Safexpress collaborates with IBM for digital logistics platform

Delhi-based supply chain and logistics company Safexpress has partnered with technology services provider IBM to deploy a digital logistics platform to transform its business operations and improve customer experience.

Custom-built by IBM Global Business Services for Safexpress, PROPEL-I is expected to help the company remodel its core business processes and further expedite the adoption of next-generation technologies and digital solutions, a statement said.

The cognitive cloud-native digital logistics platform named ‘PROPEL-i’ enables the company to attain agility in demand management, obtain dynamic pricing modelling capabilities and provides enhanced visibility and transparency for its customers.

“‘PROPEL-i’s  micro-services based cloud native architecture will further strengthen our position as a market leader both from logistics and technology standpoint and help us respond exceptionally faster to the market dynamics while minimizing time, cost and effort on new product development lifecycle,” Kapil Mahajan, Group CIO, Safexpress said.

PROPEL-i is an internal logistics operations management suite of applications that enables field staff to work from anywhere and frees the company to migrate to a desktop-free environment which maximizes office space.

“By leveraging our deep industry expertise and access to technological innovations including cloud and AI, Safexpress will be able to leverage the new digital platform to manage their growing business, enrich customer experiences as well as boost revenues by acquiring new accounts and by optimizing costs,” Kamal Singhani, country managing partner – IBM Services, India/South Asia said.

The platform leverages container management capabilities of Kubernetes to provide Safexpress with scalability, availability and security with a self-healing runtime environment, the statement said. Its API (application programming interface) integrates with Safexpress’ customer system and enables streamlining of workflows and efficiencies in internal processes and offers better integration capabilities. The project consists of multiple components such as customer contracts, associate contracts, booking, and associate management, statement added.

Established in 1997, Safexpress offers a range of supply chain services including express distribution, third-party logistics and consulting to its customers. The company manages a network of 60 logistics parks, 42 3PL (third-party logistics) locations, and 1,959 booking offices. It operates 7,500 containerized GPS enabled vehicles across 1,830 routes and delivers 100 million packages a year to over 5,000 corporations across 31083 pin codes in India, the company claimed.