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IoT case study: Improving real-time cargo monitoring

Arviem selects Vodafone’s IoT platform for cargo monitoring as a service

Arviem, a Swiss service provider of real-time cargo monitoring services, is working with U.K-based telecoms group Vodafone in order to use the latter’s Managed IoT Connectivity Platform to improve its service offerings.

The Swiss company sells monitoring as a service to customers across the globe. Customers pay for the monitoring they need, only when they need it. For example, a coffee producer can track the shipment of its container from Costa Rica, to San Francisco, California, monitoring humidity and temperature fluctuations along the way, as well as checking the container door isn’t tampered with. Once the shipment arrives, the monitoring contract ends.

This kind of monitoring service requires a global communications platform in order to provide tracking services worldwide with consistent pricing.

Arviem’s Founder and CEO Stefan Reidy said the company was looking for a partner with the capacity to handle large amounts of data regarding the end-to-end shipping process. “We’ll be sat on a huge amount of trade data. We’d like to become the best of global trade insight. We’ll hold valuable data on carbon emissions, average cargo handling times, routes with shock risks… and we’d like a partner with the power in the back-end to make sense of this data,” the executive said.

Arviem selected Vodafone’s Managed IoT Connectivity Service to ensure reliable connectivity worldwide. Vodafone’s solution allows Arviem to manage monitoring devices as and when they are activated, anywhere in the world, off a single platform.

Arviem also said that it expects to deploy 50,000 Vodafone IoT SIMs over the next four years.

The U.K. operator said that its IoT connectivity platform allows customers at either end of the supply chain, often involving up to 40 different parties, to track the movement and monitor the environment of its goods with confidence.

“In the past, you’d have no way of knowing about unplanned events affecting your cargo while it was in transit. If an unexpected transshipment was happening, causing delays in your shipment plan, you had no possibilities to get ready for the delay,” said Marco Sargenti, COO at Arviem. “This no longer happens. We ensure you know exactly where your goods are by reporting on events that occur during the transportation process enabling you to take proactive steps to mitigate events and quantify their impact,” he added.

The Swiss firm also said its real-time cargo tracking and monitoring service allows clients to benefit from uncovering inefficiencies in their supply chains, decreasing their supply chain, logistics, security and insurance costs while improving planning, forecasting and risk analysis processes.

Future plans includes the establishment of an infrastructure capable of collecting valuable insight into global trade patterns. “We already hold great data on carrier and port performance; we’re developing data around carbon emissions and currently working on our supply chain financing service,” Reidy said. “We’re at the start of the journey, there will be much more to come. With the managed connectivity service from Vodafone IoT and its strength in cloud and data I only see the working relationship getting closer.”

ABOUT AUTHOR

Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro covers Global Carriers and Global Enterprise IoT. Prior to RCR, Juan Pedro worked for Business News Americas, covering telecoms and IT news in the Latin American markets. He also worked for Telecompaper as their Regional Editor for Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Juan Pedro has also contributed to Latin Trade magazine as the publication's correspondent in Argentina and with political risk consultancy firm Exclusive Analysis, writing reports and providing political and economic information from certain Latin American markets. He has a degree in International Relations and a master in Journalism and is married with two kids.