Category Archives: Technology

TIFFA EDI Services and Kale Logistics Solutions have joined hands to promote paperless trade in the maritime sector of Thailand through their integrated and comprehensive Port Community System (PCS). The integrated platform empowers the SME players in the value chain to automate their internal business processes in an end-to-end manner. Kerry Siam Seaport, SITC Container Lines and Kline Logistics, have signed up this platform for e-DO services and many more are in the process of signing up. Talking about the development, Vineet Malhotra, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions, says, “Our relationship with Thailand and TIFFA is more than 7 years. We have empowered the air cargo sector with digitisation of air waybills and now we look at digitising the maritime sector. Our domain expertise and experience of working in 27 countries and executing global IT projects in maritime and air cargo space will add value to our PCS platform in Thailand. He further adds, “We are hopeful that this digital platform will play a key role in improving Thailand’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) ranking with World Bank and Trade Facilitation Agreement initiatives with World Trade Organization (WTO)”. Expressing their delight over the development, Suwit Ratanachinda, Chairman, TIFFA EDI Services says, “We are offering this solution to ease all stakeholders with this challenging situation of risk from the COVID-19. The old-style Delivery Orders (DO) process which takes time and paper-intensive operations are prone to errors and increased the spread of virus through document exchange. The initiative of e-DO service is to facilitate ease of doing business to freight forwarders, shipping lines, transporters, terminal operators and Port authorities. This solution offers an open integrated platform connecting all cargo stakeholders on single platform for …

Shipsy has raised US$ 6 million in Series A funding in a round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, a rapid scale-up program for start-ups in India and Southeast Asia, and existing investor, the publicly-listed Indian online classifieds company Info Edge. “The platform helps shippers reduce freight costs by automating and digitizing freight negotiations, reducing incidental charges, significantly improving shipping turnaround time and minimising working capital loss for shippers through advanced machine learning models,” explains Soham Chokshi, Co-founder and CEO of Shipsy. “Owing to a substantial increase in the demand for our solution, it was important to leverage the momentum and look out for global investment partners in our next leg of our journey. The money raised will help fuel our growth and enable us to become a market leader, allowing us to continue our aggressive geographical expansion, besides investing in product innovation to keep us ahead of the curve. While we have run our venture profitably, it was critical for us to partner with like-minded global investors in our journey as we venture into larger markets”, he adds. The approach is to create a strong SaaS workflow management platform that allows network participants to collaborate and work together, reducing process bottlenecks, enhancing efficiency and bringing transparency. Shipsy boasts of processing 10% of India’s trade as well as having the biggest 3PL company, the largest exporter and retailer along with the largest QSR chain amongst their clientele. More than 120 enterprises, including 5 of the top 10 exporters of India are among Shipsy’s clients today. Strong word-of-mouth and referrals from the top names have aided the multifold growth over the last 1 year. As for the business, revenues have grown …

In collaboration with tech innovator Verity, DSV is implementing an autonomous drone system in several of its warehouses to help manage inventory. The drone system can scan barcodes without human interaction and detect if pallet positions are empty or occupied. Operating mainly at night, the drones don’t interrupt warehouse operations. Inventory management traditionally involves manual barcode scans to count the warehouse inventory and keep track of stock. Besides being an unsafe and arduous task, manual counts often result in inventory data not being up to date due to discrepancies. The DSV Innovation Hub continually works to innovate DSV’s customer offerings and its operations, and after connecting with Verity, the two companies tested the system at the Moerdijk warehouse in the Netherlands, completing thousands of autonomous flights and tens of thousands of scans. “The drones know down to each centimetre where goods are located, and the information they provide with their scans can be compared with information in our system. This helps us to increase the predictability and visibility of inventory,” says Luca Graf, Senior Director, Innovation, DSV. The pilot showed that manual counts can be avoided to a large extent and that inventory data becomes virtually error-free, thereby helping to reduce stock. The successful pilot now leads to roll-out of the drone system into more DSV warehouses. “We want to offer our customers high-tech supply chain solutions, which is why we work with innovative companies like Verity. We have had a good, hands-on collaboration with them on this drone system, which we expect can benefit many of our warehouse operations where the business case makes sense,” says Peter van der Maas, Executive Vice President, Benelux, DSV Solutions.

American Airlines Cargo has continued the modernisation of its business with the completion of digital Air Mail Handling and Mail Revenue Accounting modules from IBS Software’s iCargo system. This deployment, which was completed in late August, was the final transition necessary to complete the multi-year modernisation effort that replaces the cargo business’s technology platform. iCargo has helped American simplify its cargo business’s IT landscape by reducing the number of systems from 90 to 10, eliminating redundancies and inefficiencies in systems and processes that will drive improvements for its 8000+ cargo team and 30,000 customers. The enhanced technology enabled teams to better communicate with customers and offer new solutions in a time where keeping cargo moving was especially critical. “Completing the transition to iCargo is a critical step in digitalising our global air cargo business. Air cargo has played a vital role during the pandemic, and it is important that we continue to innovate and press ahead with our digital strategy as we look toward the future,” said, Angela Hudson, Head of Transformation for American Airlines Cargo. She added, “Our entire team owned this transition and have been working side-by-side to leverage our new tools with customers in mind.” “The successful go-live of the iCargo platform at American Airlines Cargo is a testament to the commitment that iCargo and IBS Software brings to the global air cargo business. American has an incredible team running an intensive air cargo schedule, especially now with their cargo-only flight schedule, and we’re delighted that iCargo will be playing a critical role in helping them achieve that,” said Ashok Rajan, Senior Vice President & Head of Cargo and Logistics, IBS Software.

Terminal Pipavav has commenced Integrated Container Tracking (ICT) system introduced by National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd (NICDC) under Logistics Data Bank (LDB) project. NICDC Logistics Data Services (NLDS) has completed vital infrastructure at APM Terminals Pipavav to commence the near real time visibility of the container movement across the supply chain. This will help in tracking the container from port to Container Freight Stations (CFSs), Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and end users and would help in enhancing the visibility and efficiency of the container movement thereby improving the competitiveness of the Exim trade. LDB was developed to address the critical issue of tracking movement of containers across various ports and provide insights to trade. It integrates the information available with various agencies across the supply chain to provide detailed real time information within a single window. With this expansion 100% of India’s container volume will be covered under LDB project. Currently around 28 million EXIM containers pan India have received services. Jakob Friis Sørensen, Managing Director, APM Terminals Pipavav said, “It’s an honour to become a part of this nation-wide project of NICDC that will streamline container movement across logistics value chain and identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks to develop strategies to ensure the development of the sector.” He adds, “The visibility of containers throughout the entire supply chain provides multiple benefits to trade, including transparency, integration, lesser paperwork and improved planning for arrival, unloading and final delivery.” A separate Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been formed by the Govt. of India between NICDC and NEC Corporation, Japan namely “NICDC Logistics Data Services Limited” (NLDSL) to execute LDB across entire logistics value chain. LDB is now functional at 17 ports, …

In a bid to offer services on P-CaSo, Portall Infosystems has announced collaboration with BoxnBiz, an inbuilt cloud-based Indian freight forwarding solution-based offering air freight, ocean freight & customs clearance. P-CaSo, a collaborative platform for the ecosystem is integrated into the Indian Port Community System to bring various services, including services such as eBL, blockchain document transfer (BDT), trucking aggregation services, eVGM and e-learning, certificate of origin. The addition of freight quote to the existing pallet of services will allow PCS 1x users to access the ocean freight portal’s booking, get instant freight quotes for FCL & LCL services along with end to end tracking & visibility with 3000+ port pairs to serve import & export needs, saving and sharing documents and payments. Shirishchandra Shah, Chief Product Officer, Portall Infosystems, said, “Our partnership with BoxnBiz would bring synergy & value additions in the maritime community as we once again make our footprint in the digitisation space. I thank Indian Ports Association for their wholehearted support & wish BoxnBiz a very best of luck in their journey with us.” Biplob Barik, Founder & CEO, BoxnBiz said, “With this partnership, we expect that the adoption of digitalisation in the international shipping space will increase and the maritime sector will take a greater step towards digitalization. The present pandemic has no doubt shaken the way businesses work. Now it is time to change and we want to contribute to this journey together with Portall.”

Kale Logistics Solutions (Kale) has completed a decade in offering IT solutions and simplifying operations for the logistics industry globally. Incorporated in 2010, the company is headquartered in India with regional branches and subsidiaries in USA, Canada, Netherlands, UAE, Kenya and Mauritius and serves more than 4500 satisfied customers in 29 countries. Rajesh Panicker, COO, Kale Logistics Solutions, says, “What we are witnessing right now is the start of our long and rapid growth journey, where we are shifting gears for enterprises to build cloud-based foundations that will serve as a resilient, secure and scalable digital core. Our success is a huge endorsement of the increased relevance of our solutions and services to our clients as they pivot to digital simplification and future-ready technologies. Accessibility and touchless are becoming important attributes for solution design and our platforms continue to gain traction as they enhance enterprises’ digital capability to respond and recover from the pandemic.” Expressing his delight over completion of 10 years, Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions says, “It is a great pleasure to be in the business of logistics and Kale in this decade has witnessed rapid growth. From a humble beginning, Kale is now a preferred global partner for logistics enterprise automation and community platforms. We envision that in the new normal, successful enterprises have to be purpose-driven, autonomous, and highly adaptive in order to drive innovation and to best serve their customers and employees.” Vineet Malhotra, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions said, “We have always maintained that growth is the best margin lever, and that is very evident in our journey. It is very gratifying to see that what we laid-down as a foundation keystone – digital …

NebulARC has introduced UBICUO, an AI-enabled Virtual Assistant for organisations helping them to take immediate actions based on detailed workflows, real-time alerts and analytics. The solution aims to help the companies to automate the entire supply chain and make supply chain management even smarter. With the growing need for effective logistics amidst rising customer demand for ecommerce and FMCG companies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find apt manpower to manage the supply chain functions. Leveraging the AI-enabled virtual assistant is a smart option for companies working towards faster decision making and enhanced experience. Being an innovation-driven company, NebulARC’s virtual assistant – UBICUO allows enterprises to keep a check on inventory, product perishability, supply trends, demand supply ratio etc. It is a cost effective solution that manages warehouse operations and follows up dispatched and stock in hand to inform the production requirements for smarter business decisions. Alok Sharma, CEO & Co-founder, NebulARC said, “Certainly positive about the market sentiment, we are thrilled to introduce one of our most-disruptive logistics solutions for businesses across verticals. Our one-of-a kind virtual assistant – UBICUO has been developed keeping in mind the various constraints that a company faces while managing its logistics be it for B2B shipments or for end-customers. With its unique capabilities, UBICUO will prove to be a key enabler for organisations by helping them to increase their productivity and optimise their operations at a significantly lesser cost. With this resource-saving project we are making yet another substantial effort towards accelerating digital transformation in the logistics space.” NebulARC’s AI-enabled Virtual Assistant not only manages the entire logistics ecosystem but also helps the businesses to significantly reduce risks of theft, pilferage and other …

Mahindra Electric announced the launch of its new electric 3-wheeler cargo model Treo Zor at a starting price of Rs 2.73 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Built on the Treo platform, the new offering comes in three variants – pick up, delivery van and flat bed – and will be available at Mahindra small commercial vehicle dealerships in select cities across the country from December. “Our Treo platform demonstrates our commitment to Aatmanirbhar Bharat through the latest technology and make in India. The Treo Zor will provide a clean, sustainable and affordable solution for last-mile delivery,” Pawan Goenka, MD and CEO, Mahindra & Mahindra said at the launch. “The proven Treo electric 3-wheeler platform has already redefined last-mile mobility with 5,000+ satisfied customers who have traversed 35 million kms on Indian roads. Treo Zor has been developed with cutting edge technology to deliver substantial customer value proposition and is available in 3 variants to meet every customer needs,” said Mahesh Babu, MD & CEO, Mahindra Electric. Treo Zor comes with an 8kW advanced lithium-ion battery and a best-in-segment payload of 550 kgs. It gives higher earning opportunities. Also, the new vehicle comes with a standard warranty of 3 years/80,000 km, the company said, adding the vehicle can be charged by plugging into a 15AMP socket. The wide service network of over 140 dealerships across India ensures timely after-sales service as well, it added. The other features include telematics unit and GPS, windscreen and wiping system, spare wheel provision, among others, the company said.

Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Shipping, Government of India has e-launched the indigenous software solution for Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and Vessels Traffic Monitoring Systems (VTMS) in the capital. Following the development, Mandaviya emphasises that indigenous system is the requirement of the country instead because there is no need to rely on high costing foreign made software solutions for traffic managements of the Indian Ports. He said that aligning with the vision of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ of Prime Minster Narendra Modi, ‘Made in India’ VTS and VTMS software will pave the way for ‘Make for the world’ vessel traffic management systems. VTS and VTMS are software which determines vessel positions, position of other traffic or meteorological hazard warnings and extensive management of traffic within a port or waterway. Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) contribute to safety of life at sea, safety and efficiency of navigation and protection of the marine environment, adjacent shore areas, work sites and offshore installations from possible adverse effects of maritime traffic. Vessels Traffic Management Systems are installed in some of the busiest waters in the world, and are making valuable contribution to safer navigation, more efficient traffic flow, and protection of the environment. Traffic flow in busy approach routes, access channels, and harbours can be coordinated safely, in the best interest of port and its users. Incidents and emergency situations can be dealt with quickly. Data from traffic movements can be stored and used as reference information for port administration, port authorities, coastguards and search and rescue services. VTMS is mandatory under IMO Convention SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea). The VTMS traffic image is compiled and collected by means of advanced sensors such as …