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a solid business case requires understand-
                                                                             ing of all current costs and how they may
                                                                             be reduced through the adoption of
                                                                             digital solutions. Often the focus is on just
                                                                             labour costs but you should take a wider
                                                                             view to consider other inputs such as ex-
                                                                             isting distribution costs and maintenance
                                                                             of the existing system that may offset any
                                                                             initial investment. It also depends on the
                                                                             way the solution is delivered. For example,
                                                                             in-house designed and managed technol-
                                                          An enterprise      ogy requires high up-front investment
                                                                             compared to a Software as a Service (SaaS)
                                                    organisation would       solution like CargoWise that can be easily
                                                                             scaled to meet changes in the business.
                                                   worry less about the        "Solutions that simply digitise existing
                                                   underlying cost and       manual processes between players can
                                                                             be complex. True digital transformation
                                                    more about rollout,      looks at the overall desired outcome
                                                                             afresh and challenges the status quo
                                                  security and internal      process to, where possible, simplify and

                                             efficiency. Understanding       improve processes.
                                                                               "To support the adoption of eBookings
                                                the complexity of these      in CargoWise, we developed AirlineCon-
                                                                             nect which provides freight forwarders
                                                processes and working        with direct access to real-time airline
                                                       together with our     information for dynamic pricing, available
                                                                             cargo capacity, accurate flight information,
            "CargoINTEL plays a crucial role in   customers as partners      transparent visibility of airline charges,
          helping customers make more informed                               eBooking capabilities and automatic
          decisions by providing actionable          rather than buyers      updating of status information – all within
          insights and data-driven analysis. By   helps us address these     the CargoWise platform."
          leveraging real-time data and advanced                               Investment could be a barrier for finan-
          analytics, CargoINTEL empowers custom-  challenges effectively,    cially less strong parties in the cargo sup-
          ers to identify opportunities for optimi-                          ply chain, resulting in a slower adoption
          sation, mitigate risks and drive better   and has been a driving   of technology, says Kaiser of Lufthansa
          business outcomes.                 force in our rapid industry     Cargo. "The costs associated with upgrad-
            Our business and IT teams have jointly                           ing or implementing new technologies
          achieved a lot of milestones, says Kaiser      adoption.           can be prohibitive. At Lufthansa Cargo,
          of Lufthansa Cargo. "This  ranges from                             we provide many customer-self service
          real-time pricing to the online bookability         Eytan Buchman  solutions via our own website like online
          of new products such as td.Zoom or add-                 Freightos  booking, tracking, digital pre-check, ena-
          on services like reduction of CO2 emis-  flow of information and data exchange   bling our customers to digitise workflows
          sions and digital alternatives for former   throughout the entire supply chain. As   without their own investments. At the
          paper-based procedures. We invested into   a first milestone in modernising the in-  same time, we consult and support cus-
          APIs to leverage bookings via third-party   dustry’s data exchange infrastructure, we   tomers who want to integrate end-to-end
          platforms or allow seamless e-commerce   recently offered shipment tracking options   workflows with Lufthansa Cargo in their
          business. Moreover, we drive our data ca-  based on the ONE Record standard. Build-  own transport management system."
          pabilities forward as well as exploring IoT   ing on that, we will develop further use   Investment can be a significant barrier
          and physical automation opportunities.  cases and explore them with our partners   for carriers, forwarders and shippers when
            Technology-wise, we moved our appli-  to support the introduction of the new   it comes to adopting new technology,
          cations to the cloud and modernised our   standard by 2026."       adds Petot of CargoAi. "A lot of players
          network infrastructure over the last three                         in this industry are set in their ways, and
          years, allowing for further business growth.  What's blocking digitisation?  moving to new technologies can appear
            "We also continue to invest in IATA’s ONE   The size of investment required can be a   to be not only a monetary investment but
          Record initiative as an industry-wide data   block but this is often a misconception, ac-  also a big operational and training time
          sharing standard, which is to improve the   cording to Hayman of WiseTech. "Building   investment. However, CargoAi’s innovative

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