Aramex International, the express delivery, freight forwarding and logistics solutions specialist in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia regions, has selected Intermec as its mobile computer platform following a 12-month pilot project.

The transportation company is to implement nearly 200 Intermec 700 series colour mobile computers across a range of application areas and depots throughout more than 30 countries spanning four continents.

The number of units will increase five-to-ten-fold, as Aramex continues to ramp up the implementation of its Freight Tracking solution across many more countries. The tracking system has a centralised database, internet tracking and instant electronic data exchange between all Aramex stations and partners. This enables them to easily and rapidly perform daily tasks such as printing master air waybills, house air waybills, labels, manifests and proof-of-delivery (POD) reports, in addition to sending updates to the customer via e-mail or fax. The tracking system also offers an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution.

“The Intermec 700 mobile computers are used to collect and communicate all of this important data rapidly and securely throughout our network. We’ve chosen the 700 Colour computer, with high speed Vista scanners, deploying them in a Wi-Fi environment within our organisations. We can also easily scale the scope of the communications and incorporate GSM and GPRS,” says Samer Awajan, Chief Technology Architect at Aramex.

The solution is set to extend beyond the Aramex network in the Middle East and Asian Subcontinent to encompass members of the Global Distribution Alliance (GDA). GDA is a world distribution network consisting of more than 40 independent Express operators who together serve over 240 countries worldwide, leading the world as the largest courier operator.

“The complete Intermec solution enables Aramex to manage and utilise its existing resources more effectively, increasing the number of transactions, reducing the number of internal processes and reducing error which all add to the bottom line”, says Colin Summers, Regional Manager for Intermec Technologies Middle East.

“In addition it will really help Aramex increase customer service, giving faster and easier access to all deliveries anywhere in the world. We are eager to be able to take our technology and translate the benefit it is providing to Aramex, across the whole GDA network”.

Among Aramex’ s selection criteria was the need for a mobile computer that could survive the rigours of heavy utilisation in the field, 60 degree Celsius temperatures, high humidity, and sealed against water, sand and dust. In addition it needed an extremely long battery life as the shifts of the Aramex workers can go away beyond a 9.00am to 5.00pm day. Also, because drivers, couriers and warehouse operators rather than qualified IT staff use the devices, they needed to be easy to use. They also had to have high-speed scanners to cope with the large number of parcels and documents being moved in and out of Aramex’s depots.

“We had great local support from Itac, our Business Partner in Jordan. They’ve been providing an invaluable service to Aramex through consultancy, on site technical support and testing. Itac have played a key role in ensuring that the 700 computer really did meet Aramex’s stringent requirements”, says Summers.

“Intermec was able to show that the 700 device had the fastest communication transfer. Using true Ethernet speeds, it proved capable of solving significant bottleneck issues for Aramex in data transmission.

“The other key aspect was being able to offer truly global support as Aramex is a global company. We were able to provide a Global Maintenance Contract, which provided in-country repair and servicing across 100 countries, which was another key factor in our favour”.

The GDA distribution network will also be using Intermec. “We have been so pleased with the work that we have been doing with Intermec that the GDA will also be utilising the Intermec solution combined with our state of the art tracking system”, says Adrian Horsley, VP Aramex Express Services.

Summers points out that Intermec has substantial experience within the transport and logistics market. It has a vertical market team and many of the world’s courier and parcel companies already use Intermec. “This meant that we understood and had already overcome many of the challenges which Aramex face in their implementation."