CDMC - Focus 2001

The Browser-Based Air Cargo System by W. Garner McNett, Jr. President, Cargo Data Management Corp.
	- FOCUS Winter 2000 - 2001 edition

A few weeks ago, Lufthansa Systems and Cargo Data Management, the Dallas based software developer made an announcement that they had joined together and were in the process of developing a Browser Based Internet Enabled Cargo System. This unusual marriage brings together a large highly credible well-respected airline IT Group with a small relatively unknown firm with a thoughtfully designed fully integrated cargo system that actually works.

In fact, this low key announcement by Lufthansa Systems and CDM Corp heralds a new cargo era for the airlines of the world who will now be able to more easily communicate with any trading partner, alliance partner, customer, or individual that has access to the Internet. The Result -- communications and business to business relationships will be significantly easier and dramatically less expensive than ever before.

This browser-based system will be the ultimate open system since it will be independent of database, operating system, hardware, or the browser itself. We have now gone full circle from the old days of IBM proprietary systems to this new totally open system - the result being a broader supplier base and lower system costs.

So what does this really mean for a carrier in the new millennium and his trading partners? To put this into perspective, you must go back thirty years to the real beginnings of cargo systems and start with the Alitalia System, used on a big IBM box and still used by many carriers today in its various flavors. Wonderful in its time, but a bit user hostile in today's world. Then came USAS Cargo, a megasystem of 60 plus million lines of code -huge; along with Cargolux and Freight Sabre. These big main frame programs were followed by CDM's smaller and more flexible Unix based system followed by the Emirates new client server system. What do they have in common? They all need either a wire, or specific terminal, or specific client software, or something special and unique for the user to talk to the main computer. This requirement just changed!

With a browser-based system, everyone in the world who has a PC and can access the Internet can communicate with the system and do it for free. The implications here are enormous since we can now simultaneously connect with all of our trading partners large and small over our choice of Intranet , extra-net, or the Internet --maximum connectivity at minimum cost.

The ability to take a flexible user-friendly cargo system fine tuned to the specific requirements of a carrier and then comfortably link all of your business partners and trading partners is a major technical and commercial breakthrough. Some pieces of this are being offered by the new dotcom exchanges but at a far lesser scale than that possible through the browser based systems of multiple carriers and their partners.

This browser-based system will bring greater compatibility between the systems of trading partners and the different members of the many new airline alliances that are expanding so rapidly. Looking forward, this type of system will give us almost total transparency between carriers so that the customer sees only the originating carrier, or, conversely, only the alliance yet he can instantly access appropriate operational or accounting information from the consolidated systems of the alliance partners.

To all of this we add the excellent messaging capability of the browser-based system (called XML messaging) and you have replaced EDI messaging at a more efficient level and at a greatly reduced price. No need to modify the time honored and accepted Cargo Imp approach, we just package it within the system and send it to our business partners over the Internet. It is fast, efficient and free. XML messaging is moving very fast commercially and is an accepted technology whose time is now.

OK, so how about something for the humans using the system that want to negotiate contracts, check or offer spot pricing, follow-up OS&D reports, and all the other things that humans do so much better than machines. With the browser based system comes the joy of Instant Messaging (IM) over the Internet. Not a series of e-mails, but live real-time conversations between humans over the Internet that can be recorded and kept on file as complete documentation of an agreement. You can even put your electronic signature on the IM to finish it off and give an agreement closure. Long distance negotiating simply does not get any better. The beauty of the Instant Message is that you are live, you can document, you have a level of anonymity (they cannot see or hear you sweat), and you have a little bit of time to think. In this frenetic world of ours, we need all the help we can get.

And now a few plums for the body human sitting in front of the computer using this browser based system. What do we have for them -- personally? How about the ability to individually change the font size on all the system screens to what you like - big for the old folks and small for the young. Or change the color of the different frames within the screen. Pastels on Monday and power red for Friday. The nice thing about a browser-based system is that you can give a lot of autonomy to the user without affecting the program at all. So why not?

So finally, what is the significance of this new system from Lufthansa Systems and Cargo Data Management. Whereas we have all seen the changes in our personal lives from the impact of the Internet, we are now about to see and experience this same level of change at every level within our industry. We will all become telecommuters to a degree and will be able to develop greatly improved personal and corporate relationships among our partners because of the ease of the electronic conversation. One thing, however, has not changed -- business relationships often are the difference between good business and no business - and developing these relationships will only get easier with the advent of these new Internet enabled systems.