How valuable is IT asset management & the significance of cargo community system in the transportation industry?

Julie Shainock is the Global Managing Director – Travel and Transportation Industry at Microsoft and is also a Member of the IBM Industry Academy, an exclusive organization for IBM employees recognized for her industry thought leadership. She is focused on delivering new technology solutions and increasing market share. Skilled in building, enhancing, and maintaining an organization that fosters cross-functional communications and collaboration between senior executives, sales, operations, brands, customers, and partners.

From embracing a culture of innovation to valuing IT asset management in the transportation industry, Julie is sharing certain key insights.

In the past months, it has become clear that digitalization is the key to success for any business. What technologies do you foresee as a game-changer for the transportation and logistics industry in 2021?  

We have become accustomed to long international flights, jam-packed public transportation and diesel trucks; the future of transportation promises to change all of that and much more shortly.

Modern transportation is currently experiencing critical changes due to transformative transportation technologies. Digital twinning is now an emerging trend in many applications. It’s also referred to as a computational mega model, device shadow, mirrored system, avatar, or a synchronized virtual prototype. Undoubtedly, digital twinning plays a transformative role in how we design and operate cyber-physical intelligent systems and how we advance the modularity of multi-disciplinary systems to tackle fundamental barriers not addressed by the current evolutionary modelling practices. Digital Twins, Edge, Robotics, Reinforcement Learning, Drones, Bots, and 3D Printing are some of the technologies picking up interest.

With growing competition in the transportation sector, companies should deploy new technologies. In recent times, industries have adopted popular technologies for automation, such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented & Virtual Reality, Data Analytics, Cloud Solutions, etc. Additionally, they work under the expectations and needs of the customers. Moreover, in this pandemic, the business has expanded to a greater level, encouraging the adoption of technologies.

How valuable is IT asset management in the transportation industry?

Though asset management in the transportation industry is a relatively new notion, it means different things to different people. Asset management is critical for health monitoring and predictive maintenance of transport facilities. It provides a solid foundation for programs that optimize performance and cost-effectiveness.

Asset management is a strategic and systematic process of maintaining, upgrading and operating physical assets effectively throughout their life cycle. It focuses on business and engineering practices for resource allocation and utilization, aspiring for better decision-making based on quality information and well-defined objectives. It reflects a comprehensive view of system management and performance.

Operational excellence is the key to asset management. Many respondents reported greater satisfaction by adopting technologies, such as advanced process control and maintenance/asset integrity systems. Asset management, to stay relevant, needs to turn to digital technologies with best practices for shifting asset maintenance from preventive based on a calendar or hours of operation to predictive based on analysis of digital data. I see 3D printing coming into play in this area soon.

How is Microsoft empowering the Logistics industry, and what are the plans to strengthen the industry?

Microsoft is playing a significant role in empowering the logistics industry.

Finally, the most effective organizations are embracing a culture of innovation and a commitment to constant learning, upskilling, to stay relevant, competitive, and resilient. The pace of change in the logistics industry has been unparalleled in recent times.

We are empowering the logistics industry by partnering with some of the leading partners. Some of the prevalent names are associated with us, who encourage us challenges ourselves. Microsoft has its own supply chain group to utilize technology on its own and with partners. We are looking forwarding to inroads in the new sectors.

Kale Logistics Solutions has been a longstanding ISV partner with Microsoft; as you know, we have a global footprint of customers. What more, according to you, can Microsoft and Kale Logistics Solutions do in collaboration for the logistics industry? 

The pace of change in the logistics industry has been unparallel in recent times, and we, as partners, are focused on optimization and developing efficiencies for the overall industry.  Kale Logistics Solutions is committed to bringing the best technologies to the logistics industry, and we resonate on that level. We expect the partnership built on a similar vision will strengthen our ties and the industry. Technologies like Blockchain, Robotics, Reinforcement Learning, and AI, are utilized to their optimum, and we work together to develop unique offerings using Bons, AI technology, etc., for our customers.

Therefore, the role of air freight software, cargo software and logistics software companies will increase, to embrace a culture of innovation. Also, cargo community systems have a significant role to play. Functions, such as container tracking and AWB tracking, will be of greater importance. In short, the role of technology is going to be huge in the coming months.