On the market there seems to be a growing demand for
logistics solutions and especially for global and complete
solutions with total insight into the entire distribution
chain. In the logistics industry especially one player has
been winning ground like no other. With an international
network consisting of 130 offices in 28 countries and a
hefty message flow of around 1.000.000/month, TNT Freight
Management is today one of the leading companies within
logistics. The wide and global coverage and the complete
distribution services make it possible for TNT Freight Management
to offer their customers the best service including total
presence in the whole distribution chain, from beginning
to stop. In order to handle the heavy message flow and to
guarantee a high security level the Xware platform Business
Communications Suite is used, which task is to tie together
all of TNT´s local offices with each other. This way the
information becomes available to all connected parties,
no matter which format the user uses.
Smooth and global message flow
TNT Freight Management provides planning, surveillance and
management of trace data, customs documents and other information
that is easily and flawlessly sent all over the world. Everything,
ranging from small parcels to large containers, occasional
deliveries or complicated flows is offered to the customers.
By combining services to integrated solutions TNT Freight
Management improves the efficiency in the customer's flow
significantly.
With its extensive geographic ventures TNT has been able
to get established in most areas around the world, especially
in Scandinavia. Also USA and Germany have proven to be successful
ventures, and recently great deals were settled with Bosch
in Germany as well as India. The probably biggest focus
though has been on China and Asia, a market that perhaps
isn't the easiest, but where good results have been achieved.
E-services - Planning, Surveillance and Management
Within the world of logistics there is a constant pulsating
flow of information streaming between customer and receiver,
the expectations on the deliveries are high; the procedure
should be safe and secure and at the same time fast and
efficient. TNT Freight Management works hard to be able
to offer their customers the best service as well as the
possibility to participate themselves in the transport of
their own parcel.
With the web service E-services, TNT Freight Management
can offer their customers an all-around tool that covers
all imaginable needs within planning, surveillance and management.
E-services provides e.g. complete document handling and
rapport system with an advanced platform independent order
management system. The service has since start-up received
a positive response (around 2 000 000 hits on the net and
20 000 visitors per month) and makes the customer present
in the logistics chain from the first order until the final
delivery, paper work can easily be eliminated. "Our opinion
regarding e-services is that all our produced documents
should be put there. All status information shall be made
available no matter if the customer uses the services or
not", explains Håkan Nilsson, CIO at TNT Freight Management.
In order to achieve maximum efficiency in the logistics
chain, the service has been divided into three areas: Freight
Planner, Freight Monitor and E-management, all optimally
designed to serve the customer in the best way possible.
With the new service Control Tower all these services are
sewn together.
Freight Planner - time- and price information around
the clock
Through the web based tool Freight Planner, TNT´s customers
get access to both time and price information no matter
when the service is used. By comparing different service
alternatives the customer is able to make big savings both
time-wise as well as financially. At the same time the number
of actual errors is decreased since the customer specifies
the booking information for the goods only once. "Freight
Planner has today around 15 000 bookings per month. The
exact quantity can be difficult to say since some of TNT´s
services require login while other simpler track and trace
services do not ask for id and password. It's not until
these last two years that Freight Planner has been marketed
actively", tells Håkan Nilsson.
Freight Monitor - for better surveillance of orders and
deliveries
Freight Monitor is a web application that makes it possible
for the customer to login to TNT´s own web service and follow
up on the delivery of a certain article. The details and
status information for a parcel is returned to a pre-defined
web page through an "application-to-application interface",
which the customer then gets access to. The trace tool is
efficient and offers functions that normally aren't included
in similar tools, for example information about statistics,
rapports and transport documentation. By having access to
detailed information about for example performance, time
deviations, airplane status, etc, the customer can simplify
his/her planning & quality control and at the same time
make big financial savings.
E-Management - for collaboration online
E-management is a collective term for several different
business modules that are used by customers with larger,
more complex logistics needs. Håkan Nilsson explains, "Freight
Monitor and Freight Planner are more Plug-and-Play solutions
that any customer can use. E-management is an umbrella name
for more sophisticated services that we normally just offer
to our key accounts and global accounts. Some of these are
actually segments of Freight Planner and Freight Monitor."
In here you can find a number of different administrative
tools that simplify the transparent information exchange
between the participants within the distribution chain.
E-management consists of:
Report Management - Simple and tailor-made rapports generated
by Freight
Monitor.
EDI Management - Electronic invoicing via EDI between TNT
Freight
Management
and their customers.
Order management system - Surveillance and control over
purchase orders.
Warehouse management system - IT support, for control over
stock levels
and
goods movement.
Message Bridge - Transmission of electronic documents between
different
parties
of the logistics chain, for example between, TNT´s local
offices,
customs
authorities, customers, airlines etc. The information in
the
exchanged
documents is easily converted so that it can be sent into
the
receiver's
system.
Virtual Private Network - Provides secure information exchange
over the
Internet.
Control Tower - ties together all parts to a whole
In order to increase the service one more notch, TNT Freight
Management has added some extra functionality to make it
easier for customers to further benefit from the services
offered. The new service Control Tower, which will be launched
later on this year, ties together all of the e-services´
components to a unity, information is made more available
to the customer. "By tying together applications, the customer
doesn't need to turn to Freight Monitor to follow up on
a delivery, instead status information is pro-actively produced
for the customer. We can integrate it with the customer's
ERP-system, by using for example EDI, mail or XML", explains
Håkan Nilsson.
Technical facts about the solution
To achieve the best messaging functionality TNT Freight
Management has chosen to use the xTrade Business Hub server
as a base - with placement in Sweden. The solution which
has been installed in Message Bridge works as a message
switch with EDI-functionality and converts, through the
software Symphonia, to different formats and versions, for
example ANSI X, XML, In-house, EDI, etc. Badria Ali, EDI-responsible
at the company and who works daily with the product comments,
"The system is continually filled with information from
all of TNT´s local offices either by using small "satellite-systems",
that is xTrade Business Connect systems, or by using a web
interface. We think that both xTrade as a product and the
conversion with Symphonia has worked very well." Thanks
to xTrade, TNT Freight Management now has a solution that
is both technically advanced as well as stable and secure.
On-going projects
At TNT Freight Management the work proceeds with developing
new applications to further improve user friendliness. Håkan
Nilsson has a positive outlook on the progress, "We have
successively built in new functions, increased the number
of customers and benefits for every customer by offering
these services".
The next service TNT Freight Management wants to offer their
customers are tailor-made rapports. As it is today, large
quantities reside in Freight Monitor, information that hasn't
yet been made available. To refine this information and
present rapports both internally for management and externally
to customers, these services are being tailor-made even
more. As a next step, TNT Freight Management is right now
in the middle of revising the new application Marine Logistics.
The service consists of an order manager, transport manager,
and warehouse manager. "It is an e-service with focus on
e.g. cruising ships that need spare parts, towels, champagne
and everything else that is associated with cruising ships,
to this we have built a system", tells Håkan Nilsson. Both
the custom made rapports and Marine Logistics will according
to TNT Freight Management be launched later this year.
TNT Freight Management
provides air-, sea freight and logistics services within
an international network consisting of 130 offices in 28
countries. In Sweden TNT Freight Management has 330 employees
in 9 offices. TNT Freight Management has its origin in the
old Wilson Logistics Group, which was acquired by TNT during
2004 to complement a hole in the product briefcase. Wilson's
structure was decided to be kept but with the difference
that it was now incorporated in an even larger body containing
a more aggressive growth plan. It has proven to be a smooth
and profiting transition for both parties and with the typical
TNT-color painted all over, the previous Wilson services
have now become "TNT-conformed".
