Mercator and Microsoft recently announced they will set up an Innovation Lab in Dubai to develop new products and services for the travel industry using Microsoft’s cutting-edge technologies and tapping on Emirates’ expertise and experience in developing IT solutions for the aviation and travel industry. Both companies will invest in the project.

Microsoft will work with Mercator experts in the "Dubai Innovation Lab", which will be amongst the first of its kind for both companies in this field. The lab will enable Mercator to incubate and develop creative new solutions for airline and travel customers around the world, including Emirates Airline.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates witnessed the signature of the memorandum of understanding outlining the project during a meeting in Dubai.

Patrick Naef, Head of Mercator and Divisional Senior Vice President, IT Emirates Group, said: "Innovation has been a cornerstone of Mercator’s success across our businesses. By working with technology leader Microsoft to develop cutting-edge products and services, we are looking to reinforce our commanding position in the travel industry and continue to pioneer new ways to serve our customers better."

"Emirates Group has established a powerful reputation as a dynamic, forward-thinking company, and this agreement will strengthen this reputation further," said Charbel Fakhoury, General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. "By adopting these next-generation technologies, the airline is setting an important precedent. The Gulf region has a massive potential to contribute to the global development of technology-driven innovations, and Mercator is leading the way."

He added, "Through the establishment of our Innovation Lab, Microsoft and Mercator will demonstrate how technology can play a defining role in enhancing business operations and customer experiences."

Through the innovation lab, Mercator and Microsoft will explore implementation of technologies based on Microsoft software and hardware as well as online services such as the Windows Live platform.

Dear Industry Colleagues,

January 2008 saw the 150th customer join our Mercator family when Australian carrier OzJet started to use MACS. This milestone indicates that we, as IT solutions and services provider for Travel, Transportation and Leisure industry, have come a long way in 12 years of our existence.

Looking at this long list of customers, it is heartening to see the wide customer spread across the globe that includes airlines of all sizes and business models. On one hand industry leaders have chosen our solutions and on the other hand even startups and small carriers have adapted the same solutions – a testimony to the functional richness and flexibility of our solutions.

I must say this is not something that has happened by chance. We have always consciously put in efforts in ensuring that the design and architecture of our best of the breed solutions are easy to adapt to the specific needs of any customer, and that they are priced in a manner that businesses of all sizes can afford them.

The latest example of this is our next generation cargo management solution SkyChain. On one hand the solution is working effectively for industry leaders like Emirates and Swiss, on the other hand its simpler version SkyChain Lite is being implemented by a cargo start up in the region using Mercator’s hosted services (ASP).

This ASP implementation is being done in a matter of weeks and not months and years that we see very often in the industry. Such short implementation timeline has been possible only from our learning of so many implementations in the past ten years that have helped us to come up with a smarter cost-effective ways of implementing our solutions – on time and within budget.

Our approach is driven by the realization that though IT is our business and we have all the time in the world for it, it is only a business enabler for our customers. They would rather spend their resources and time in running and growing their business than in managing large IT projects that seem to go on forever.

In short, we believe we will be able to make a difference to the industry by making sure that our best of breed solutions are adaptable, scalable and affordable by all, and that is a key driver for our growing business – 150 and still counting.

Thank you for all your support.

With best regards,
Akshay Shrivastava