IT Delivers On Time

Commonly

Deployed IT Solutions

Warehouse Management

System: to help manage inventory levels at optimum levels

Transport Management

System: for end-to-end visibility

Freight Forwarding

System: handling custom clearance for International movement

Bar coding of

shipments: to enhance efficiency

Shipment Tracking over

the Web/ Mobile/SMS-based: to provide end-to-end visibility

Vehicle tracking

devices like Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

Collaboration with

Agents and Vendors over the Web

Forecasting software

for forecast demand

'On peak days around

1000 concurrent users work on GEMS'



                                                     Â

-GS Ravikumar, CIO. Gati

Gati is one of the

leaders in the express cargo movement and a pioneer in distribution and

supply chain management solutions in India, since 1989. Turnover: Rs 3,613

mn. Employee strength: 6,400. Gati has the largest fleet with over 2,000

vehicles on the road, and has an extensive network and reach.Â

Gati services 594 out of the 602 districts in India, with services

ranging from express cargo distribution to complex end-to-end integrated

logistics and supply chain management solutions. The company also has a

well-structured multi-modal service system and a 6-lakh sq ft mechanized

warehousing facility. It also has a strategic tie-up with Indian Airlines,

which provides it unmatched reach. Its international wing, Gati

International, takes care of the SAARC countries and the Asia Pacific

region, with a highly specialized India-centric perspective. CIO, GS

Ravikumar speaks to Shrikanth G of Dataquest about how Gati has

strategically used IT in its operations.

How has IT evolved in

the company?





In the year 2000 Gati decided to move away from the decentralized, legacy

system into a complete web-based, integrated, and centralized

state-of-the-art system. We decided that no ready-made software package

will suit our requirements. Hence, we finalized on an integrated software

to be developed on Oracle Forms and Report and interfaced with Oracle

Financials for accounting modules, and with Oracle CRM for contact center

and marketing modules.

Can you talk about your

in-house solution?





The design and development work started in January 2001 and it took two

and half years  (200+ man-year

effort) to complete the Gati Enterprise Management System (GEMS). GEMS

covers the entire end-to-end requirement of Gati.

In order to implement

Gati@web, a WAN connecting 100 plus major locations on terrestrial links

(leased lines) was set up and the balance locations were connected to the

central server using dialup, broadband, cable or ISDN connections. WAN is

used not only for data but also for voice communication through IP phones.Â

Voice over IP is used not only within India but also to Gati

locations in other countries. Gati has built a highly redundant data

center and server-storage architecture to host GEMS and apps and CRM.

On the benefits...





On peak days around 1000 concurrent users work on GEMS from across the

country plus international locations. This number does not include our web

site concurrent usage, which runs into few hundred hits.Â

GEMS is an online application, and Gati's entire activities

depends on IT. For instance, the vehicles cannot move out without the trip

challan being generated from the system, customer queries cannot be

handled without the availability of this application.

Gati allows customers

track their shipments on their web site-they can check the detailed

transit information, and also view the scanned copy of the

Proof-of-Delivery. Gati also provides various options to customers to

track their shipments (mobile, e-mail).

What other solutions

have you deployed?





We have deployed a Warehouse Management Software (WMS), which is

integrated to GEMS. This software provides reports to customers in terms

of slow, fast moving stocks. We use Lotus Notes for mailing and instant

chat. Around 70,000 mails flow through the central server in a day. Since

Gati's entire operation is highly dependant on IT, a business continuity

plan has been put in place.

What are your plans,

going forward?





Some of the major plans for this calendar year would be a vehicle-tracking

system using GPS/GPRS for monitoring the movement of vehicles and

optimizing capacity utilization and routes; workflow automation, moving

toward a paper-less office; and implementing a work from anywhere/anytime

solution for the senior management team.

Opinion

Need For Speed





A robust software application is required for the logistics industry, as

business processes demand a 24x7x365 operation

Logistics is one of the

fastest growing industries in India. It has assumed greater importance due

to ever-shrinking time, space, and profit margins for the producers of

goods. Advancement in Information Technology has played a major role in

transforming this Industry, which in turn provides the competitive edge to

producers of goods, distributors, or dealers.

It is imperative that

logistics companies have a strong Information Technology and automation

backbone. One of the key components is to have robust software, which will

cater to the lifeline processes of the Industry such as pickups,

deliveries, routings, track & trace and the necessary documentation

etc.  Though it may sound

strange, there are hardly any ERPs available in the market to meet these

specific requirements. It is a fact that most companies had to custom

develop their own software to meet this specific need. This means that a

huge investment of time and money has to be made in developing the

applications, and also to maintain these applications while keeping pace

with the latest trends in technology. Probably the time is right for major

ERP vendors to look at this industry and develop a solution with a focus

on Indian market requirements

In addition to the

point above, in India, for this industry, there are no standards or EDI

through which customers-manufacturers, distributors, dealers-could

exchange information with the logistics service providers seamlessly.Â

This results in a lot of time and money being spent in converting

information from electronic form to manual and back to electronic. It is

likely that “Web Services” in the months to come might help to

overcome this shortcoming of interfacing seamlessly between the logistic

service provider and their customers.

With the impressive

growth of export/import, the retail explosion, and FDIs flowing in; and

with many a global players setting shop in India, the logistics industry

is set to boom, and Information Technology will be the key enabler to

handle this growth in this Logistics Vertical.

-By GS Ravi Kumar

CIO, Gati

All About Service





Like any other vertical logistics faces some unique IT challenges. Of the

many challenges I consider geographical reach to be the key one. Also are

collaboration with partners, data integration and availability, and

technology awareness among employees. Since logistics is all about

service, it becomes imperative to maintain a high degree of operational

integrity and reliability. IT has to provide the key-enabling role. At AFL

we made a conscious decision to move from the decentralized to a

centralized architecture, which has brought in strong controls and

speedier MIS to the business.

Business Apps





AFL has implemented a customized ERP called AGRANI that offers complete

integrated solution for logistics operations like warehousing, domestic

transportation, and international cargo movement. AGRANI comprises of the

following modules:

The Warehouse Management System: It

encompasses the inbound movement of materials and components to a

warehouse, storage of intermediate stocks pending order by the end-user,

outbound movement of material from the warehouse. It provides a

sophisticated system for controlling goods in the warehouse, and can

eliminate the need for warehouse paperwork. Shipments are bar coded and

scanners are used in the WMS process.

Package Express: It is a high

performance, integrated, transport management system which caters to

domestic door-to-door movement for multimodal transport (surface, air,

rail) providing pickup, booking and manifesting, in-transit and delivery

status, invoicing-receipt preparation, shipment and trip tracking, MIS

reporting etc. 

International Cargo: The software

automates the entire freight forwarding and international cargo movement

processes, right from contract management to order processing to shipping

to report generation. It also takes care of all support activities, which

go along with it. Web-based shipment tracking available to monitor

shipment and also creating visibility with customer-based tracking and

email-based tracking is also available to customers to track their

shipments.

Meanwhile, consolidation in a SAN

environment has enabled easier integration with different applications,

and less administrative hassles. Centralized servers have lead to easier

management and maintenance. Clustering for risk mitigation has enabled

high systems availability. We manage the network complexities by way of

highly resilient and redundant layer 3 LAN setup with Gigabit Ethernet

backbone for Centralized Data Center, and use Citrix to enable users to

make optimum use of available bandwidth and defer client hardware

upgrades. On the business continuity front we have deployed, in the

networking arena, a partial mesh topology, implemented on the backbone

with a mix of RF and terrestrial lines on the last mile. Also, a DR site

(cold site) at Chennai was established through on-line replication of data

from the central data center.

We have adopted Open Standards to reduce

TCO by using an amalgamation of PA-RISC and Intel platforms, and

implemented open source tools. Using Java technology for business

applications and moving towards Linux-based environment, 64-bit

architecture and thin clients have improved our RoI on technology. Going

forward, we have planned more IT solutions and the task at the top of our

agenda is a vehicle tracking system using GPS, for longer routes. We will

also be exploring the possibility of RF Scanners for large warehouses. I

believe this will optimize the receipt and dispatch processes in bigger

warehouses.

Data warehousing and BI are also on the

cards. An architectural change is also on the anvil as we plan to move

parts of the application to a web-based solution, which will help remote

locations to connect over the Internet. We will also be giving priority to

other tasks like web-based order booking, route planning and sales force

automation in the ongoing year.

SR Mallela, CTO, AFL



As told to Shrikanth G 


shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in