Cargo Services Group: digitally transforming logistics operations
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Cargo Services Group: digitally transforming logistics operations
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WRITTEN BY
GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY
KRISTOFER PALMER
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CARGO SERVICES GROUP
Glen Seto, Chief Process & IT Officer at Cargo Services Group, discusses the company’s digital transformation alongside its plans for the future
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G
len Seto, Chief Process & IT Officer has only been with Cargo Services Group (CSG) for seven months (CSG includes
major companies such as: Cargo Services Far East, CN Logistics Ltd, and more). He states: “e-commerce has grown so much in the past few years, which has caused considerable disruption to our customers in the manufacturing and retail industries. Currently we are in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) business era, in which many corporations have created complex and competitive markets. Through digital transformation and optimisation, logistics operations can be developed to be more efficient and innovative. It was this mindset that piqued my interest to be involved back in the industry.” Prior to being Chief Process & IT Officer at Cargo Services Group, Seto held various positions within FedEx, UHN, Katalogic, SML, Adidas
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Offices in China
600,000 Containers handled per year
40+
Countries of operations
9,000 Number of employees
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CARGO SERVICES GROUP
“Big Data is definitely the foundation for the future of software automation” — Glen Seto, Chief Process & IT Officer, Cargo Services Group 06
and Kiabi. As part of his current role he has four core priorities that the company focuses on both internally and externally in order to maintain its competitive edge within the industry: transformation, commercialisation, visualisation and innovation. “For us, transformation is looking at opportunities within the company to improve and transform our systems and processes,” he explains. “Recently, we have been looking to optimise our ways of managing freight information.” Alongside the company’s internal transformation, Seto highlights that it also looks to commercialise new software and technology to improve the services it provides to its logistics customers. “Commercialisation is part of our drive to share with our customers the benefits of what we have learnt; visualisation and innovation is our continuous process,” he notes. “Technology changes very quickly so we are constantly looking at new entrants and technologies that can be applied to the business.” Seto believes that connectivity is a core trend for the logistics industry.
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘DEMONSTRATING THE DRIVERLESS TOYOTA FORKLIFT’ 07 “In logistics, we are behind in terms of
traditional methods. “For our opera-
connectivity technology. However, it
tions and processes we came up with
is much easier now with fast-devel-
a circular feedback loop, where we
oping innovations with API software
are constantly defining, measuring,
architectures,” he says. In addition
proof of concepting, operating and
to connectivity, he highlights that
then redefining,” says Seto. “We are
ever increasing detail in end-to-end
very pragmatic about our innovation.
visibility is an emerging trend, along
It’s about finding value and assessing
with automation, saying that “there is
which implementations make good
more and more happening in terms of
business sense, as opposed to just
robotics, such as driverless forklifts
innovating for the sake of it.” In order
and robotic arms.”
to achieve its transformation strat-
When it comes to CSG’s digital
egy, the company works closely with
transformation, the company is driv-
its ecosystem of partners including
ing innovation into the heart of its
Chinese Telco, Microsoft and CS-PAC. w w w.c a rgofe. com
Becoming Digital The purpose of digital transformation is very simply a process to help your organization find new ways of generating value. Successful organizations make the most of their transformation journey by focusing on empowering people to achieve more with the right technology.
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Enabling unified customer experiences, agile operations, and accelerating innovation and growth For the last two years Microsoft has been a proud partner and advisor to Cargo Services Far East, one of its key corporate customers in Hong Kong. During this partnership, Microsoft has been empowering the company on cost optimisation, operational efficiency and productivity. "Our partnership with Microsoft started with implementing productivity suite Office 365 and business applications Dynamics 365 for our call center," comments Glen Seto, Chief Technology Officer of Cargo Services Far East. "When we began the transformation journey, we looked at how we could enable the mobility of end users to increase productivity with a unified platform, while maintaining the security." To optimise call center processes and reduce overheads within the business, Microsoft has implemented Dynamics 365 solution for Cargo Services Far East. "The solution gives Cargo Services Far East the ability to provide its customers with a unified experience and timely responses, as well as reducing the need for manual work to be completed," adds Lee. In addition, Microsoft has been working with Cargo Services Far East to drive cost optimisation through providing intelligent cloud and data centre modernization services on Azure. "Currently we have started to move the company's call centers and data centers to cloud, says Lee, "afterwards, we will modernise the company's reporting architecture within its data warehouses which will allow the company to receive real time data analytics."
Ensuring a good partnership comes down to one crucial thing: "knowing the customer's environment and understanding the company's challenges," says Lee. As a trusted advisor of Cargo Services Far East, Microsoft provides modern workplace and cloud databases solutions to solve the company's business challenges. "At Microsoft we have multiple cloud solutions, three of which Cargo Services Far East is currently leveraging - modern workplace, business applications and intelligent cloud - to achieve their digital transformation journey." "This is not the end of our partnership with Cargo Services Far East," says Lee. "We are continuously working with the company on this particular journey. These are just some of the company's developments that we are working on. We believe this partnership will keep on growing and benefiting both parties in the future."
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CARGO SERVICES GROUP
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More than five million pieces per month processed in eCWMS
INCREASINGLY SMART WAREHOUSES
platform offering that will be sold as
When it comes to its warehousing
just software. The commercialisation
operations, CSG is moving its infra-
of this software allows us to focus on
structure over to the cloud. Seto
going beyond our current logistics
elaborates: “this is something I am
customers’ needs to create a product
carefully focusing on. eCWMS is
for anyone that has a warehouse.”
predominantly a system we use to
The new version of eCWMS will be
manage our warehouse operations
a cloud-based platform designed to
for our customers. It helps us to add
be simple and easy to use, stand-
efficiency to our operations whilst
ardised but rich with features for
sharing information with our custom-
fast-deployment; it will also be
ers for collaboration and visibility.
modular. Seto also shares that the
However, I’m sharing our expertise
company is working on some new
and knowledge, fused into a software
modules such as an algorithmic pick
routing tool, warehouse layout design
the different parties that operate in
simulation tools and automated data
today’s complex supply chains. As
entry functions. In addition, it is look-
a result, his strategy for eCWMS is
ing at IOT components and people
to ensure the platform is modular,
movement flow tracking - this is cur-
easy to configure and simple to inte-
rently in the R&D phase.
grate. Because of this, he’s already
Above all, Seto understands that the richness of the features are useless if the platform isn’t easily integratable and connected to all of
launched this new version this year, which has seen rapid adoption. In addition to the new offerings on the warehouse side, eCoreOS® is
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Glen Seto Glen Seto is the current Chief Process & IT Officer (CPO) at Cargo Services Group. In his current portfolio he manages, Process Improvement Division, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Division, Internal Audit & CSR Department, Global IT operations, security, and software development. Seto has a broad range of industry experience when it comes to process and IT leadership, holding several positions within FedEx, UHN (healthcare), Katalogic (management & IT consulting), SML (apparel manufacturing), Adidas and Kiabi, to develop new business operations, e-commerce platforms, web and cloud systems, software robots, AI automation and business innovations. Seto’s qualifications include a degree from the University of Toronto (Canada) and an executive MBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Canada.
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Accelerate logistics enterprise’s digital transformation journey with full-fledged managed ICT solutions Amidst today’s digital globalization, embracing new technologies is inevitable to stay competitive. Emerging technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and e-commerce are rapidly changing global trading and logistics models, opening up a new era of global supply chains. Logistics can be said to be one of the first industries to consider digital transformation, because logistics involves supply chains, the amount of data is very large, and most of them need to operate across regions, and apply a large number of IoT and monitoring technologies, so there is an absolute need for digital transformation. However, logistics enterprises may encounter many potential challenges along their digital transformation journey that a right ICT service partner is crucial to the success. CITIC Telecom CPC, as a global local ICT service enabler, has accumulated ample industry and service management experience that helps many logistics enterprises to transform by offering a holistic managed solution based on their business models and needs. Going global: the rise of digital globalization The strength of CITIC Telecom CPC‘s offerings is underpinned by three key areas of excellence: The company’s comprehensive portfolio of innovative ICT solutions, its extensive self-owned and selfoperated global infrastructure of network linkages and world-class ICT facilities, and the company’s staff who possess deep expertise in crucial areas of both technology and business, particularly native business culture and localized language presence across the world, plus strong vertical industry sector expertise. To propel the development of smart logistics nowadays, logistics and transportation companies must be closely connected with partners and stakeholders in different regions. Hence a reliable and flexible network infrastructure is the foundation of successful digital transformation. Leveraging the latest SD-WAN technology and its global network coverage with over 140 PoPs in 130 countries, CITIC Telecom CPC has recently helped a global logistics and transportation customer with 70 offices worldwide to design a managed TrueCONNECT™ Hybrid SD-WAN solution to
connect their global branch offices, users and applications with high efficiency and optimized performance. Despite of the network complexity, the customer is now able to gain better visibility of their over network with simplified network management and better level of security so as to align with their corporate’s global expansion and digitalization strategy. Stay local: ample customer and service management experience In addition to incorporating the best technologies into its solutions, CITIC Telecom CPC is able to leverage its world-connected industry experience and knowledge, as well as managed services to maximize customer benefits. With the open up of the enterprise network to cloud and IoT devices, rising severity of cybersecurity threats as well as vast amount of data being processed and analyzed over the network across regions, logistics enterprises may not have sufficient IT staff with all-round technology knowhow to ensure the data and network security at all times. CITIC Telecom CPC’s team of certified professionals across 26 offices worldwide, with mindful of native cultures and local business conditions, is able to provide 24x7 monitoring service and ensure enterprise’s data is always be complied with local data regulations, including EU GDPR and China MLPS 2.0 etc for maximum data protection. As CITIC Telecom CPC has been very accurate at envisioning the continued digital transformation of logistics enterprises, and serving their “Go Global” need, the company can continue to truly embrace its motto that “Innovation Never Stops”, competently anticipating and addressing emerging market demands with creative solutions that deliver products and services enterprises need.
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CARGO SERVICES GROUP
another foundational software that
and has the ability to integrate with
CSG uses to capture e-commerce
couriers of your choice and being
order management operations for
able to create invoices for any of the
its customers. eCoreOS® currently
parties in the supply chain. “VUCA
has interfaces built with e-commerce
is pushing us in many different ways,
shopping platforms such as ebay,
but I’m doing the same to CSG, to be
shopify, Taobao, TMALL and so on,
faster, smarter, and more efficient in
and is able to take these shopping
areas that we’ve never considered
carts and create orders to eCWMS
before,” Seto enthuses.
(or any other warehouse system)
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for the pick, pack, and delivery
VISIBILITY AND SIMPLICITY
operations. It is currently being
Seto believes that “cargo and product
used by more than 50 retail custom-
tracking is the most valuable piece
ers in Hong Kong, China, Australia,
of information we can provide to
Singapore, Bangladesh and the UK,
customers, and even ourselves. It can
Over 100,000+ e-commerce orders processed in 1 day in eCoreOS®
“ In order to have true digital twins we need to drive further connectivity between the physical and digital worlds” — Glen Seto, Chief Process & IT Officer, Cargo Services Group
all data upstream and downstream, including all the freight movement after the product has been produced. The new release of CargoTrack is built on the newest technologies, and it has API capabilities for all other systems to connect and flow data into it seamlessly. The centralising of data in this way creates simplicity for the company’s customers.
AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS When speaking with Seto, he highlights how CSG is joining with others in the industry to develop autonomous robots for its warehouses. provide better and informed decision
“We have been testing out these
making, and the improved visibility of
types of robotics in the warehouse
real time tracking allows us to make
and are seeing, in certain scenar-
decisions at exactly the right time.”
ios, increased efficiency. However,
CSG’s technologies have allowed
we are still currently in the proof
it to integrate and gather upstream
of concept stage,” he states. As in
visibility during product development
other areas, CSG always looks to
stages through the PO visibility sys-
increase the breadth of capabilities
tems that its customers employ (such
and services that it can provide to
as LIMA, InforNexus, etc.) - this has
e-commerce B2C customers, par-
always provided adequate informa-
ticularly in scenarios where this type
tion. However, to advance further, the
of automation and quick turn-around
company has its CargoTrack platform,
time is what the “want it now” con-
which allows for the centralising of
sumers demand. w w w.c a rgofe. com
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CARGO SERVICES GROUP
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ARTIFICIAL SOFTWARE INTELLIGENCE In addition to the aforementioned technology advancements for CSG, AI and software robot automation (RPA) are also part of its innovation portfolio. When it comes to AI, Seto sees great potential, particularly for applications such as forecasting costs and market stability within logistics. “At the moment, I would say the AI we are using is on an operational level. For example, we have RPA systems that use AI and machine learning to process, data enter, and validate invoices and the key is that it continues to learn each time they carry out a task, increasing accuracy every time.” Seto acknowledges that with innovation comes challenges, and in particular, he views education as a significant factor. “Explaining the opportunities and abilities of innovative technology, creating a cultural shift from ‘that technology has nothing to do with me’ to ‘how could I use that technology to help with what I am doing?’ has been a big challenge.” Since joining the company, he has worked to kickstart an innovation lab concept. “I think one of the biggest w w w.c a rgofe. com
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CARGO SERVICES GROUP
problems that organisations are facing is not only new technology, but the skill set and mindset of their people. The innovation labs are designed for brainstorming innovations that can enhance our operations.” Looking to the future of logistics, Seto wants to see digital twins and Big Data being implemented within the company. “We haven’t got there yet, but we are certainly laying down the foundations,” he says. “We have been upgrading our warehouse man18
agement systems and implementing different types of IoT systems, such as sensors for monitoring warehouse operations. Ultimately we want to be smarter, but in order to have true
“We are very pragmatic about our innovation. It’s about finding value and assessing which implementations make good business sense as opposed to innovating for the sake of it” — Glen Seto, Chief Process & IT Officer, Cargo Services Group
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digital twins we need to drive further
Reflecting on digital transformation
connectivity between the physical and
as a whole, Seto’s favourite aspect of
digital worlds.” Seto also adds that
the process is “trialing new technol-
“Big Data is definitely the foundation
ogy to drive business value, as well as
for the future of software automation.“
increasing energy and engagement
Currently, we are laying the founda-
from the company’s workforce.”
tions for a lot of this kind of work, and most are in the proof of concept phase. I am driven that within a year a lot of these technologies will be up and running, providing value to the business.” w w w.c a rgofe. com
Cargo Services Group 13/F ATL Logistics Centre B 3 Kwai Chung Container Terminals New Territories Hong Kong T +852 24818308 www.cargofe.com