We analyzed the business needs.
As the air cargo industry continues to add capacity, it becomes extremely imperative for the airlines to raise their level of efficiencies. Typically, in air cargo operations, ground handling systems consume significant amount of time and cost. Increased cargo volumes create a cascading effect on various stakeholders, warehouses and locations on the ground, making cargo handling complex, unpredictable and expensive. Today the air cargo industry relies heavily on the paper air waybill (AWB) to move cargo from origin to destination. Paper-based processes involve challenges in the form of redundancies, lack of visibility and control, and more critically, compromised security, accuracy and speed.
We designed a simple, flexible and cost-effective e-Air Waybill
Patram, the Mphasis e-Air Waybill (e-AWB), is a best-in-class web-based solution which follows the IATA mandated program. It is offered as Product-as-a-Service, facilitating the data information exchange across the e-freight supply chain between freight forwarders/agent, airlines and ground handlers, using the latest technology and scalable architecture. Patram can be accessed anytime, from anywhere, as it is hosted on AWS (Amazon Web Services). The cloud-based application architecture leverages next-generation technologies, and provides a simple, modern, reliable, secure and performant platform for speedier cargo handling, which is key to improved revenues and enabler of the e-freight supply chain.
Patram is based on webservices model in which services interact with reliable and secure AWS RDS SQL Server database in its own VPC, instead of Microsoft SQL Server RDBMS hosted on-prem or in virtual servers in EC2.
AWS Cloud Watch is used to collect, access and monitor performance and operational data in the form of logs and metrics from a single platform. AWS CloudTrail service helps in monitoring, surveying and operation auditing along with risk monitoring of the AWS user accounts, and AWS SES is used for e-mail services. AWS S3 bucket is utilized for UI deployment, which makes the services and UI loosely coupled, resulting in independent hassle-free deployment. AWS IAM secures the authorization and authentication of the user, and the access security to the application is ensured (https) with AWS Certificate Manager.
Multiple benefits offered by Patram
Increased quality of information for accurate, flexible inter-change of electronic data in the cargo life cycle
IATA compliant electronic messages for efficient, secured and effective data transfer between airline and forwarders
Improved customer service though faster cargo processing
User-friendly GUIs allowing forwarders to fill airway bill, CSD information in a traditional manner
Efficient tracking and tracing of waybill information details
Reduced CAPEX through hosted web-based portal for forwarders to connect and communicate with airlines