Handhelds Helped Gati Deliver Real Time Reports

When Gati launched in 1989, it was a small cargo management company. But over the years it's evolved into a consumer 'superbrand.' But with this growth came challenges to the brand. It sought to be a trusted: if Gati said it would be delivered, it would be. The evidence? A scrap of paper called a POD (proof of delivery).

Highlights

-- Kumar's solution uses inexpensive, entry-level handheld devices with GPRS and image capturing capabilities.

-- The project was completed in a third of the time and achieved ROI in under six months.

The problem was tracking and couriering signed PODs back to senders. With lakhs of shipments criss-crossing the country, (Gati covers 3.2 lakh kilometers every day), ensuring that PODs found their way back cost a lot of effort and money. Worse, it took about three days before PODs reached senders, making Gati look slow in an age of real-time service.

"We needed to provide customers with real-time delivery results and eliminate the risk of losing physical copies of PODs." says G.S. Ravi Kumar, CIO, Gati. In addition, the solution needed to be low-cost and easy to implement across a non-technical workforce.

Kumar's solution uses inexpensive, entry-level handheld devices with GPRS and image capturing capabilities. On delivery, the image of a POD and related information is uploaded to a central database. This ensures that delivery information is updated almost in real time and removes the processing time and effort formerly associated with POD delivery, including data entry operators, about 100 workstations and their associated electricity and real estate costs. It also made tracking physical PODs irrelevant and did away with the cost of couriering PODs.

"Sometimes we faced GPRS connectivity challenges," says Kumar. To solve this, offline software was developed in J2ME, which captures the image and information and synchronizes with the central database whenever a GPRS connection next presents itself.

And because the captured information has been made available on Gati's website, customers get more immediate updates on their deliveries.

Currently the project, which cost Rs 90 lakh (US$192,114), has been rolled out to over 240 locations with 900-plus users and over 20,000 transactions a day. And because the solution was so simple, it was completed in a third of the time and achieved ROI in under six months.