CROAMIS seeks to integrate supply chain
The air cargo industry is witnessing more and more collaboration between its various stakeholders such as freight forwarders, airliners, ground handling, customs, trucking and other handling services providers such as ULD operators for temperature –controlled shipments and packaging.IATA’s initiatives such as Cargo2000 help monitor the milestones and progress, as the freight moves through the supply chain. Most airliners and freight forwarders subscribe to a Common Data Management Platform or CDMP services offered by vendors, to feed data and track shipment progress.
On-demand (Cloud) air cargo systems such as CROAMIS, are just the leading edge of these systems that seek to integrate the Supply Chain within a single platform.The rapid growth and evolving business prompted Qatar Airways Cargo to work on CROAMIS, an integrated and comprehensive end-to-end IT automation solution to help drive this growth and also provide a robust IT platform for future years. Existing solutions available in the market were unable to support achieving these objectives.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said, “CROAMIS has been designed to anticipate our future business requirements, as well as the technological developments of the aviation industry. It will enable further efficiencies in Qatar Airways Groups’ day-to-day business operations and provide additional analytical information to inform our transportation planning and decision-making processes.”
Added Mr. Ulrich Ogeimann, Qatar Airways COO, “Qatar Airways Cargo is proud to launch CROAMIS, our state of the art next generation business process automation system, which provides 100% coverage of all cargo business functions in a single application.CROAMIS will align our end-to-end cargo business processes and provide the entire global cargo network with a seamless system that will support our projected growth in the coming years.”
Mr. Ulrich noted, “CROAMIS is an end-to-end comprehensive air cargo solution which is designed using the latest and most advanced technologies. Traditionally companies have to buy different modules of air cargo functionalities from different vendors and integrate them. CROAMIS, however, is a unique platform that combines all available modules of air cargo transportation in one system.”
CROAMIS has been developed in-house by Qatar Airways through an innovative co-funded model with global IT services provider Wipro. This integrated solution provides airline’s core business functions and supports joint operations across the airline’s cargo supply chain. The system incorporates the latest practices in business services including sales, pricing, cargo ground handling and Unit Load Devices (ULD) management.
A comprehensive tool
CROAMIS is 100% a comprehensive tool as it manages the entire cargo supply chain from the moment the air waybill is distributed till the moment the shipment is invoiced to the customer and revenue realized for the airline. The system was developed in the most advanced IT framework and has been proved to be 100% reliable, and no outages havebeen reported since the various modules went live in July 2014.
Business solutions
The end-to-end business process is automated through various modules, which provides a smooth and seamless service for the airline’s clients. There is a complete stock management module which supports workflows; a robust cargo ground handling module which is being used by the GHA Qatar Aviation Services to manage 1.4 million tonnes of cargo going through the hub; a mature revenue management and pricing suite; ULD management; and an income accounting and MIS module.
Mr. Ulrich affirmed, “A single version of truth is available to all user departments, avoiding duplication of processes and driving more synergies between the end-to-end business processes and partners. The scope of automation also includes many other support functions such as freighters and charters, individual loads, cargo contracts management, block space management & equalization, incentives management, special promotions, quality & SLA management, claims management and more. CROAMIS also has an integrated customer self-service portal and a customer self-service app.”
Key differentiator
The key differentiator in today’s industry is speed and the ability to adapt quickly to business needs. Since its inception, CROAMIS has managed to adapt quickly to the changing business needs in a very agile way, meaning that a CROAMIS application is now available on a handheld mobile device, facilitating quicker responses to customer enquiries with just a button push.
Future requirements
Qatar Airways Cargo is a pioneer in the industry when it comes to innovation and is an industry leader in implementing many of IATA’s initiatives such as e-AWB, e-CSD, e-Freight, e-Claims, three-dimensional inventory planning and The Internet of Things (IoT) devices for tracking.
The CROAMIS design and development team comprises of air cargo domain experts who have worked in the industry and have experience in successfully implementing air cargo solutions for a multitude of airlines across geographic locations. This expertise and experience help the team to design systems which are functionally rich and future-safe. CROAMIS’ modelis based on IATA CargoImp and CargoXML standards, thereby making it compliant to present and future industry needs.
Improving cargo efficiencies
Having a single comprehensive cargo IT solution that supports the cargo industry’s growth will be a huge benefit going forward. According to Mr. Ulrich, “With the double-digit growth we have seen, CROAMIS has proven to be the right platform for us to better serve our customers by improving the overall efficiencies in the air cargo process.”
The main advantages to QR Cargo and its clients are as follows:
Revenue protection
• Improved data quality in accounting,
• Single source of pricing data between sales and accounting,
• Integrated cost (handling, fuel interline, truck costs,etc.) and contribution evaluation of quotation, booking, spot rate, allotments,
• Automatically identifying irregularities for managing exceptions in a better way,
• Automation of Block Space Agreements and Incentives computations and accounting, AND
• Automatically accounting mail data capture.
Revenue improvement
• Facilitate quicker ‘go to market’ for new products and services,
• Integrated capacity forecasting tool to maximize flight capacity utilization and income,
• Improved information access to sales team for enabling quicker turnaround,
• Early visibility of budgets to enable proactive corrective actions,
• Facilitate multiple channels for sales and bookings, AND
• Access to capacity strictly based on shipment contribution.
Improved business efficiencies
• Improve Cargo 2000 compliance quality standards, and other IATA initiatives such as e-AWB, e-Freight, e-CSD, Cargo-XML,
• Ensure regulatory compliance through a configurable embargo tool,
• Graphical dashboards and proactive alerts for monitoring Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) and compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs),
• Better synergy between flight planners and operations, AND
• Improved information sharing through a self-service portal, apps and web services.
Facilitate costs savings
• Enhancement, maintenance and support costs for multiple disparate systems and interfaces,
• Operation costs for running and maintaining multiple systems,
• Costs for buying or building of peripheral systems due to lack of automation in core system,
• Saving in operation costs for back-office tasks such as accounting, MIS,etc., AND
• Reduction in SITA messaging costs through the use of alternate messaging channels.
Initiatives
There are currently many different solutions being developed in the industry. Initiatives such as RFID tracking, GPS tracking and IoT-basedmonitoring are being explored. These are gaining popularity and have been implemented in certain segments of the air cargo business.
The industry is also witnessing the scope of tracking being extended to other cargo service requirements such as tracking of temperature and humidity at various locations. CROAMIS can configure the temperature and humidity thresholds for differentplaces, perform monitoring and tracking using IoT beacon devices and to pro-actively send alerts to the concerned stakeholders in case of deviations. This helps to improve service levels for such special cargo shipments.
Upcoming features
Qatar Airways Cargo has achieved 52.9 percent e-AWB penetration on its network and close to 99 percent e-AWB penetration at its hub in Doha. According to IATA, industry e-AWB penetration stands at 37.2 per cent globally.
CROAMIS strongly supports Qatar Airways Cargo and Qatar Aviation Services’ drive to implement a single process for the network e-AWB shipments in Doha.
Qatar Airways Cargo’s COO said, “With CROAMIS, we have a very flexible approach to implementing industry and IATA initiatives, and we are always working on developing solutions that will aid the air cargo supply chain. IoT-based solutions and three-dimensional inventory planning are initiatives which we should look forward to adopting, and we will continue to play a major role in IATA-led projects such as e-freight, e-CSD, XML, etc.”
