Founder’s Story
From Guest Facing
to Guiding Star.
Amber Halliday’s Journey to Salesforce Solutionist.
Tourism
Counsellors Trained
Amber Halliday sits and watches intently as the lead trainer begins her demonstration of the new reservation booking system. Outside, it’s a colourful fall day in Connecticut. Inside, it’s subdued beige and quiet calm, as all the reservation sales counsellors focus on the conference room’s electronic display, specifically the trainer’s pointer hovering over a new knowledge base feature designed by Aderra Solutions, Halliday’s Salesforce consultancy firm. The trainer clicks, and the screen floods with detailed tour information. In a split second, the once quiet room erupts into applause. Halliday relaxes, and her eyes turn away from the trainer to the participants, a smile spreading across her face.
“I thought the counsellors would appreciate the button. It looks simple, but it is actually a knowledge-base feature I have dreamed about since my days as a vacation consultant. That button will save these counsellors countless hours of exhaustive searches when building an itinerary. As soon as everyone started clapping, and their faces lit up with smiles, I was truly overwhelmed,” she recalled.
Moments like this happen more often than the humble Halliday will admit. A problem-solver by nature, she has spent more than 20 years in the travel industry, beginning her career as a people leader and transitioning to a work-from-home vacation consultant when her father suffered a stroke. In every role she holds, she finds ways to improve the guest and employee experience. She is relentless and invested. If there is a way to streamline a process, she’ll find it.
A Problem-Solver
by Nature
What sets Halliday apart from other Salesforce consultants is her years of front-line tourism experience combined with her technical fluency. She understands how people, processes, and platforms intersect for travel and tourism brands.
Early in her career, while working for an international sightseeing bus operator, she led a team answering daily guest calls. The team fielded hundreds a day, mostly from guests needing directions to the nearest pickup location. The guests were understandably stressed. They were in a new city, in unfamiliar surroundings, and, in some cases, in a time crunch. Halliday knew there had to be a way to make things easier for her team and guests.
“I created a list of every hotel in the area, along with the nearest pickup spot. Then I added links to Google Maps for the team to reference when virtually walking guests to the pickup location. They could then say, ‘Turn right at such and such street, then left at the lights.’ It was a simple solution for the time, but it relieved a lot of anxiety for guests and made call center agents less stressed.”
From Quality Assurance to
System Administrator
As her career progressed, she tackled more complex problems, relying heavily on technological solutions. When COVID impacted the travel industry globally, she seized the opportunity to move from sales into information technology. Her deep understanding of front-line needs allowed her to advance quickly from quality assurance to system administrator.
“I have always been an early adopter of technology,” she explained. “I took classes after work to learn new skills, including multiple Salesforce certification courses. “I see technology as a tool to remove friction in everyday processes, particularly for multi-day tour operators and their guests.”
The desire to remove friction led Halliday to found Aderra Solutions, a boutique consultancy specializing in Salesforce implementation for travel and tourism brands. Much like she did as a vacation consultant, she customizes the solution to fit the client’s needs. It’s never a one-size-fits-all implementation. Most, if not all, implementations require people with varied skill sets who understand tourism.
“At the time I founded the company, I had left my employer and was working independently with clients, building the automations or configurations for decisions already made. As a consultant, I made recommendations on how to build the product. I was taking on more and more work and realized that the time had come to create a knowledgeable team around me.”
A Star is Born
Even the name Aderra carries meaning. Aderra Solutions stems from Adhara, a blue supergiant star 3,500 times brighter than the sun and one of the stars used for
celestial navigation.
“At Aderra, we guide people through their journey. We are a beacon for people in the industry to follow, a light in the darkness of development, showing them the way.”
The Translator Between
Technology and Business
Many tour operators struggle with Salesforce implementations because they hire consultancies unfamiliar with the industry. This results in a lengthy ramp-up time. Aderra Solutions closes the gap between enterprise technology and the realities of travel operations.
“I once heard an executive at a multi-day tour operator recount how their business had spent a year onboarding a major Salesforce consultancy before entering the design phase. That is an incredible investment of time and money. My company shortens the ramp-up time by bringing real industry experience to the table and savings across the board.”
While Aderra can join a project at any stage, Halliday particularly enjoys supporting multi-day tour operators at the beginning of their Salesforce journey. Tour operators may know their business inside and out, but they may not understand what Salesforce can or cannot do.
“We act as the translator between the technology and the business and help them scale faster. Most won’t get what they need from a generic Salesforce implementation. Instead, they need partners who understand and can design for the complexity of their business.”
But the business relationship doesn’t end once the system is delivered. When Aderra Solutions hands off a project to clients, the team ensures that they understand how the system works and how to maintain it. Training and documentation ensure clients can successfully continue their digital transformation journey.
“If a client needs our help later, we will be there, but they are not dependent on us. We assemble the furniture and provide the instruction manual so they can be successful long after we’re gone.”
It's a Part of Our
Core Values
Taking care of the client’s needs from start to finish is woven into Aderra Solutions’ core values. The business is intrinsically Halliday, and its most important, overarching value is “Do what’s right”.
A client once invited her to sit in on a presentation by another consultancy recommending a solution for encrypting guests’ passport numbers. The service being recommended cost a percentage of overall Salesforce billing annually, approximately a quarter of a million dollars, and offered a complex solution better suited for government agencies or financial institutions handling large volumes of personal data.
“I could have stayed quiet and let the client move forward with the service and the consultancy land a lucrative contract and commission. For me, at that moment, doing what was right meant being candid and leading the client in the right direction, which was a free solution that existed in their Salesforce. My team and I are not motivated by short-term wins. We make decisions based on the long-term impact. We think about relationships and the integrity of the systems we build.”
“Aderra’s values are essentially mine. When I started my business, I made sure it would reflect my way of doing business, from who I hire to the clients I choose to work with.”
From One Guest to
Entire Teams
As a founder, Halliday’s goal is to amplify Aderra’s and her own personal impact within the tourism industry.
“I could influence one person at a time when I was on the front lines,” she explained. “Today, through Aderra, I can influence entire teams. Most recently, 150 reservation sales counsellors, who influence fifty-plus guests a day. And when these counsellors ask specific, real-world questions during training sessions, like ‘What do I do when X, Y, or Z happens?’ I can tell they are imagining how this tool we designed will fit into their workflow and if it will make things easier and faster. I find it genuinely rewarding to watch people adopt the software and make it their own.”
Founding Aderra Solutions was never about leaving the front lines. It was an opportunity to expand her reach and build technology that reflects how travel and tourism professionals actually work.
“At the end of the day, I’m building the tools I always wished I had. Still, it’s sometimes hard to imagine the impact you are having. We don’t just ask our clients what they want and deliver. We facilitate conversations to get to the heart of what they really need. Our recommendations come from in-depth discovery and our own industry experience, and the results are bespoke solutions uniquely designed for each client.”
Amber Halliday founded Aderra Solutions to guide travel and tourism brands seamlessly through Salesforce implementations. Judging by the reactions of the reservation sales counsellors in the Connecticut training session, her approach is working, and her company is winning over those in the industry one click at a time.
Let's Start the Conversation
Whether you’re implementing Salesforce for the first time or untangling a complex CRM environment, Aderra Solutions brings front line industry expertise and elite technical capability to every engagement. We work with travel and tourism brands across North America and beyond — bringing calm to complexity and clarity to every project.
Aderra Solutions is a Salesforce Consulting Partner built for travel and tourism. We help brands streamline operations, enhance the guest experience, and empower their teams with clarity and confidence.
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