Johannesburg, 25 Jul 2006
TNT Logistics North America, a leading provider of customised, value-added logistics solutions to Fortune 500 companies, recently upgraded its data management solution to the Jacada Interface Server.
Providing unparalleled supply chain management services to its 200 contracts, TNT manages all inbound supply chain logistics including inventory receiving, storage, modularisation, packaging and distribution, supported by 11 million square feet of warehousing throughout North America.
Further growth in the past decade saw the company take on more diverse customers such as Daimler-Chrysler, Compaq and Home Depot adding pressure to the need for customer data consolidation.
"We realised that we were struggling with the sheer volume of contractual data that resulted from our daily transactions," says Keith Goldsmith, TNT's Vice-President, Technology Services. "The process was extremely labour-intensive and completely redundant."
There was also a lack of standardisation regarding the reporting processes. After customers organised the data on their end, they forwarded it to TNT in various formats. TNT would have to reorganise the data and then enter it into the legacy application. Goldsmith and his team wanted an innovative solution for this area of administration that would impact the bottom line internally and improve customer service dramatically.
"We could not afford to abandon the customised functionality of the legacy processing but we had to enable a more efficient alternative than our traditional means of data entry and found the Jacada Interface Server attractive for a number of reasons."
"It provided a very robust development environment and we felt that we would be able to deploy quickly using the Jacada solution," says Carey Caile, TNT's Manager of Technology Services. "We were also very impressed with the Java source code generation as we envisioned some future desktop integration. The solution offered our organisation strategic flexibility that is rarely seen in the proprietary products on the market today."
TNT was also drawn to the Jacada Interface Server's ease of use. "After one week's training our developers were hands-on and able to use the Interface Development Kit (IDK) immediately," Caile says.
"The new intranet application has immediately impacted operational efficiency," Goldsmith says. "Internally we have been able to re-purpose the administrative personnel that used to key in the customer data, allowing them to focus on tasks that are much more value-added than before. The Jacada solution enables us to respond to various business needs while negotiating various technological hurdles, all with the same tool. In today's competitive marketplace, TNT logistics must continue to enhance the customer experience by delivering valued-added services and Jacada is helping us do just that."
"Our aim is to supply total solutions in this niche enterprise application integration (EAI) and IT integration markets and we are proud to have met the requirements of another satisfied customer," says Alex Steyn, Managing Director, CommerceQuest South Africa, reseller for Jacada in South Africa.
Established in 1997, CommerceQuest South Africa (Pty) Limited (CQSA), is a privately owned South African company, specialising in integration products and associated services uniquely suited to provide integration consulting, expertise, training and implementation.
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