till ithits you.
(16:53):
And then again, very simplesetup that you can copy orders
that you've placed previouslyAll extremely user friendly.
Any baskets that you've createdwill stay live for 60 days,
think we're we're working on atthis stage.
So if you create quotes in theportal that you don't actually
(17:15):
action or pull across to a liveorder, that'll stay there for
you to go back at any point intime to go in and finish out
that order and and then completeit through the system to us.
Joe Griffith (17:26):
Yeah, I think the the other.
The other big piece of this isgoing to be integration, and so
you know, think about all thesemajor airlines ground handlers.
They use the likes of EBIS, orthey use AssetWorks, or they use
Lytics, they use any number ofdifferent management or web
maintenance platforms.
This system can integrate intoany of those, into SAP, into
(17:51):
NAPA's procurement, and itallows them to build the
connection within their ownfunctionality.
So if the customer chooses,they can just simply upload the
Malahan connection into theirAriba, SAP, whatever system
they're using, and procure theparts that way, and then it
connects over into our systemand this is going to make us
(18:13):
more efficient on the customerfacing side.
But there's also a tremendousbenefit internally that all of
our internal processes are goingto move on to this system as
well, and it'll make the partsprocessing turn time a lot
quicker.
Matt Weitzel (18:28):
Yeah.
So this is basically just goingto kind of, I guess, catapult
you guys into the next level ofservice, because you know, I
know your service level hasalways been extremely high.
This just makes it that muchbetter for the customer to have
that kind of support andtracking and everything else on
on the part side now as wellthat's exactly right.
Ryan McElhone (18:49):
yeah, suppose one thing I will add that we're
keen to keep to is the personaltouch.
Whilst we want to have the, wesee this as the next stage in
the development of Malahan parts.
We're keen to emphasize thatwhat our business has been built
on is the fact that we'realways available Emails, phone
(19:09):
calls for pricing, for advice onparts, for information on
whatever the customer needs.
We're not going to lose thatwith this.
That's still going to be there.
This is just trying to makeeveryone's sort of transactional
processing of the order easier.
Matt Weitzel (19:29):
Yeah, for sure, and you know it is important to
have those personalrelationships and you know, and
to know that you're only a phonecall away, but I'm guessing
that everybody has realized that, and that's the reason they're
buying Malahan, but this willallow them to.
If they need a part, though,and if in a few minutes they can
grab, you know they can grab apart really quickly and get it
tracked to the system, so it'sjust another level of customer
(19:51):
care.
I think that'll really help out, and I think this is great that
you guys are doing this andlaunching this at the show, and
obviously having Michaelinvolved.
I mean, this is big guys.
Steven Fearon (20:04):
Yeah, it is Matt, and I suppose it's worth
mentioning this is obviously ourfirst go at this here.
We have big plans to expandthis out even further.
You know it's an e-commercesystem, but you know we want it
to be more than just buying apart.
We want to look at differentsales programs.
You know seasonal promotionseventually then to you know
(20:24):
building service kits for yourproduct and stuff like that.
So, like I say, it's the firstgo at this, but it's endless
what we can do on this platform.
You know and that's our planyou know, with Joe and Michael
and Ronan and Niall, theirinvestment in this here.
They're trusting us with this,so we've big plans here.
Matt Weitzel (20:42):
Yeah, so this is just kind of the beginning,
right.
We're going to launch this as apart, but it's going to
eventually expand into more.
Steven Fearon (20:49):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's our plan.
Like you know, there's many,many things.
It's not just replacement parts, it's services, it's PMs, it's
all that sort of stuff.
So we want to basically packagethat all together in here.
That you know it's as simple asentering your serial number,
getting whether it's your A, b,c, service.
That you know you've got themkits under one part number.
(21:11):
You order it, you geteverything at the one time.
So better planning for the guysin the shop and especially in
the off season, for the likes ofde-icing things like that that
didn't be de-ice ready come thewinter.
Matt Weitzel (21:22):
Yep, for sure.
Well, this is going to beawesome.
So are we going to have, when Icome to your booth, how's this
going to look?
How's this announcement goingto happen?
Are we going to have like a bigscreen TV, like 85 inch?
What are we?
Joe Griffith (21:36):
doing here?
Yeah, no, laura, set us up withsome AV for it so we can
display the functionality of thesystem.
We've got breakout rooms set upso that the team can take you
guys in.
We can work on setting updifferent logins for it.
We can work on how thedifferent assets that our
customers have currently sit inthat system, and so that will
(21:59):
help us with setting it up,socializing it.
But at the very least there'llbe a monitor there and we'll
talk through how the system willwork.
Matt Weitzel (22:10):
Nice, Okay, and then.
Well, I mean, are you so?
Who all's going to Vegas here?
Are we all going to Vegas?
Everybody on the call?
Steven Fearon (22:17):
Everyone else.
Matt Weitzel (22:18):
Everyone here.
Joe Griffith (22:19):
We're all going to Vegas.
So us and Laura Ronan Malahan,niall Malahan, all the sales
team, lorcan Dorman, peterO'Hagan, all our service
engineers.
It's going to be very wellattended from the Malahan side.
Matt Weitzel (22:33):
Yeah, that'll be awesome, all right.
So what questions haven't Iasked here, guys?
What haven't we covered?
Steven Fearon (22:39):
I think, we've pretty much covered quite a bit
there, especially on thee-commerce website and stuff
like that.
And then obviously Joe'stouched on the team who's going.
Ronan and Al obviously is going.
You know we've got ourcommercial team and then Joe's
touched on our service engineersare going.
So obviously this is thee-commerce launch in Vegas, but
(23:01):
what we have put a big emphasison is customer care as a whole
and you know, taking our serviceengineers and stuff like that,
like they're well-known in theindustry, now One of them's
slowly becoming a legend in theindustry, so he's going to be
there.
Joe Griffith (23:17):
We jokingly say that at this point the service
engineers are the most popularand well-known folks in Malahan
than the salespeople.
They come in and show theseguys how to use their new
equipment and fix any problemsthey're having.
And they come on to the boothand they're like, hey Joe,
where's Lorcan?
And I said, wow, ok, well, Iguess they're the stars of the
(23:40):
show now.
Matt Weitzel (23:41):
Those people always are, because they're the
people who get things done right.
Joe Griffith (23:47):
It's like Billy Ash you know the one you did
with Billy there.
You know Billy's an industrylegend, lorcan's well, on his on
his way there, and Peter aswell, and all the guys you know,
if you deliver, if you, if youhelp folks to help them out of
problems or questions they have,you know you become more your
friend, a colleague, and that'swhat creates legends.
Matt Weitzel (24:07):
That's what creates legends.
Oh man, we should have justended on that.
But speaking of legend, we dohave Michael on the call, so
we're going to have to have himon for a full podcast.
So we've already beendiscussing that and we'll kind
of cover his GSE legacy infurther detail on another
podcast here very soon,hopefully before the end of 2025
(24:29):
.
So we'll get that set up inVegas and I appreciate
everybody's time today.
Thank you for choosing the GSEpodcast to do your soft launch
of your e-commerce website.
I think everybody's going toreally look forward to seeing
that in Vegas and logging in andbeing able to get the great
parts support from Malahan.
Thanks, matt, appreciate it andlook forward to get the great
(24:49):
parts support from Malahan.
Joe Griffith (24:50):
Thanks, matt, appreciate it and look forward
to welcoming everybody to thebooth in Vegas.
We'll do the launch, we'll haveall of our equipment.
We'll have the band.
Matt Weitzel (25:01):
We may have Abby singing again.
Oh yeah, and Abby singing.
Joe Griffith (25:05):
We've got to get Abby singing, so that's the new
component of the entertainment.
Matt Weitzel (25:10):
Well, what I've realized is that Abby's singing
comes up once a podcast, so youknow she might be the industry
legend before anybody else.
Honestly, Definitely.
Joe Griffith (25:22):
I look forward to it.
Thanks, Matt.
Matt Weitzel (25:24):
All right, thank you all so much.
Ryan McElhone (25:26):
Thanks Matt, thanks Matt.
Matt Weitzel (25:32):
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the
GSE Podcast.
We hope you found itinformative and engaging.
If this episode resonated withyou, please share it with your
colleagues and peers in theground support equipment
community.
Your support is invaluable tous.
We'd appreciate it if you couldtake a moment to rate and
review our podcast.
Your feedback not onlyencourages us, but also helps
(25:53):
expand our reach within the GSEcommunity.
Keep an eye out for moreepisodes as we continue to
explore the dynamic world ofground operations, bringing you
the latest trends, insights andstories from the industry.
Thank you for listening to theGSE Podcast.
Until we meet again, staygrounded and keep pushing
forward.
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com