5 minute read
Wiremind Cargo
Wiremind wired for success
Tailwinds propelling Wiremind to new heights
Wiremind was established to better address the growing needs in the field of digital solutions that airlines, GSAs and forwarders have, asserts Nathanaël De Tarade, CEO, Wiremind Cargo.
Founded in 2014, Paris-based, Wiremind provides optimization systems and inventory management solutions for the transport, supply chain, event and hospitality companies.
Used by market leaders, all the applications developed by the Wiremind’s team of engineers and experts are designed to handle a very large amount of data combined with artificial and human intelligence. Wiremind’s current clientele include airlines and freight forwarders, railways private and national companies, travel and tourism operators, football club in France and abroad.
Global Supply Chain recently conducted an exclusive interview with Nathanaël De Tarade, CEO, Wiremind Cargo. The following are the transcripts of that interview.
Nathanaël De Tarade
is one of the three Managing Directors and co-founders of Wiremind, in charge of the SaaS (software as a service) activity for airfreight. He has been with Wiremind for 6 years, and before that, worked for 6 years at Air France-KLM Cargo, being based successively in Paris, Atlanta (USA), Singapore, and finally again in Paris.
GSC: How do you assess the performance and growth of Wiremind Cargo over the 8 years since its inception? Nathanaël De Tarade (NDT): Wiremind has been around for 8 years, yet the cargo activity is more recent. But, if I look at our overall growth, I can say that we have been blessed with tailwinds since we are now a total of over 75 employees, dozens of customers, many products that are references in their own space, whether passenger or cargo, for airlines and railways.
On the Air Cargo part specifically, I think that the most exciting time starts now for Wiremind Cargo. We have had successes, but I am glad to say 2023 looks even better.
GSC: What are among the top two or three digital products Wiremind Cargo has unveiled and a very brief description of each. NDT: Wiremind Cargo addresses several processes: some of them are core, transactional processes, this is why we launched our CMS, which is a long-term effort to try and bring to the industry a product that we believe was lacking, I am thinking about user experience and ease of maintenance, among other things we bring.
Other processes that we address with other modules are more strategic, related to decision-making: typically revenue management, pricing, capacity forecast, overbooking and capacity optimization.
GSC: Wiremind Cargo recently launched a new module within its CargoStack CMS suite. Tell us more. NDT: I believe you are referring to our Revenue Management product. We have decided to prioritize the improvement of this module as the industry’s response to what we started with was extremely positive. I am very excited about this module, especially because of my personal background: I used to be a revenue management analyst and then manager, so creating the system I would have liked to use back then is a great challenge.
GSC: How receptive has the industry been towards these products? NDT: I would describe the receptiveness and interest of the industry in our products as very positive. Ever since the inception of our first product, SkyPallet, there was a clear problem that we were trying to address for different stakeholders in the air cargo, whether they are airlines, forwarders or even GSAs.
Aside from the growth in our active customers, their willingness to provide us with feedback and new requirements to iterate our product, is a testament to their desire to buy-in. We see more and more customers coming to us with problems asking for help, which we certainly take as a positive sign of their trust in us.
GSC: How critical is technology for the air cargo industry globally? NDT: Technology has always played an important role, given the incredible engineering feats that are the aircraft that carry cargo.
However, in terms of digital technologies in the area we specialize in, we believe there is a big opportunity to unlock revenuegenerating opportunities for airlines or improve air cargo operations, given that many decisions are still taken without the modern data-supported tools that other, more digitally native industries, are using.
We are particularly pleased to see the accelerated adoption of more recent technologies within air cargo.
GSC: How important is the Middle East for Wiremind Cargo? Do you plan to have a regional presence? NDT: With Emirates SkyCargo as one of our largest clients, I can say that it is one of the key regions for us. While we do not currently have offices there, our commitment to our Middle East customers has been strong from the beginning.
GSC: What prospects do you foresee for Wiremind Cargo in the Middle East in the near future? NDT: We expect the region to be one of our strongest growing regions in the coming years in terms of customer acquisition. We are already having advanced talks with several stakeholders, with different roles in the industry, and we are confident that we can secure long-term partnerships.
GSC: How has the Wiremind Cargo performed in 2022 and what is the outlook for 2023? NDT: On the development side, our performance in 2022 has been excellent, although as CEO I always wish things would go even faster! But if I look at where we were a year ago and where we are now, we have achieved a lot. Our team has worked hard to make sure that our products are competitive and innovative.
From a customer acquisition perspective, it has also been a very promising period, with new customers such as Tap Air Portugal, Air Europa, Kuehne + Nagel, and many others. We have renewed our partnerships with our existing customers as well, so things look good!
GSC: What are the opportunities and challenges for Wiremind Cargo going forward? NDT: I think the key opportunity for us as a company is that the industry as a whole is becoming more vocal about its need for digital solutions to its problems, demonstrating a desire for change.
For example, the revenue management practices of cargo airlines or departments have traditionally lagged behind their passenger counterparts. However, we are observing a real step change in their plans to catch up, requesting support in their decision-making process on pricing, capacity planning and demand forecasting.
One of the biggest challenges for a company like ours, whose solutions are largely data-driven, is that the industry’s data maturity and practices or adoption of the latest technological practices may not be as advanced as we would have hoped.
As much as customers like our capabilities or products, secondary challenges, such as extensive data engineering or replacement of mainframe systems, may arise as hurdles that we have to overcome together.
