A Kiwi company that designs software for airlines has opened an office in Seattle as it continues its push worldwide.
A tiny office in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn houses Merlot Aero, a company doing business in the cloud for companies whose business is in the clouds.
"Air Asia group is our biggest customer," says CEO Mark McCaughan.
"They run across seven different airlines, they're running about 1000 flights a day now, over 200 aeoroplanes, and we're managing all of that."
Merlot Aero has created an airline logistics system that runs in the cloud, which means their information is stored online so it can be accessed from anywhere and on all sorts of devices.
For example, a cabin crew member could register on their phone that they're sick, and the system will alert managers and help find another staff member who's available to cover the shift.
Working in the cloud also means New Zealand's physical distance from trading partners is not a problem.
"We're running about 40 staff now around the world, all the way from here in New Zealand all the way through to the Ukraine and Romania and to the US, so, very much easily accessible resources – and again, the cloud's allowing that," says Mr McCaughan.
But not everything can be done in the cloud so Merlot Aero has overseas offices too, including a new one in settle.
"It's been a very exciting adventure for us from our little coffee shop in Herne Bay in 2008 to 40-odd people now around the world," says McCaughan.
He says the airline sector is continuing to expand, with new players in the market and existing ones buying more planes. The company's hoping that growth will help their business to continue taking off from the land of the long white cloud.
3 News
source: newshub archive
