Technological Innovations in Air Cargo: Issue 1

Technological innovation – Definition: the introduction of an idea, method or device. The creation of new significant technological changes to products and processes.

Welcome to the first in a new series of newsletters looking at how various aspects of technological innovation have improved operations within the air cargo industry. This is our third series, following on from our previous e-Freight and DGR newsletters.

In today’s world where everything is digitized and easily accessed no business can afford to neglect technology, especially when it comes to complicated, 24/7, integrated and competitive cargo management systems (CMS).

With growing competition within the Air Cargo Handling industry different CMS providers are focusing on different aspects of technology, functionality and innovation.

When the Hermes air cargo management system was created over a decade ago, it was seen by many as a turning point for air cargo handlers transforming “I’d like my CMS to be able to do this” into “my CMS does this”. Since then Hermes Logistics Technologies (HLT) have been at the forefront of CMS technology, partnering our in-house cargo experts with the latest design innovations to bring challenge driven improvements and value to our customers.

We focus on translating the latest technologies into best practice and functionalities. We investigate lots of new technologies, challenge industry buzzwords and constantly look at real world ways air cargo operations can benefit from them. We believe that new functionality does not necessarily need to be reliant on technology, it can simply be a good idea that needs to be implemented.

Looking at ways we can turn technological advances into useful innovation for our customers has become central to our everyday thinking, as well as the way we approach our future product development. Understanding this and believing that the only way to deliver true value to our customers is through the introduction of innovation, both functional and technical, the vision, mission and strategy for the HLT product portfolio is to become one of the innovation leaders in our field.

The air cargo industry has experienced something of a technological revolution in recent years as cargo handlers make the decision to move away from legacy systems and towards tools that they can customise to suit their current and future operations.

By embracing the latest advances air cargo carriers are concentrating more on streamlining their ground handling processes, reducing handling errors and maximising their profits.

In the past decade, we have seen technological innovation in area’s such as real time process management, controlled and monitored irregularity management and fully integrated DGR checking functionality HLT can proudly say that we have pioneered many of these innovations.

Today, using even smarter technology HLT is always looking at ways air cargo products and processes can be transformed into more efficient ones, and by linking this innovation with customer service, what real benefits these advances bring.

HLT believe innovations like ‘Big Cargo Data’ Business Intelligence (BI), Integrated Work Orders (paperless warehouse), Intelligent Customer Service Monitoring,Smart Hub Management, Task Management and Inbound Workload Profiling are important. Over the next issues we’ll be looking at how each of these innovations can be used and what benefits they bring.

And tomorrow is looking positive too. As part of this series we will be looking at underlying technologies, deployment methodologies, publishing option etc. as part of the comprehensive technological review of the Air Cargo Handling space. We will naturally share facts like the HERMES system migration to Magic 3.1 technology which will allow us to offer our customers a modern infrastructure based on Microsoft .NET, as well as an enhanced user experience and a better look and feel.

New functionalities provided by Magic 3.1 will also make it easier to integrate with the latest technologies and protocols, allow for the development of native mobile applications for both internal and external use and provide even more rapid development.

In the next issue…

Find out how Business Intelligence applications remove the challenges associated with analysis design, data integrity and complex mapping to allow you to make well informed decisions.