Patrick Naef shakes hands with Steven Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Division , Microsoft

Mercator, teamed up with Microsoft at GITEX 2009 this week.

Head of Mercator, Patrick Naef, addressed an audience during the opening keynote speech at GITEX to discuss the adoption of Windows 7 by the Emirates Group.

Mercator is one of only two Middle East and African companies to take part in the Windows 7 Early Adopter Programme and one of 40 companies worldwide. Back in February 2009, Mercator chose to take part in the programme to compliment its own vision of being leader in innovation and latest technology adoption.

Charbel Fakhoury, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf, said: "Windows 7 promises to provide secure, more consistent and highly compatible user experience based on its application of latest advancements in different technological areas, being ready for the latest hardware while also running smoothly on existing hardware investments."

Following a due diligence exercise in understanding the scope of work and legalities, the technical initiative began in May. What followed was five months of hard work in testing the multitude of applications that make up the Emirates Group in a lab environment. This included anything from ensuring antivirus software worked with the latest updates to Emirates Group corporate applications.

Patrick Naef, Head of Mercator, said: "With the assistance of Microsoft we found the migration process to be largely smooth and the issues faced in application compatibility were all manageable. Microsoft has provided excellent dedicated support throughout the project lifecycle, which was supported by weekly meetings, regular communications, some consultancy and endorsement from the Emirates Group senior management team."

Mercator's commitment to proceed with the project, and adopt Microsoft's latest flagship operating system for the Emirates Group, is built on the existing strategic partnership between both companies. In January 2008 Mercator and Microsoft jointly set up an innovation lab in Dubai to develop new products and services for the travel industry using Microsoft's cutting-edge technologies. 

At GITEX, Mercator also exhibited on the Microsoft Partner Pavilion to demonstrate applications developed by Mercator using Microsoft Dynamics as a platform and explain how Mercator can provide application development and hosting platforms for Microsoft Dynamics, Exchange and Unified Communications.

Mercator recently launched a new service called Mercator Business Technologies which essentially means a single local vendor can design, source, procure and project manage the deployment of a business's entire IT infrastructure. This includes infrastructure design services, IT consultancy , IT system auditing and governance, sourcing of hardware, software and infrastructure, project management, software development services, procurement and implementation service, data centre hosting, call centre services, 24x7 on site or remote support.

Delegates see E-Gate demonstration

Mercator's Airline Customer Solutions Forum was held in Dubai, UAE on 7th and 8th October 2009.  The conference centred around IATA's Fast Travel initiative which responds to consumer demand for greater convenience and consists of six projects designed to offer a range of self-service options which give passengers more control over their journey.

The conference consisted of presentations from IATA representatives, airline senior managers, Mercator, and its strategic partners Calidris and Farelogix, panel discussions, and product demonstrations.

The Forum brought together airline CIOs and Heads of Commercial Operations to review and discuss Passenger Services, Revenue Accounting, Revenue Management, Distribution, Customer Relationship Management, and Loyalty Programmes.  Many industry issues and best practices were considered.

Over eighty participants representing 30 airlines, including network, point-to-point, and hybrid, were represented.  Irrespective of the business model, IATA's Fast Travel is an important initiative for the aviation industry, so the Forum offered a great learning opportunity and the chance to network with airline representatives from all five continents.

Mercator also introduced and demonstrated its Jupiter solution - a value proposition which includes a suite of applications closely integrated with Mercator's Airline Reservation and Departure Control systems, MARS and MACS - and each other.  The product combination is designed to give airlines greater business and system integration, return on investment, process improvement, and significant cost reduction.  

Mercator has continually enhanced and maintained the core of its reservation and departure control technologies.  In addition it has developed home grown applications and combined these with best-in-class solutions from certified suppliers. 

Jupiter is a unique offering in the marketplace.  Mercator supplies a wide range of integrated solutions covering Reservations, Internet Booking, Departure Control, Customer Relationship Management and Loyalty.  In addition the offer includes Revenue Integrity, Revenue Accounting, and Staff Travel systems.  All of these services can be purchased on a per passenger boarded basis at prices significantly below other providers.  In addition Mercator can enable GDS bypass facilities, based on Farelogix, yielding considerable savings in distribution costs.

Mercator will be supplying all aspects of IT for the upcoming FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup championship which is to be held in Dubai from the 16 - 22nd of November. This is the first time the tournament has been staged in the Middle East, as sixteen of the best beach soccer teams in the world will compete on Asian sands, including: UAE, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Switzerland.

Duncan Alexander, Vice President, Sales and Market Development, Mercator said:" This is a great example of our ability to support IT infrastructure projects. We're proud to be involved in such a prestigious project and have a proven track record in delivering the IT requirements for large scale sporting events."

The comprehensive IT solutions for this event cover the provision of information technology infrastructure and services to the stadium, media facilities, FIFA offices and the hotels where the players, referees and VIPs will be hosted. This includes provision of high speed fixed line and wireless internet connections including cabling and hardware; all PC's, laptops and printers; and on site support services.

According to Salah Tahlak, Tournament Director, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, it is Mercator's solid track record and ability to provide end to end seamless solutions that make them the ideal IT partner.  "Real time communication flow will ensure that we are able to provide the latest tournament results and action, both to key officials and spectators, here in the UAE and across the globe," said Tahlak.

This marks another important step in positioning Mercator as the leading IT solutions and services provider for the region. Integrated service solutions have extended beyond the travel and transportation industry, with Mercator's extensive Business Technologies portfolio.

Mercator has previously provided full IT services for other international and regional sporting events such as the IRB World Cup 7's in Dubai and the Emirates Airline Rugby 7's and the recently held football match between AC Milan and Hamburg at the Dubai Sevens Stadium.

With difficult business operating conditions, it is evident that air freight customers are driving airlines to improve service quality and lower distribution costs. Airlines that do not focus on these dual dimensions are likely to be the first to have customers defect in the face of a limp air cargo demand.

Conversely, as part of their overall response, a number of leading airlines are looking at redefining and re-positioning the claim function to take up the broader scope of post sales service activities.

In this new role, traditional claims managers have been fortified with the responsibility to increase claims processing efficiency, reduce claims-related cash outflows, improve customer service and minimize the number of customer defects.

On another front, heavy penetration of IATA's e-freight initiative indicates that in the near future traditional claims managers will need to work with electronic data rather than relying on paper-based processes to carry out their day to day activities. In fact, article 1.22 in the IATA cargo claims and loss prevention handbook promotes carriers to establish an (electronic) means of recording, retaining and processing claims related information.

With these market requirements in mind, Mercator has committed its investments and recently launched an integrated and simple-to-use web-based system that automates the complete claims lifecycle and puts the claims manager in charge of the future.

The solution provides an easy web front end to the airline's customers to raise an intent of claim, log complaints, upload scanned documents and at any time track the status of their claim. For the organisation, this reduces claims processing (and operating) costs and improves the responsiveness and transparency to customers. A host of custom-built reports are also available to help with investigation/causal analysis of service failures, which can be fed back into the organisation in order to take corrective action, improve service reliability, and thereby reduce the number of claims and associated costs.