DHL Global

DHL Danzas Air & Ocean (formerly Danzas AEI), is the world's leading express and logistics company offering its customers innovative and customized solutions from a single source, linking more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. DHL continues to be at the forefront of technology and, with more than 150,000 dedicated employees, guarantees fast and reliable services aimed at exceeding customers' expectations. Thus, when one of its core customers, Otto (GmbH & Co KG), informed DHL Danzas Air & Ocean that it would be moving to a paperless bolero trading environment, DHL Danzas Air & Ocean set out to find a suitable bolero enabled solution to accommodate this strategy. DHL is one of the major freight forwarders for Otto.

Otto is comprised of three main groups, among them is the worlds leading mail-order-business. The Combined Group consists of the Otto Group (international retailer), and joint ventures. The company operates in 23 countries through 90 catalogues and store retailers and wholesalers and through numerous service companies.

After researching the Bolero environment and working out the exact requirements and processes requested by Otto, DHL determined to use a middleware solution able to receive and send XML messages by using bolero and convert them into a user-friendly layout (PDF). The system would have to be scalable to manage hundreds of different documents in a business related lifecycle and enable DHL to create new documents and convert them into XML - DTD Bolero messages.

DHL's search for a suitable solution included the consideration of the current solutions provider for all other Otto services suppliers. However, DHL settled on EDM for two reasons: a dissatisfaction with the service offering by the current solutions provider and their belief that EDM would provide them with a strategic advantage over the rest of Otto's service providers. In addition, DHL immediately recognized and now attests to a strong customer focus, high level of service and availability for support, which was a major concern for them.

Upon the completion of the project, DHL remained satisfied with their choice, "We achieved the final result as a team," said Thomas Schiller, Vice President Business Processes. "Our cooperation made this into a win/win situation for both DHL Danzas Air & Ocean and EDM. In fact, Otto has now purchased the EDM solution and more of Otto's services providers will likely follow suit."

The functional requirements and the process flow of the transactions were set out during the initial business consultancy. DHL's main objective was facilitated transactions using bolero.net. Thus, as a first phase, a client server version of boleroPAQ was installed using one central database to handle all bolero transactions. Secondly, the five DHL locations in Europe and Asia that would be using the system as established in the process flow were set up.

Representation of the pilot system implemented:

Description of the Process Flow for DHL AIR

DHL wanted to enable bolero communication between:

• DHL Hong Kong
• DHL Frankfurt/Hamburg/Bremen
• Otto Hamburg
• Otto Hong Kong
• Vendors, carriers, customs and 3rd party forwarders

As an example, here is a partial list of documents for communication between the established parties:

• Packing List
• Commercial Invoice
• Shipping Instructions
• Certificate of Origin
• Inspection Report
• Export License
• Purchase Order
• Purchase Order Confirmation
• Waybill (Master and House)
• Reference Sheet

The first set of documents implemented for DHL were decided upon based on their critical importance and they were:

• Commercial Invoice
• Packing List
• Shipping Instructions
• House Airway Bill

All documents could be previewed as PDFs.

Otto and DHL Flow Chain for Ocean and Air

The flow of operations differs slightly depending on how the merchandise is shipped. Here you will see the two scenarios represented, Ocean and Air freight. The circled numbers will help correlate this diagram with the System Architecture.

DHL opted for EDM's standard database and within 18 months adapted all of its requirements into the application. Presently, the company has a customized solution that solves all their needs. DHL attributes the success of the integration to the combination of their freight forwarding business knowledge and EDM's development and IT expertise.

With EDM, DHL was able fulfil the request of one of their largest customers and are now better poised to capitalize on opportunities created by corporations gravitating toward paperless and automated business environments.