I’ve been doing a large consulting project for an organization that is looking to move some of their vertically tailored service offerings into a cloud model – it’s a topic I’m pretty passionate about as I see that cloud has the ability to really drive synergies for specific vertical industries. It’s something I’ve been talking and writing about around the NetSuite ecosystem and it’s something that I’m slowly seeing more of.
A case in point is a discussion I had recently with Mark McCaughen, CEO of merlot.aero, a company that has created a cloud based solution to manage airline resource planning. the merlot.aero solutions allows airlines to control core operational information in an effort to help airline staff to effectively manage their business and achieve regulatory compliance while maximizing the airline’s operational efficiency.
merlot.aero is a small company, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand – not exactly the home of airline management solutions, however by using an agile approach towards development, and building on top of cloud platforms that help with scalability, merlot.aero is making wins. merlot.aero provides a cloud solution for its customers – their solution combines a SaaS application that is web services enabled but can be deployed over either a private or public cloud platform.
They’ve just announced that Regional Express (REX), the largest independent airline in Australia has chosen their solution to run their operations. Rex will use merlot.aero planning applications to cover all planning processes for their airline and crew, merlot.aero following applications to track the real time management of these assets, and merlot.aero architecture modules for database, reporting, messaging and overall integration with other key airline applications such as reservations and finance.
Of course merlot is a young company and needs to get plenty more runs on the board – but they’re a good example of the benefits that cloud can bring to companies looking to provide highly specific solutions to specific industry verticals.
