E-Speak in Logistics |
Justin Xavier
Julian is Asst. Systems Engineer with TCS
INTRODUCTION
Roads are the
lifeline of any nation. They connect the length and breadth of a nation in a
mesh allowing for transportation of goods and people. The barometer of the
economy of any nation is the state of its cement industry and its truck
industry. This brings to focus the importance that transportation of goods
takes in any economy.
Transportation of goods is
not a local phenomenon. It is a global need, which is based on demand and
supply across geographical areas. Logistics is a key requirement of any
organization and a key part of its marketing. After all, what is the use of
having a good product and good advertising, if the product is not available
on the shelves? Logistics is also a headache prone job considering the
amount on work involved in it, starting from :
-
Selecting a
Transportation Service Provider. -
Arranging for the goods
to be loaded onto trucks. -
Keeping track of the
movement of goods. -
Arranging for Insurance
for the goods -
The payment mechanisms
involved
E-Speak can make the life of
a Marketer easy by providing him services at each of these stages
THE PLAN
The plan
revolves around Six entities–the marketer, the transportation service
providers, insurance companies, communication companies, banks and financial
institutions, and the Internet.
The Marketers Role
The marketer will announce his need for transportation services insurance
services and Financial services over the Internet to the Website of a
service Broker. He would announce certain criterion for this search like The
type of good he wants transported, the route he wants it transported on, the
amount of money he is willing to pay, the assurances he requires from the
transportation service provider (Guarantee that the goods will be delivered
in these many days), The type of transport he wants for the goods and others
such needs.
Transportation Service Providers Role
The transportation service provider will announce the availability of his
trucks and other means of transportation. He will announce the route
available, the capacity available, the likely number of days which might be
taken for the route, what his charges are, what his assurances are and so
on.
Insurance Services
The Insurance Service Provider will be notified about the Goods being
transported by the Marketer and he will decide on a premium to be charged to
cover the goods. There will be more than one insurance service provider all
of them will provide their quotes which will then be send to the Marketer,
the marketer has the choice of which provider to Choose.
Communication Services
The Communication services tracks the movement of the goods from the source
till the destination and it keeps the Marketer informed about the status of
his Good any time the marketer wants. Thus he removes a lot of anxiety on
the part of the marketer and allows him to base his next delivery on that.
Banks and Financial Services
The Banks and Financial Services look after the payment mechanisms for each
of the above listed entities and they also provide for the working capital
requirements for the above-mentioned entities.
The Internet
The Internet acts as a medium facilitating interaction between the
above-mentioned entities.
WHERE DOES E-SPEAK COME
IN?
E-Speak
is the technology at the core of the entire chain of transactions. E-speak
allows the Marketer to advertise his requirements. It then matches the
requirement with the services advertised by the Transportation services and
it provides him ( the marketer) information to make a decision regarding
which service to choose. It can also facilitate interaction between
different Marketers in non-competing fields so that they can share services
and realize real cost savings. For Example a Car Manufacturer can be
Transporting Cars from location A to B. Ordinarily this transaction would be
a one - way transaction from location A to B but the manufacturer would have
to pay for both the ways since the Trucks would be coming empty in the
return journey. Now there could be a suitcase manufacturer in location B who
can have an agreement with the Car Manufacturer to utilize the services of
the trucks for transportation of his suitcases from location B to A. He
would pay for that half of the transportation. This would reduce the
transportation burden by a whooping 50%. E-Speak could facilitate many such
transactions.
Then E-Speak could allow for
an Insurance Company based in Country A to insure the risk of the Marketer
who is in country B. This would allow healthy competition among Insurance
companies and would ultimately benefit the Marketer and through him the
customer.
Then the complexities of the
billing and banking transactions can be handled with ease by E-Speak
services thus reducing unnecessary hassles. Then E-Speak could pick up
information from the communication services and provide it to the marketer
in any of the devices specified by the Marketer, it could be the computer,
it could be a PDA etc.
The facilitator of the entire
transaction as mentioned earlier would be the Internet.
E-Speak enabled consumer portal |
MS Mohamed
Salihu is a Software Engineer with Precious Microtech
CONCEPT
To create a
virtual database that would span the whole of Internet and include multiple
websites - by implementing espeak technology
HOW IT WILL WORK
Call our
website - allbizportal.com. It will have many channels - one for books, one
for CDs, one for Jewelry, another one for air tickets etc.
Any website can join any of
our channel. For example, Amazon.com can join our Books channel, so can
BarnesandNoble.com and indiabookshop. com. Likewise, cdnow.com can join our
CDs channel, so can music-today.com.
Let us say an user enters our
Jewelry channel looking for some diamond- studded rings. All he/she would
need to do is enter the specification. Our site would then query all the
websites that have joined our Jewelry channel (and thus implemented espeak)
and give a reply (providing price, quantity available, shipping details
etc).
To narrow down the enormous
data that would be ferreted out and the number of websites that would be
queried, many filtering options can be given (like websites that ship from
anywhere in Asia only, search top 10 sites based on a given criterion etc).
E-Speak enabled Manufacturing |
ARUL PT is a
Programmer and Group Leader with CG-VAK
Software Exports
Here
e-speak will be used to improve the production/Manufacturing cycle,
interfacing with the customer/user to the supplier/vendor and transporter to
banker. This will make the entire Production/Manufacturing process faster,
minimizing manual intervention.
E-Speak will
"speak" with the other related e-services, from the ordering of a
product to the supply of the ordered product. In each level the concerned
e-services will speak with the other e-services and do the process
automatically.
The user will place an order
through e-speak and if it is valid then, the status of raw material and
other related items required to produce the given order will be verified. If
any of the raw materials or other items are insufficient then e-speak will
request a quotation from various vendors (from the vendor
directory/database), who will supply the raw materials. Here again, it is
the vendor/supplier e-speak enabled software that will be giving the
quotation. Based on the values quoted by various vendors, e-speak will
automatically select the best quotation and place the purchase order on the
particular vendor.
Based on the purchase order
the vendor’s e-speak enabled system will initiate the process of supplying
the raw materials to the manufacturer. After received the raw materials the
production process will be started and the finished goods + the invoice will
be send to the end user through e-speak itself.
Transportation will also be organized in a
similar fashion by requesting quotes from the transporters in the database.
Financial entries or financial transactions can also be done with the help
of e-services related to the finance, banking, etc.