CEP in Transport and Logistics

Now maybe I’m biased since my focus is CEP outside of capital markets but, the announcement of Royal Dirkzwager’s (Koninklijke Dirkzwager  if you’re keeping score in Dutch) use of Apama sets an important tone for CEP. Working with the team that pulled Royal Dirkzwager’s project together, it was easy to see that the business need was there to harness the value of their free-flowing events.

Transport and Logistics (T&L) has a vast fabric of events that range from all the management “systems” to supply chain events and telematics. Without CEP, analysis of those events is either siloed (with spotty real-time abilities) or aggregated a day late and a dollar short. The T&L industry is being squeezed for efficiency and chasing new revenue opportunities is challenging. In the case of Royal Dirkzwager, it didn’t take long for them to survey their domain and recognize that real-time visibility and analysis of events in their fabric could significantly enhance customer satisfaction and the bottom line. Royal Dirkzwager also appreciates that CEP projects aren’t protracted lifetime engagements. They’re looking forward to rapid results.

Royal Dirkzwager’s use of GPS, GIS events as well as information from Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) systems, when correlated with their other infrastructure events, is where the magic is. Yes, they had all those events before but CEP pulls them together and makes them much more meaningful. They’re also going to leverage their Sonic ESB as a convenient on- and off-ramp for many of their events. And while Royal Dirkzwager’s a maritime logistics provider, it’s not a far stretch to see how other land- or sea-based LSPs can put themselves in a similar position. Whether they own, manage or contribute to the supply chain, the events are there – harnessing them should be an imperative. Royal Dirkzwager’s not our first in this space and it won’t be the last.

I think we’ve done the right thing by having a laser beam focus on capital markets. Truly, a demanding environment when it comes to performance and usability. All that experience gives us the ability to jump into other event-oriented markets with the tools and experience to take on any challenge.

To Royal Dirkzwager, thank you for making my day. Who’s next?

-DO