The GSE Podcast

Episode 37 – Parts Made Simple: Mallaghan Launches Their New E-Commerce Platform at GSE Expo

• Matt Weitzel • Episode 37

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Malahan 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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Matt Weitzel:

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Matt Weitzel:

This is Brad Compton, this is Luke Brown, this is Jeff Barrett, this is Tessa Farson, and you are listening to the GSE Podcast. All right, well, welcome to another edition of the GSE Podcast. All right, well, welcome to another edition of the GSE Podcast. This is a special edition today because we have a launch that we're going to talk about. That is going to happen at the GSE Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning of the show. So I got a call from Joe Griffith from Malahan this is only the second time he's done this to me and surprised me with a new podcast, but it's always good to get great content out there and these launches are really special, and this is the second time that I think that Joe has decided to do a really cool launch at an expo. Last year he did the Skybelt. Is it the Skybelt, joe?

Joe Griffith:

Well, we did the Skybelt, but it was the electric lab truck for.

Matt Weitzel:

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't everybody kind of go around? And we're going to make them listen a little bit longer to figure out what this special launch is. So go ahead. I'm going to start with Michael Bloomfield. This is your first time on the podcast.

Michael Bloomfield:

First time. Yeah, I was brought on really as a consultant and advisor to buy Joe and the parts team to enhance the business, make a better customer experience for Malahance customers that need replacement parts for their machines and we, you know, in the last year and a half or so we did a tremendous amount of work fixing, rearranging and dressing up the business.

Matt Weitzel:

Yeah, and Michael Bloomfield, I should have said that you needed no introduction, but I missed that. But, joe Griffith, go ahead.

Joe Griffith:

Yeah, no, I Joe Griffith, Chief Commercial Officer for Malahan, and Matt, thank you for the opportunity. I always like to spring these things on you A little bit of surprise, so I appreciate you supporting us. As Michael said, we've done a lot of really exciting things with Malahan in the past couple of years, both in terms of product launch, but also new systems and new ways to bring value to our customers. So I really appreciate that opportunity. You know Michael needs no introduction, but I do feel like I need to say for the new generation that's coming into GSE. Michael founded and built Sage Parts and really took it to become a preeminent leader in the spare parts business. So Michael sold the business and went into working with companies and projects and we took the opportunity to bring him on board and use his experience and knowledge to really take our business to the next level. So I'll hand it over to Stevie from here.

Steven Fearon:

Thanks, joe, stephen Fern, so head of customer care and after sales services with Malahan, glad to be here today. Matt, I think me and you had a couple of exchanges a few times about doing this, so it's tough, joe, to bring us together. We're on no better time, I suppose, with this exciting launch we have now on Tuesday. So, again, just with the help of you know, obviously, joe and Michael, we've got this exciting opportunity to launch something a little bit different, we think 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:

Yeah, I'm Ryan McElhoney. I'm spare parts manager for Malahan, so when Stevie would oversee the parts business as a whole, I'd be more hands-on in the day-to-day side of things for both the rest of the world and america, and so we both have a lot of ideas over the past several years between the two of us and and joe as well about how we can really kick start the business and move it forward and take it to the next level from where it's been at over previous years, and this has led us till today and till next week. So we're extremely excited about what the future holds for Malahan and Malahan Parts.

Matt Weitzel:

That's perfect, yeah, so all right, joe, let's get the big announcement out there. I think everybody knows that it's something to do with parts, so go ahead.

Joe Griffith:

Something to do with parts? But no, really, matt. It's about how do we make parts easier and more accessible and faster and more convenient for our users. So you know, malahan's built a brand and a reputation on delivering high quality equipment but also delivering exceptional post-sale support, be it service, warranty or parts. And, as we looked at ways that we can improve that experience, one of the ways is just trying to create a quicker and more seamless parts procurement process.

Joe Griffith:

So if we think about what's the best way to buy things, well, you look at Amazon or you look at other e-commerce platforms. So we said, well, why don't we just do that, amazon or you look at other e-commerce platforms? So we said, well, why don't we just do that? Why don't we create a really seamless e-commerce platform that allows customers to go in, type in their Malahan serial number or the part number of the part that they have, or search by descriptive nouns, and make it very easy for them to buy parts directly from the OEM.

Joe Griffith:

I think what we find a lot of the time is that the big players you know Michael's, alma Mater, sage or Napa they're looking for these parts and we need to make it easy for them to get the parts from us, and from us they get the right part, very high quality, and we have to price it to where it's. It's, you know, a value to them. It's a value add to them. So this is really all about launching our malahan e-commerce platform at the gse expo in las vegas on tuesday. Stevie, keep me right. One o'clock, I think we're doing it.

Ryan McElhone:

One o'clock, vegas time yes, that's right, I'll keep you right up, all right, I usually keep stevie right too all right, thanks, right, you have to edit that out, matt.

Joe Griffith:

That's all right, I usually keep stevie right too. All right, thanks, ryan.

Joe Griffith:

You have to edit that out, matt that's all right but but no, so we're launching that in vegas, and really it was. It was instrumental to bring stevie, ryan and michael into the conversation. You know, stevie, as ryan says, oversees the, the post-sale support, which includes service and and parts. But Ryan's in it every day. He's engaging with our customers, he's working to try and get our parts out as quickly as we can. And then Michael brought a really interesting dynamic with Sage. Sage was a pioneer in building an e-commerce platform and e-Sage program that made it easy to procure parts, and this has basically taken it to the next level. So I'll let Stevie speak to it anything he wants to say and then take it from there.

Steven Fearon:

Yeah, no, look, I'm not very excited about what's happening on Tuesday and what we're doing. So you know, sort of, when Michael came on board with us about 18 months ago, you know he took a look at the Malahan parts business from the outside. You know, obviously with all his experience, you know, and with his previous company and stuff. So you know the big thing that came out of it was a big data cleanup on our side. So you know we've thousands and thousands of part numbers and sort of how we always work was we leveraged off you know our operation side of the business. So basically, you know where they're sourcing their parts, you know how they, how they describe their part numbers, all that sort of stuff. So, michael, you, so Michael's basically done an incredible bit of work 60,000 part numbers. Maybe he's been in the middle of rewriting descriptions, different things like that there.

Steven Fearon:

So what did come out of Michael's first observations was right, we need to move to e-commerce and that's the end game.

Steven Fearon:

So ourselves and all our OEMs have tried things like this before where, you know, it's online portals and stuff, all stuff that's been done in-house as such. But so what we want to do differently this time, we took on some third-party developers. So a local company, voodoo digital, who's designed our website it's going to be powered by the Shopify platform and then also Eureka Solutions and other companies, so they do the Sage's ERP system for all our parts, so they do the integration to Shopify. So basically, we've outsourced all this because we want it to be slick, we want it to be user friendly and again, as Joe touched on how we've sort of worked, this was you know, no matter what you do, whether it's just a simple noun, whether you've got the Malin part number, the serial number you're going to find the part you need for your machine. Again, it's all about making it user-friendly and seamless. So that's sort of the journey we're on and launching it on Tuesday, so looking forward to it, yeah.

Matt Weitzel:

So Michael, how long did this take to build?

Michael Bloomfield:

out Well in terms of timeline, it's a little hard to define because, as Steve was mentioning, you know, first things first was to clean up all of the data. So, rather than just dealing with the parts that they sell day in and day out on e-commerce, you really have to have a much broader offering than just your everyday business. So we scoured through all of the billing materials, all the production data and pulled out all of the items that we felt that were potentially sellable and pulled out all of the items that we felt that were potentially sellable. So we just didn't look at what we normally sell, but we looked at things that we could make readily available for customers when they do their search. Okay, so now they do their search, how are they going to find the number if they don't know the part number?

Michael Bloomfield:

So we took all of the descriptions and we changed the format to a noun comma description measurement-type format. So we rewrote every one of these part numbers individually to extract all of the common noun. So a user can come in and if they're looking for a filter or if they're looking for a relay or if they're looking for any item, that they can go right to the noun description. So today now, with the way the e-commerce system works, if they're looking for a filter and just type filter, all of the filters in the system would come up, but that's pretty vast. So then we had to tie that back to the model numbers and to the actual serial number of the unit. So the way the Malahan e-commerce system is going to work is a customer can go in, put their model number in, put in a common noun, if they want or not, or put in the serial number if they want or not.

Michael Bloomfield:

The more filtering you do, of course, the clearer it gets. So, ok, so all of that's great. So they found the item. So now how are they going to know what that item is Now? We took now images of very many of the parts, anything that we can get our hands on, we have image. So an image can come up along with the result. And that's why I say it's difficult to define a timeline, because we started rewriting the descriptions before we decided to move towards e-commerce. So it's been a process, as Steve mentioned I started. It's been about 18 months and it's about 18 months of work to get us to this point. Really.

Matt Weitzel:

Yeah, it's no easy task building a parts website. I have been a part of one before and it is a ton of work to make it user friendly. To get all those photos is just feet of strength, right, so sounds like you all put in a ton of work. Can't wait to see it. So will there be parts diagrams as well, available?

Michael Bloomfield:

not yet. Yes, yes, in the future, okay, we'll move towards all of that. But as you know, matt one it's it's a stepping process, one step at a time.

Matt Weitzel:

A hundred percent. Yeah, I mean the pictures are almost better, right, because a lot of times you're looking at the part that you need and you just need to get that visual confirmation that that's the right part that you're going to be ordering. So you'll have like a drill down option then, I guess by model, by model and serial number. Okay, oh, wow. So you'll actually be able to type in your unit serial number and then drill down from there.

Michael Bloomfield:

Yes.

Matt Weitzel:

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 go missing occasionally, but I mean, that's a good starting point.

Michael Bloomfield:

It's a great starting point and even just description info. You could put in a portion of description, the entire description, any common word that might exist in a description, and it'll filter on any which way. We identified a platform for us that would be extremely flexible from a how do you find the part standpoint?

Matt Weitzel:

So I type in my serial number. I find the part that I need. How does my checkout look?

Michael Bloomfield:

Well, checkout is pretty typical. As Steve mentioned, we're using Shopify as our main e-commerce engine, so the checkout is going to be very typical to what people see on any other e-commerce site. The only difference here is it's not a consumer site, so the customers are all predefined. All our account numbers are entered, all of their particulars as to how they would normally make payment and shipping requirements, and all of that is pre-installed, so the checkout for them becomes even easier than most e-commerce sites at this point. So it's all predefined. So it'll go to a shopping cart and then complete the order, and that's all they need to worry about.

Matt Weitzel:

So they can put in a PO number or they can use a credit card, kind of depends on how they want to do it. And then how are the customers going to get their login information? Joe, so tomorrow I'm ready to start using well, not tomorrow, but on Tuesday I'm ready to start using this thing. At 1 pm. How do I go in and sign in and all that kind of stuff?

Joe Griffith:

I'm going to hand that to Ryan to let him speak to how he plans to manage the usernames they tell me. Just enough to keep me in trouble.

Matt Weitzel:

I understand that. That makes sense to me.

Ryan McElhone:

Yeah, look, we're going to contact all the key people, key customers, and introduce the fact that we've already spoke to several and introducing the fact that we're going to go live with this and that they will have unique logins specific to them. The aim is to have an admin within each customer base that can then hand out additional logins to whoever they see fit be it guys on the ramp or guys in the workshop or whatever so that there's full access to it from their perspective and then just from there. I suppose one thing michael just touched on there was the pricing side of things. So whenever they have that login and that's distributed to them, they log on, all the pricing that's set up will be unique to them. It'll be specific to them. With any discounts that have been previously arranged or any pricing that framework or agreements that have been in place, that'll all be built into it from our side. So they don't you know the pricing that they get will be specific to them.

Matt Weitzel:

That's perfect, yeah, and then what about order history and all that kind of stuff and shipping? And you know, kind of update me on that once I've kind of completed the order. What does that look like?

Ryan McElhone:

order. Once the order is complete, then we'll obviously it'll work its way through our ERP system and then any updates on what's happening with the order will then transfer across directly to Shopify for you to get live sort of data on where your order's at, whether it's been picked, whether it's been packed, whether it's been dispatched, and then, once dispatched, then you'll obviously have tracking details that are applicable for you to track your order till it hits you. And then again, very simple setup that you can copy orders that you've placed previously All extremely user friendly. Any baskets that you've created will stay live for 60 days, think we're we're working on at this stage. So if you create quotes in the portal that you don't actually action or pull across to a live order, that'll stay there for you to go back at any point in time to go in and finish out that order and and then complete it through the system to us.

Joe Griffith:

Yeah, I think the the other. The other big piece of this is going to be integration, and so you know, think about all these major airlines ground handlers. They use the likes of EBIS, or they use AssetWorks, or they use Lytics, they use any number of different management or web maintenance platforms. This system can integrate into any of those, into SAP, into NAPA's procurement, and it allows them to build the connection within their own functionality. So if the customer chooses, they can just simply upload the Malahan connection into their Ariba, SAP, whatever system they're using, and procure the parts that way, and then it connects over into our system and this is going to make us more efficient on the customer facing side. But there's also a tremendous benefit internally that all of our internal processes are going to move on to this system as well, and it'll make the parts processing turn time a lot quicker.

Matt Weitzel:

Yeah. So this is basically just going to kind of, I guess, catapult you guys into the next level of service, because you know, I know your service level has always been extremely high. This just makes it that much better for the customer to have that kind of support and tracking and everything else on on the part side now as well that's exactly right.

Ryan McElhone:

yeah, suppose one thing I will add that we're keen to keep to is the personal touch. Whilst we want to have the, we see this as the next stage in the development of Malahan parts. We're keen to emphasize that what our business has been built on is the fact that we're always available Emails, phone calls for pricing, for advice on parts, for information on whatever the customer needs. We're not going to lose that with this. That's still going to be there. This is just trying to make everyone's sort of transactional processing of the order easier.

Matt Weitzel:

Yeah, for sure, and you know it is important to have those personal relationships and you know, and to know that you're only a phone call away, but I'm guessing that everybody has realized that, and that's the reason they're buying Malahan, but this will allow them to. If they need a part, though, and if in a few minutes they can grab, you know they can grab a part really quickly and get it tracked to the system, so it's just another level of customer care. I think that'll really help out, and I think this is great that you guys are doing this and launching this at the show, and obviously having Michael involved. I mean, this is big guys.

Steven Fearon:

Yeah, it is Matt, and I suppose it's worth mentioning this is obviously our first go at this here. We have big plans to expand this out even further. You know it's an e-commerce system, but you know we want it to be more than just buying a part. We want to look at different sales programs. You know seasonal promotions eventually then to you know building service kits for your product and stuff like that. So, like I say, it's the first go at this, but it's endless what we can do on this platform. You know and that's our plan you know, with Joe and Michael and Ronan and Niall, their investment in this here. They're trusting us with this, so we've big plans here.

Matt Weitzel:

Yeah, so this is just kind of the beginning, right. We're going to launch this as a part, but it's going to eventually expand into more.

Steven Fearon:

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 package that all together in here. That you know it's as simple as entering your serial number, getting whether it's your A, b, c, service. That you know you've got them kits under one part number. You order it, you get everything at the one time. So better planning for the guys in the shop and especially in the off season, for the likes of de-icing things like that that didn't be de-ice ready come the winter.

Matt Weitzel:

Yep, for sure. Well, this is going to be awesome. So are we going to have, when I come to your booth, how's this going to look? How's this announcement going to happen? Are we going to have like a big screen TV, like 85 inch? What are we?

Joe Griffith:

doing here? Yeah, no, laura, set us up with some AV for it so we can display the functionality of the system. We've got breakout rooms set up so that the team can take you guys in. We can work on setting up different logins for it. We can work on how the different assets that our customers have currently sit in that system, and so that will help us with setting it up, socializing it. But at the very least there'll be a monitor there and we'll talk through how the system will work.

Matt Weitzel:

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:

Everyone else.

Matt Weitzel:

Everyone here.

Joe Griffith:

We're all going to Vegas. So us and Laura Ronan Malahan, niall Malahan, all the sales team, lorcan Dorman, peter O'Hagan, all our service engineers. It's going to be very well attended from the Malahan side.

Matt Weitzel:

Yeah, that'll be awesome, all right. So what questions haven't I asked here, guys? What haven't we covered?

Steven Fearon:

I think, we've pretty much covered quite a bit there, especially on the e-commerce website and stuff like that. And then obviously Joe's touched on the team who's going. Ronan and Al obviously is going. You know we've got our commercial team and then Joe's touched on our service engineers are going. So obviously this is the e-commerce launch in Vegas, but what we have put a big emphasis on is customer care as a whole and you know, taking our service engineers and stuff like that, like they're well-known in the industry, now One of them's slowly becoming a legend in the industry, so he's going to be there.

Joe Griffith:

We jokingly say that at this point the service engineers are the most popular and well-known folks in Malahan than the salespeople. They come in and show these guys how to use their new equipment and fix any problems they're having. And they come on to the booth and they're like, hey Joe, where's Lorcan? And I said, wow, ok, well, I guess they're the stars of the show now.

Matt Weitzel:

Those people always are, because they're the people who get things done right.

Joe Griffith:

It's like Billy Ash you know the one you did with Billy there. You know Billy's an industry legend, lorcan's well, on his on his way there, and Peter as well, and all the guys you know, if you deliver, if you, if you help folks to help them out of problems or questions they have, you know you become more your friend, a colleague, and that's what creates legends.

Matt Weitzel:

That's what creates legends. Oh man, we should have just ended on that. But speaking of legend, we do have Michael on the call, so we're going to have to have him on for a full podcast. So we've already been discussing that and we'll kind of cover his GSE legacy in further detail on another podcast here very soon, hopefully before the end of 2025. So we'll get that set up in Vegas and I appreciate everybody's time today. Thank you for choosing the GSE podcast to do your soft launch of your e-commerce website. I think everybody's going to really look forward to seeing that in Vegas and logging in and being able to get the great parts support from Malahan. Thanks, matt, appreciate it and look forward to get the great parts support from Malahan.

Joe Griffith:

Thanks, matt, appreciate it and look forward to welcoming everybody to the booth in Vegas. We'll do the launch, we'll have all of our equipment. We'll have the band.

Matt Weitzel:

We may have Abby singing again. Oh yeah, and Abby singing.

Joe Griffith:

We've got to get Abby singing, so that's the new component of the entertainment.

Matt Weitzel:

Well, what I've realized is that Abby's singing comes up once a podcast, so you know she might be the industry legend before anybody else. Honestly, Definitely.

Joe Griffith:

I look forward to it. Thanks, Matt.

Matt Weitzel:

All right, thank you all so much.

Ryan McElhone:

Thanks Matt, thanks Matt.

Matt Weitzel:

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the GSE Podcast. We hope you found it informative and engaging. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with your colleagues and peers in the ground support equipment community. Your support is invaluable to us. We'd appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast. Your feedback not only encourages us, but also helps expand our reach within the GSE community. Keep an eye out for more episodes as we continue to explore the dynamic world of ground operations, bringing you the latest trends, insights and stories from the industry. Thank you for listening to the GSE Podcast. Until we meet again, stay grounded and keep pushing forward.

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