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Nine
Major Ocean Carriers Join Technology Leader
In Historic Partnership to Launch Transportation E-Commerce Solution |
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| Technology
Platform to Significantly Simplify Global Transportation Processes |
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WORLDWIDE, Dec. 4, 2000
- Nine of the world's leading ocean carriers are
joining forces with Tradiant, a Silicon Valley technology company, in an unprecedented
partnership that will enable importers and exporters worldwide to greatly simplify the
process of containerized transportation at a significant cost and time savings.
The carriers are joining with technology leader Tradiant in a multi-million dollar
partnership to launch a new initiative (currently code-named Global Transportation Network
or GTN) in early Q1 2001. This is a totally neutral technology platform that will
facilitate transactions between the various parties involved in international trade.
Carriers involved in the partnership include: APL, CP Ships, Hanjin, Hyundai, K Line,
Mitsui OSK Lines, Senator Lines, Yang Ming, and Zim Israel Navigation Company.
Negotiations are currently underway with other transportation providers that also may join
as founding partners.
"This will fundamentally change the process of getting goods around the world,"
the carriers said. "Our common objective is to leverage this Internet platform and
drive superior customer service and lower transactions costs for both customers and
providers. This is truly realizing the promise of the Internet. What sets this partnership
apart is the powerful combination of transportation and technology expertise that puts the
customer's needs first."
Don Orris, CEO of Pacer International, a leading intermodal and logistics company, said
"We are very excited to see such a strong industry initiative that is broad-based,
neutral and multimodal, and offers technology-driven solutions for customers'
transactional needs." |
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| About the Partnership |
| The agreement includes several
major elements the carriers say will be critical for success: |
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Carriers will contribute
industry expertise and customer knowledge, and Tradiant will offer its proven technology
to launch GTN. |
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This initiative ensures that a
trusted, third-party service provider is maintaining neutrality and security for both
customers and carriers. |
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A recognized, experienced
management team will head the effort, lead by Tradiant CEO Aaron Sasson, a 20-year
technology industry veteran. |
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"In today's e-business
world, with an emphasis on supply chain velocity, transportation execution becomes a
highly critical component of the global supply chain. This is an intriguing initiative
between a powerhouse set of global ocean carriers and a transportation execution vendor
focused on platform technology, connectivity, and applications that span the
transportation value chain", said Michael Bittner, Research Director of Supply Chain
E-fulfilment at AMR Research.
"We have spent the past year working closely with our customers to determine their
challenges, needs and the potential benefits offered by various technology
solutions," said the carriers. "Most of the existing B2B models were too
narrowly focused like auctions and exchanges and failed to meet the underlying needs
of our customers, who told us they wanted a unified Internet-based platform that
simplified their interactions with carriers globally. After much investigation, we believe
we now have the winning solution for us and for our customers in this partnership." |
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| How it will Work |
GTN will leverage
Tradiant's proven e-commerce platform, which already includes such core transactional
capabilities as booking, track and trace, and scheduling. In addition to these functions,
GTN will provide extended capabilities tailored for shippers and carriers, including rate
and contract management, cargo forecasting and allocation. These products are already in
place.
"We see tremendous value in using Tradiant's contracting product to store and
amend our ocean contracts online with our carriers", said Dan LaBrash, Manager of
Purchased Transportation for Allied International.
Additional products will be added to the platform during subsequent rollouts. |
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| Benefits |
| Customers and transportation
providers have been clamouring for a better, proven way to conduct business through a
neutral, secure technology platform that also supports multiple business models. GTN
allows a standardised booking, documentation and tracking system while providing better
and more efficient customer support. Other industry benefits include: |
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Significant efficiencies and
cost savings: A recent study conducted by Andersen Consulting estimates that cost savings
from these process improvements and efficiencies alone could result in 5-10 percent
savings for carriers and customers across a range of industries. GTN frees carriers from
the huge capital costs associated with advanced technologies and resources required to
create proprietary technology methods. |
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Standardization and ease of
use: GTN will automate core transactions and make it easier for customers and carriers to
conduct business with multiple providers using common standards. |
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Secure and confidential access:
GTN will provide a secure and confidential environment for customers and carriers to
conduct business over the Internet. |
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| "We welcome the
development of this new technology," says Kevin Higgins, director of global logistics
for WAL-MART Stores, Inc. "We have been working with our carriers and service
providers to drive new and innovative solutions, and we fully support the recent
e-commerce developments announced by leaders in this industry. Tradiant's products
should help greatly improve operational efficiencies for us and our carriers." |
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| MEDIA CONTACTS: |
APL
Sarah Lockie
NOL Group
(65) 371.5022
sarah_lockie@nol.com.sg |
CP Ships
Ian Matheson/Paul Carrington, Impress
Communications Limited (UK)
Tel: +44 (0)1689 860660
Fax: +44 (0)1689 818285
E-mail: impress@dial.pipex.com
Elizabeth Canna, The Wordsmith Inc
(Switzerland)
Tel: +41 (0)1 363 8110
Fax: +41 (0)1 363 8140
E-mail: wordsmithinc@compuserve.com |
Hanjin
In-Ho Jung
Hanjin Shipping
(82-2) 770-6070
ihjung@hanjin.com
Anthony Kim
Hanjin Shipping
(82-2) 770-6074
ackim@hanjin.com |
Hyundai
Mr. Jong H. Lee,
Hyundai
82-2-3706-5491
smljh@hmm.co.kr |
K Line
Satoru Kuboshima
Director IT, Kline
81-3-3595-5041
Kuboshima@email.kline.co.jp |
Mitsui OSK Lines
Masayuki Matsuo
Associate General Manager,
Liner Division
81-3-3587-7230
Masayuki.Matsuo@mail.mol.co.jp
Or
John Gurrad
VP Business Planning, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
(America) Inc.
1-925-688-2623
John.Gurrad@Mitsuiosk.com |
Senator Lines
Head Office Bremen
Mr. Werner Stephansky
Mrs. Sabine Henkel
Phone: +49-421-3083 181/182
Fax: +49-421-3083 605
E-Mail: stephansky@bre.senatorlines.com
henkels@bre.senatorlines.com |
Tradiant
Tammy H. Nam
GCI Group
(415) 974-7242
tnam@gcigroup.com
www.tradiant.com |
Yang Ming
Steven Tsao
Junior Vice President
Information Technology Dept.
Tel:886-2-2455-0329
Fax:886-2-2455-9958
e-mail:steven@imail.yml.com.tw |
Zim Israel
Navigation Co
Dr. Dan Nadler
Manager Business Information & Publicity Unit
Zim Israel Navigation Co. Ltd.
Tel: + 972 4 8652681
Fax: + 972 4 8652607
Email: nadler@zim.co.il |
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| BACKGROUND |
| FAQs |
| 1.Why has this
partnership been initiated? |
| The aim of this partnership is
to simplify and reduce work for our customers, who are plagued with manual processes and
endless pieces of paper that slow them down and cost them time and money. Customers have
very clearly stated, and often, that they want a uniform way, across carriers, of making
bookings, preparing documentation, tracking shipments and checking schedules. They also
expect ever improving service from their transportation providers. This initiative slashes
the paperwork, achieves standardization and reduces costs, while in addition offering
customers the chance to improve their workflows throughout their business. |
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| 2.There are other
interfaces between technology companies and specific industries. What makes this any
different? |
| With this venture
transportation providers are partnering with a technology company to provide information
exchange and work flow solutions for customers. The platform supports this direct
exchange. It does not stand between the parties. This will accelerate the creation of
common standards across carriers so that customers will be able to more easily and cheaply
transact business. It's more than a portal. A portal alone doesn't solve our
customers' transportation management problems such as transaction costs, common
standards for transaction processes and transparency. We had to find a solution that would
meet all these objectives. This partnership is the ideal solution |
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| 3.What is the structure
of the partnership? |
Founding carriers will have a
significant equity stake in the new venture, but not a majority stake, and Tradiant will
hold the rest, thereby creating the necessary "trusted third party" to ensure
neutrality and security.
Founding carriers will form a Carrier Executive Council, which will be involved in the
business planning and product strategy of the venture. The partners regard the setting up
of this venture as an investment, and won't be revealing the level of investment in
the venture. |
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| 4.What makes you think
the venture will succeed? |
The partnership has all the
right success factors, including the right technology, the right business model, and the
right people to provide the right services for customers.
Carriers are not just buying software, nor are the partners starting from scratch. There
is a competent, creative management team already in place. Tradiant today has a solid
management and development team, employing around 70 people. Clearly the venture will grow
over time. It will continue to be based in Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area. The
focus is on technology this is a technology company, so it makes sense to be based
close to Silicon Valley to continue to attract the best of the technology experts. |
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| 5.What will the venture
actually be selling? |
| We'll be offering
customers distinctive transaction capabilities and functionality such as rate requests,
booking, documentation, and shipment tracing. But they won't be footing the bill. Any
core transactions will have a corresponding fee structure and the carriers pay. But in
addition, there will be services available to shippers (customers) through a hosted (ASP)
model. These are shipper-specific and carrier-specific services that are part of the
overall transportation activity chain. These services are integrated with the core
transactional services. The shipper-specific offering is called Shipper Private Network
(SPN). It's like setting up a mini-network for customers that makes it easier for
them to do business and hook up with their various providers. This will include work such
as contract management, cargo forecasting and shipment analysis. |
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| 6.Why does partnering
with a technology company make it neutral? |
| The point is that this is not a
carrier-owned venture. The carriers in fact have a minority share, so what has been
created is a "trusted third party". Customers know that no carrier can dominate
the services being offered. Also, customers themselves will have representation through a
Customer Executive Council. The winning combination is the one that combines state of the
art technology and transportation expertise to address the needs of the customers. |
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| 7.When will the venture
be open for business? |
| We will start showing our
customers what we are offering during December, and the venture will be up and running in
Q1, 2001. We are able to do this because we already have a substantial body of products
ready to go. But that's not all. The development of products isn't stopping.
With the input of carriers, the technology experts will be releasing even more products
before the end of the year. |
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| 8.Do customers have to
use the platform? |
| If the customer chooses to do
business electronically across the platform, then we will have the best alternative for
them. But if they want to do business by direct information exchange, we can make their
life easier as well, for example the venture will also have a strong strategic thrust to
create industry wide standards. This means only one way of plugging in with all carriers,
rather than a different plug for each one. |
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| 9.What happens to
Tradiants' customers? |
| Tradiant and the carriers will
reposition Tradiant's services with the creation of GTN. Those customers that have
purchased private network and application services from Tradiant will already be fully
integrated into the new network. There will be no open marketplace, but, rate quote and
contract facilitation will be an integral part of GTN's product suite. We are
creating an all inclusive transaction platform that goes way beyond just rates. The real
opportunity here is to make it easy for the customer to do business that means
integrating transactions instead of making customers dance to the carriers' tune. |
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| 10.How will it work in
with carriers' current IT products? |
| The platform complements what
carriers already have. Indeed, those that have sophisticated Internet-based products will
be enabled to innovate further, while those with less sophisticated products of their own
will be able to use the platform to jumpstart their IT capabilities. |
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