Maureva : A global player in software solutions for airlines

Provider of software and service solutions for the airline industry worldwide, Maureva is currently developing a new business technology, the IATA NDC (New Distribution Capability).

Maureva was created in 2004 to develop revenue accounting software solutions for the airline industry. It is now one of the leading companies in that domain and its expertise is recognized in other fields of activity such as revenue management, cargo systems, and flight and crew scheduling.

Maureva was set up by Nicolas Boyet, the director of Cirrus Informatique, a Reunion Island-based company. He sought to take advantage of the incentives which were provided by the Board of Investment for foreign software companies to settle in Ebène. Foreign experts were called in to train the new Mauritian recruits and the firm started its operations with a dozen employees in Cyber Tower 1. Today, Maureva employs 180 people, 95% of whom are Mauritians and has been able to cut a sizeable share of the world’s market for itself since it counts 50 of the 950 or so airline companies that exist.

Maureva first went for the French market following the path of its mother company, Cirrus Informatique, which had one major client in Air Austral, the Reunion Island-based airline, for which it installed the company’s flagship product, EDGAR. But soon, taking advantage of the strategic location of Mauritius and the bilingualism of its workforce, the company found itself having easy access to the Asian, African, Middle Eastern and European markets. By 2007, the company extended its services in revenue accounting to cargo airlines through its MARGO software. And in 2008, it became a IATA (International Air Transport Association) strategic partner.

Commenting on the company’s efforts to increase its competitivity on the global stage as it diversified its markets and the services it offers, Gérald Furlong, Maureva’s Managing Director, points out that “in an ever-changing business environment, we must ensure that our software embraces these changes and is compliant with the new technologies.” In his eyes, Maureva has been able to emerge as a global player with clients such as Corsair, Hop-Air France, XL Airways France among its French clientele, TransAsia Airways and MIAT Airlines among its Asian ones and Asky Airlines as one of its African clients. If such is the case, he goes on to say, it is “not only because Maureva has met the objectives in terms of time and budget but also anticipates customers’ needs and expectations.”

Innovation, the core strategy

Maureva does not have many competitors in the industry. According to Gérald Furlong, there is a group of five operators that shares most of the global market and now includes the Mauritius-based company. Innovation, he adds, remains “the core” of Maureva’s strategy. Indeed, the Managing Director states that the company has been able to win over so many clients by word of mouth between airline operators, the offer of innovative services having a lot to do with it.

Rapid developments in the software solutions offered by Maureva started as from 2011. In that year, the company participated in the IATA Simplified Settlement Project for the dematerialization of invoices between airlines and their industry partners. It achieved compliance for all its solutions as well, opening the doors of markets worldwide.

In 2012, Maureva developed the MISC, an application for miscellaneous billing in compliance with IATA SIS (Simplified Interline Settlement). EDGAR RMS, a re-venue optimization module, was also released. By 2014, MARGO and EDGAR had become sophisticated series of software solutions in specific fields; revenue accounting for EDGAR and cargo airlines for MARGO.

To make sure it keeps itself on the same track, the company has recently appointed MladenkaVukmirovic as its Chief Innovation Officer. Passionate about the travel industry, MladenkaVukmirovic has worked for more than a decade for a major European regional carrier. With a solid programming background, she is expected to help Maureva in its adoption of the IATA NDC (New Distribution Capability). The IATA NDC is considered as the next big thing in the airline industry as it should change significantly the way we buy air tickets in the near future.

So, the NDC will lead to a better-informed shopping environment for air travel that will deliver value to passengers and create business opportunities across all aspects of the industry. Moreover, following principles of transparent standards, the NDC will reshape the airline’s ability to serve customers and drive greater revenue.

The IATA, the airline industry’s trade association and regulatory body, is said to have put this forward to improve current airline business processes like it did in the past with the SIS, for example. While this project is still in its early stages, some firms like Maureva want to be among the first to be able to sell NDC compliant software to its clients. Experts like MladenkaVukmirovic are enthusiastic about working on the project. “There is no challenge that I want to face more than the NDC and there is no better place than Maureva where I can develop it. Maureva has invested massively in this project and is committed to become a major world player in this very important IATA initiative,” she told us.

MladenkaVukmirovic also added that “by adopting the NDC standard, Maureva will build a platform where airfare and availability will be combined with personalization tools. With market research and insight, Maureva will then be able to provide airlines with a system enabling them to further differentiate their products and services while efficiently distributing their pro-duct portfolios including ancillaries and promotional fares.”