COSCON Transforms Shipping Business With SOA Based on IBM Software and Services1 March 2006
IBM today announced that COSCON,China's largest container shipping company, is relying on IBM software andservices to help streamline its business processes, increase efficiency andenhance collaboration with its customers, partners and suppliers.
As a leader in the shipping and logistics services market, COSCON has 127container vessels, and has shipped more than 320,000 containers to date.Its ships are regularly deployed to ports across the globe, each with theirown regulations. To support these diverse requirements, COSCON had anelectronic data interchange (EDI) system that consisted of 21 differentapplications with a variety of architectures and development languagessupported on multiple servers. As COSCON's business continued to grow, itscomplex IT system hampered the company's ability to respond quickly to itsports of call and its external and internal customers.
To become more competitive, COSCON tapped the software and servicesexpertise in IBM's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Design Center inBeijing. The IBM center designed a solution based on IBM's WebSpheresoftware that integrated COSCON's existing EDI applications by deploying anSOA. Theopen-standards-based technology approach from IBM enabled COSCON to connectits silos of data and software applications to allow its internal businessto better interoperate with its customers, partners and suppliers. Inaddition, IBM consolidated COSCON's infrastructure by reducing the numberof servers from 17 to three. This solution leveraged the existingresources within COSCON and augmented it with a solution that improvedproductivity, allowing for more efficient communication and enabling COSCONto quickly react to changing market conditions.
"Over the past few years, we have witnessed an increase in demand for ourshipping services. This increased interest has placed additional pressureon our business, helping us realize that we needed to revamp and invest inour internal technology infrastructure to position our business for futuregrowth," said Mr. Ma Tao, Deputy General Manager of Information Technology,COSCON. "To do this, we reviewed and tested a number of technologysolutions from a variety of vendors and we found IBM's SOA approach to thesolution offered the most comprehensive approach to meet our needs both nowand in the future."
Since deploying IBM's SOA solution, COSCON has witnessed a dramaticincrease in internal efficiency and has achieved higher levels of customersatisfaction. COSCON can now respond more quickly to the changingregulations set by foreign ports. In addition, COSCON has reduced the timeit takes to configure and modify its IT system from two to three months tojust two to three days. This time savings and greater developmentefficiency has resulted in higher customer satisfaction levels and hasoffered sizable cost savings.
"IBM is committed to helping businesses across the world realize thebenefits of business process management by leveraging their existingapplication assets," said Ernest Lee, Executive, IBM Software Group. "IBMhas helped more than 1,000 companies deploy SOA solutions, giving themgreater flexibility and responsiveness to the market."
About COSCO
COSCO is a diversified services company with one of the most recognized andadmired brand names in the world focusing mainly on shipping and modernlogistics businesses. The group also serves as an independent ship agencyand provides services in freight forwarding, new building, ship repairing,terminal operation, container manufacturing, trade, financing, real estate,IT and contract employment.
About COSCON
Born from the merger of COSCO Container Division and COSCO Shanghai onJanuary 27, 1998 in Shanghai, China, COSCO Container Lines Co., Ltd.(abbreviated as COSCON), is not only a key company specializing incontainer transport under COSCO Group, but is also a subsidiary of ChinaCOSCO, the overseas listed flagship of the COSCO Group.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with more then90 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resourcesfrom across IBM and key business partners, IBM offers a wide range ofservices, financing, solutions and technologies that enable customers totake full advantage of the on demand era. For more information on IBM's ondemand strategy, visit http://www.ibm.com/ondemand.
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Press contact:
Scott SykesIBM914-766-1561sykessc@us.ibm.com
SOURCE: IBM
Source: marketwire
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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