The industry buzz for years was to create a profile solution that would establish a bi-directional relationship that would synchronize an online booking engine's profile with a Web-based profile solution housed outside the online tool.  The goal of course would be to provide real-time synchronization of data regardless of where the information was updated. 

Because at the time the industry had not produced a solution that companies like Merck could utilize, the Merck team decided to take a common sense approach that used cutting edge technology to meet the demanding needs and service expectations of it's travelers and arrangers.  Merck's vision was to create a solution that enabled travelers and arrangers to only have one profile located within a centralized repository on the Web.  Profile data and travel preferences would be pushed out to both the online booking tool and GDS in real-time through XML gateways whenever a change was made to a profile.  The profile would be available 24x7 and would greatly improve the accuracy of the data and customer service by integrating with Merck HR systems, all the while, maintaining Merck's stringent security and data sensitivity standards.

There were those within the industry who doubted Merck's success, however, Merck assembled a talented group of people, both from within and from the agency to transform vision into reality.  Merck then solicited the support and expertise of profile integration expert Trondent Development Corp

The Merck team and Trondent got to work, laying out Merck's vision and the functionality specifications.  This is when the creative thinking began. Trondent's Profile Product Manager, David Stevenson led the effort for Trondent, working with Merck's agency and online booking partners to get all parties onboard for the effort. Ultimately, what Merck required was a highly secure system that would integrate and automate the flow of traveler profile information from Merck's HR system, to the GDS and online booking system in a completely seamless and secure way, with no manual intervention.

Merck's Vision

·         Travelers and/or Travel Arrangers could view and modify traveler profiles online.

·         Merck billing/FOP information (at times unknown to travelers -- was pulled from Merck's HR database) would automatically populate respective profile fields to ensure this critical data was always up-to-date, regardless if a traveler changed their profile or not.

·         Merck's agency would have access to accurate and current profile data via the GDS and/or Web on a real-time basis.

·         Profile data would be synchronized among Merck's HR database, the GDS and online booking system at all times.

·         For security reasons, Merck required a current and accurate record of all employees with a profile and complete control over certain profile fields that even travelers could not modify.  

Key Obstacles To Overcome

·         Formats and codes used in the online booking system were not compatible with those used in the GDS.

·         Access to profile data would only be allowed through Merck's Intranet.

·         A secure VPN was required to pass data from external sources (GDS and Online Booking) to internal Merck sources (Intranet and HR database) to meet Merck's security needs.

The Solution

Merck decided to use Trondent's leading edge, ProFILER WEB technology as the foundation from which to build its custom solution and realize their vision. In support of this effort, Trondent allocated hundreds of programming man-hours and management expertise to develop a solution, in partnership with Merck that would meet all its needs. After months of development and creative thinking, the new system was launched.

New travelers or travel arrangers go the Merck Intranet to create a profile. Trondent technology works behind the scenes to validate that this is indeed an employee without a profile, request employee information from the Merck HR database, populates the profile with this "unchangeable" data and then allows the employee to fill out the remaining profile fields. This entire automated process takes less than 7 seconds. Once the profile information is completed and saved, Trondent's ProFILER technology goes to work updating Merck's online booking product, agency GDS and Merck's internal HR database system. Every night Trondent receives a feed from Merck's HR system via the secure VPN, reflecting all employee HR information changed from the day before, including any employees who have been terminated or left the company. The system automatically pushes this information out to the GDS and online booking system, converted into the coding and formats required by each.

The customized system delivered all of Merck's vision and specifications and has yielded benefits in so many ways. For example, when Merck needed to change the form of payment for over 14,000 profiles in the GDS and online booking system, ProFILER technology was able to do it over night. When an address or site code changes, it can be reflected in all applications, literally within minutes. Most importantly, Merck has maintained complete security and control over all the areas it requires without losing flexibility, traveler convenience, data quality and operational effectiveness, indeed, the new system enhances all these attributes.         

Recently, Merck converted from one agency to another.  This conversion required the movement of all profiles from the psuedo managed by the incumbent agency to the new agency.  In addition the format of the profiles needed to change from the incumbent agency's standards to the new standards.  The profiles also needed to reflect the change in the profiles stored by their online booking provider.  During this conversion, Merck also required the inclusion of several new HR data elements in their daily feed.  This included updating all 15,000 profiles with updated accounting info.   We did this with minimal interruption of the data flow and no interruption of the capture of data entered by the traveler. 

About Trondent Development Corp.

Trondent is a leading technology solution provider to travel management companies, on-line travel portals and multinational corporations worldwide.  Trondent's innovative software and ASP tools are designed to improve productivity, reduce T&E spend, improve travel policy compliance and consolidate travel data globally.  Over the past 10 years, Trondent has maintained its position as the leading GDS "Traveler Profile" management and synchronization company.  

About Merck

Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company.  Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of innovative products to improve human and animal health, directly and through its joint ventures.