Intelligent SME.tech Issue 13 | Page 38

// INDUSTRY UNLOCKED

SMES CAN SEE EXACTLY WHERE THEIR SHIPMENT IS USING THIS PORTAL FOR
TRACKING , THEY DON ’ T EVEN
HAVE TO CALL THE AIRLINE ,
THEY CAN JUST CHECK THE
CURRENT PIECE- LEVEL STATUS
AND PIECE- LEVEL HISTORY
THEMSELVES . picked up and delivered to the destination or cargo facility .
AB : Piece-level tracking is new to the airline industry . Airlines are normally combined passenger and freight , and they don ’ t have the hardware to scan everything . Airlines also ship a lot of commodities . For example , if you ship 10 boxes of lobster that are the same size and weight , it really doesn ’ t matter which box is late because they are all the same thing . However , it does matter for specific products like pharma or valuables . Our solution uses a rules engine , which allows the airline to dynamically say ‘ which products do you need to track ’?
So that ’ s the innovation here – not the piece-level tracking itself but the fact that you can highly tailor what is tracked and what is not tracked .
How can a small business track their shipment through the airline ?
AB : So , we have Cargo Portal Services ( CPS ) – a customer application that SMEs can access . They can book shipments , but they can also provide the piece-level details . The shipper or the forwarder knows what they ship and they will have the dimensions and weights for every single piece available , so this application allows them to enter that upfront . We also have APIs or application services available that they can send us electronically . This piecelevel data saves the airline the manual entry of the data . So , they get the details of each piece without having their staff do additional work .
As the airline scans the barcode , SMEs can see exactly where their shipment is using this portal for tracking , they don ’ t even have to call the airline , they can just check the current piece-level status and piece-level history themselves . They get immediate feedback .
How far do you think that this kind of technology will play an important role for smaller organisations or e-commerce organisations that are growing and expanding geographically through digitalisation ?
RM : CPS gives these small and medium sized customers the opportunity to go on to the portal and book and enter all that information . So , they can use any one of our airline clients to ship that uses our portal . It just gives them a wider range to ship throughout the
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