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The Winners

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PCQ Bureau
New Update
E-Speak

in Logistics

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Justin Xavier

Julian is Asst. Systems Engineer with TCS

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Justin Xavier Julian is Asst. Systems Engineer with TCSINTRODUCTION

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 :

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  • 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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

MS Mohamed Salihu is a Software Engineer with Precious MicrotechCONCEPT

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

ARUL PT is a Programmer and Group Leader with CG-VAK Software ExportsHere

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. 

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