International logistics company pushes ahead with global IBM implementation

The new system will allow the company to offer faster services to its customers, reduce communication costs and drastically increase employee efficiency.

"This move is very important for improving both the operational and service efficiencies of our organization. The IBM Lotus Sametime system brings new benefits and new value to our customers and allows us and our employees to make full use of the infrastructure," said Anil Mathews, Group IT Manager at SWIFT Freight. "It will save us a lot of money in terms of telecommunication, email infrastructure and travel expenses. The software interoperates seamlessly with other solutions and provides the flexibility we need with its extensive toolkit that our staff can use to enable any application."

SWIFT Freight provides services to various industries such as IT, electronics, machinery, foodstuffs and consumer goods and offers end-to-end supply chain management solutions to distribution channels. The Lotus system installation, which was carried out by a technical team from SWIFT and three system engineers from IBM's business partner, Information Systems Design (ISD), replaces the organisation's existing Microsoft MSN Messenger messaging platform. ISD also provided SWIFT Freight staff with the required training and support services in managing the new system.
For Information Systems Design (ISD), the company has been a long-standing IBM business partner in the Middle East with a specialization on integrating sophisticated systems using IBM Lotus software products.

"We're assisting SWIFT Freight in enhancing the overall value they bring to their customers. Lotus SameTime is by far the leading instant messaging, presence awareness and Web conferencing application of choice for businesses these days on a global perspective. The system is ideal for SWIFT as it will improve efficiency and boost the productivity levels of the geographically scattered teams within the organization," said Abdul Caffoor, Managing Director of ISD.

Lotus Instant Messaging carries a distributed environment, and provides a messaging platform that is firewall-ready, secure, and scalable to meet the needs of a very large user base. It also provides the interoperability and support of open standards that allows users to send and receive instant messages very widely.

"SWIFT Freight is a principal company in this region's freight forwarding and logistics industry. We have been working closely with them for several years and their decision to migrate to Lotus SameTime is a key step that will contribute greatly to the value of their service delivery," said Bashar Kilani, Manager IBM Software Group, Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan. "The system is open, secure and reliable and will allow them to reduce a lot of paperwork as well as dramatically increase collaboration between the different offices."
SWIFT Freight has set big plans for the future with new technology implementations on the roadmap including video conferencing services, web conferencing and IP telephony.