Patrick Naef, head of Mercator and divisional senior vice president, Emirates Group IT.
Do you have any words of wisdom for the logistics and air cargo industry in the Middle East?
I think one of the areas that I would recommend most of the traditional cargo carriers and logistics firms to consider is the reduction in complexity. That was something that we learned when we drew down 23 legacy systems to one. There is a huge cost reduction you can achieve by doing that.
Many of these systems have a tendency to mushroom, meaning that a lot of these companies ended up by having a highly complex mesh of systems where it was hard to keep data up to date and accurate between systems. That in itself can be hugely expensive. Whenever you change one system you need to adapt all the systems to reflect that change. The more you move away from that approach and towards an integrated approach such as that provided by SkyChain, the greater the chances are you will achieve cost benefits.
Do you have any new products lined up for launch this year?
I wouldn’t want to answer that question right now, but what I can say is that we are constantly exploring new opportunities to grow our business. From the Emirates Group perspective, we have identified Mercator as being one of the businesses that we want to grow significantly in the future. In terms of new products, we will communicate those when we are ready to do so.
What’s your outlook for the future?
About two years ago we sat down and assessed how we would go forward. The IT division has more than enough to do just to support Emirates, so there was always the question as to how much we would distract ourselves from delivering to the external business. But that side of the business is hugely attractive and it’s also good for the group not to be so dependent on the airline, which is why you see Emirates also investing in other areas, like ground handling, hotels and resorts etc.
As a result, I have been given the mandate to aggressively grow the business, so over the next few years we will expand by offering new products, new services and potentially also through acquisition. We definitely want to become one of the major players in the market.
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