CUSTOMER: Mediterranean Shipping Company
CHALLENGE: Requirement for high-speed and high-volume processing of data to digitally transform internal and external operations
OUTCOME: Moving from legacy IT to a cloud-first ecosystem that allows data to flow seamlessly to the point of action, increasing customers’ and partners’ interaction through digital channels
The interoperable data platform enables real-time processing, validation and delivery of transport data
Freight expertise on all oceans: Its large fleet makes Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) the world’s second largest container shipping company. Every year, the company ships more than twenty-one million containers, which are loaded and unloaded in over 500 ports. Handling the transport without problems is a tremendous challenge. Firstly, the process chain is exceptionally complex. Secondly, a large amount of data is generated during the handling process, which must be managed. The data originates from certificates of origin, title deeds, bills of lading, etc. Every day, MSC’s central IT system in Geneva must electronically process and validate more than 300,000 container movements. To accelerate and optimize this process, MSC has decided to partner with InterSystems.
The main objective was to process and validate data in real time and make it directly available for further use. The reason: customers seek to use a web-based track-and-trace tool to call up the status of their freight at any time. “This is important because many of our customers depend on up-to-date information about the current delivery status when planning their own business processes,” says Jorge Carneiro, IT Director Logistics at MSC. After extensive testing, the MSC managers decided to leverage InterSystems high-performance, freely scalable and extremely reliable data management technology.
Data Management Provides a Better Overview
The SQL-compliant data platform provides the company with all necessary application integration and reporting capabilities, including a multi-model architecture and a native EDI engine. The latter is used to transmit every single movement of a freight container as an electronic message to the MSC headquarters. This approach has several advantages, as Michael Iserhardt, Senior Account Manager at InterSystems, explains: “Containers are much easier to track, wrong deliveries can be avoided, and a smooth flow between the different transport systems - sea, road, rail and air - is feasible”. In addition, errors are automatically detected and displayed in real time, enabling MSC managers to react and correct errors immediately.
InterSystems IRIS Brings Transport Data Into the Cloud
The InterSystems-based solution processes between 300,000 and 500,000 container movements per day in real time and makes the data available to other applications and services via a clear and easy-to-manage workflow. With the recent switch to InterSystems current data technology, InterSystems IRIS® data platform, MSC is able to host its solutions in the cloud, optimizing the entire IT infrastructure and paving the way for further customer services. Customers receive precise information about the current status of their container — around the clock and from anywhere in the world.