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GlobalTranz is a US logistics company, specializing in freight management services and also includes LTL, full truckload, supply chain management, domestic air and expedited shipping. It is a technology driven logistics software developer that offers full-service freight agent partnerships and is the largest freight brokerage in the country with 25000+ shippers.
GlobalTranz is a US logistics company, specializing in freight management services and also includes LTL, full truckload, supply chain management, domestic air and expedited shipping. It is a technology driven logistics software developer that offers full-service freight agent partnerships and is the largest freight brokerage in the country with 25000+ shippers.
Legacy integration. APIs
Reduced development time. Enhanced customer service
Logistics
Fiorano Platform, Fiorano API Management
Innovations in technology are changing business models across all verticals and creating new and advanced operational techniques. In the logistics industry, web-services and SOA are slowly replacing EDI, while APIs provide new levels of interoperability and reusability.
The business of LTL freight and shipping includes multiple interactions with third-party players like agents, shippers, customers and other stakeholders who play their respective roles in the entire process. These 3rd party agents use heterogeneous software and message formats to communicate with GlobalTranz ‘s TMS (Transport Management Solution). Point-to-point integrations between TMS and third-party service providers were development intensive and had to follow the complete SDLC (software development lifecycle) before going live.
The IT team at GlobalTranz required a solution to accelerate interface and connector development. Developer productivity was hampered since much of their time was consumed in maintenance of programmed-from-scratch interfaces. GlobalTranz was looking for a single platform to efficiently create, deploy and monitor these interfaces.
75%
Time saved in development
Development of new integrations under a consolidated
platform has resulted in a reduction in knowledge
transfer needs from developer to developer
Innovations in technology are changing business models across all verticals and creating new and advanced operational techniques. In the logistics industry, web-services and SOA are slowly replacing EDI, while APIs provide new levels of interoperability and reusability.
The business of LTL freight and shipping includes multiple interactions with third-party players like agents, shippers, customers and other stakeholders who play their respective roles in the entire process. These 3rd party agents use heterogeneous software and message formats to communicate with GlobalTranz ‘s TMS (Transport Management Solution). Point-to-point integrations between TMS and third-party service providers were development intensive and had to follow the complete SDLC (software development lifecycle) before going live.
The IT team at GlobalTranz required a solution to accelerate interface and connector development. Developer productivity was hampered since much of their time was consumed in maintenance of programmed-from-scratch interfaces. GlobalTranz was looking for a single platform to efficiently create, deploy and monitor these interfaces.
75%
Time saved in development
Development of new integrations under a consolidated
platform has resulted in a reduction in knowledge
transfer needs from developer to developer
Brett Garrick, Integration Specialist, GlobalTranz
Brett Garrick, Integration Specialist, GlobalTranz
To provide the middleware or Microservice-centric architecture. The Fiorano Platform, coupled with Fiorano API Management was used to consolidate heterogeneous application integration endpoints. Fiorano consultants and solution architects assisted the IT team at GlobalTranz to create use-cases for integrating multiple applications. The team was productive within weeks and now manages over 90% of all development work, reducing the requirement for outside consultants.
The end goal for a majority of GlobalTranz use-cases is to create interface points with third-party services to connect back into their proprietary Transportation Management Solution (TMS) software without having to develop point-to-point solutions.
Shipment tracking data is provided by third party vendors. Data is posted to Fiorano Restful services asynchronously in XML and JSON formats. Fiorano processes update all the intermediate systems and make the shipment tracking data available in TMS.
To provide the middleware or Microservice-centric architecture. The Fiorano Platform, coupled with Fiorano API Management was used to consolidate heterogeneous application integration endpoints. Fiorano consultants and solution architects assisted the IT team at GlobalTranz to create use-cases for integrating multiple applications. The team was productive within weeks and now manages over 90% of all development work, reducing the requirement for outside consultants.
The end goal for a majority of GlobalTranz use-cases is to create interface points with third-party services to connect back into their proprietary Transportation Management Solution (TMS) software without having to develop point-to-point solutions.
Shipment tracking data is provided by third party vendors. Data is posted to Fiorano Restful services asynchronously in XML and JSON formats. Fiorano processes update all the intermediate systems and make the shipment tracking data available in TMS.
Fiorano Platform provides the interoperability and acts a unified business backplane for Global Tranz. Fiorano Restful endpoints are used by 3rd party applications to asynchronously send data in multiple formats. Fiorano processes pick up data from multiple third-party channels like FTP, Databases, Web services etc., transform and processes the data and finally send the data to GlobalTranz internal proprietary systems.
When users require a proof of delivery documents, the accounting team handles it through a third-party vendor. Fiorano event processes handle automated document pushes to the third-party imaging vendors and synchronize these with GlobalTranz internal file stores.
Fiorano API Management is used as an entry point for all the services exposed by GloblaTranz. It is used to add additional levels of security, to apply rules and monitoring and to assign API keys to identify and track consumers. Additionally, Fiorano API management brings along its own set of features like Security descriptors in the API layer that provide GlobalTranz's IT team with fine-grained control over the access of an API by different end-users/user groups.
Enhanced Flexibility - Fiorano API management allows the application layer at GlobalTranz to be more flexible. Instead of modifying the code at the backend, developers can now make changes in the API layer by applying policies. This enables the IT team to be more responsive to change requests.
Collections notes data synchronization between TMS and a third-party collection software: Collections software notes are updated in a third-party FTP server on a daily push interval. Fiorano processes pull files securely from FTP, ingest the file into a flat file schema, process data and transform it to call internal REST services to store data at a customer level in TMS. This data is used by GTZ Sales users to pull customer accounts and view collections notes (positive balances etc.).
Handling claims: Third party carriers send claims information through email. Automated Fiorano processes fetch emails related to shipment and damage claims, extract details using regular expressions and match these from a database. Upon finding a match, multiple Restful services are invoked to update information in the TMS.
Fiorano Platform provides the interoperability and acts a unified business backplane for Global Tranz. Fiorano Restful endpoints are used by 3rd party applications to asynchronously send data in multiple formats. Fiorano processes pick up data from multiple third-party channels like FTP, Databases, Web services etc., transform and processes the data and finally send the data to GlobalTranz internal proprietary systems.
When users require a proof of delivery documents, the accounting team handles it through a third-party vendor. Fiorano event processes handle automated document pushes to the third-party imaging vendors and synchronize these with GlobalTranz internal file stores.
Fiorano API Management is used as an entry point for all the services exposed by GloblaTranz. It is used to add additional levels of security, to apply rules and monitoring and to assign API keys to identify and track consumers. Additionally, Fiorano API management brings along its own set of features like Security descriptors in the API layer that provide GlobalTranz's IT team with fine-grained control over the access of an API by different end-users/user groups.
Enhanced Flexibility - Fiorano API management allows the application layer at GlobalTranz to be more flexible. Instead of modifying the code at the backend, developers can now make changes in the API layer by applying policies. This enables the IT team to be more responsive to change requests.
Collections notes data synchronization between TMS and a third-party collection software: Collections software notes are updated in a third-party FTP server on a daily push interval. Fiorano processes pull files securely from FTP, ingest the file into a flat file schema, process data and transform it to call internal REST services to store data at a customer level in TMS. This data is used by GTZ Sales users to pull customer accounts and view collections notes (positive balances etc.).
Handling claims: Third party carriers send claims information through email. Automated Fiorano processes fetch emails related to shipment and damage claims, extract details using regular expressions and match these from a database. Upon finding a match, multiple Restful services are invoked to update information in the TMS.
GlobalTranz has met all the milestones set for their integration project timelines. After completing the Fiorano training, the IT team developed more than 40 critical integration flows within 2 months. Without Fiorano, such integrations would have taken 8-9 months for development.
Brett Garrick, Integration Specialist at GlobalTranz explains: "Through use of the Fiorano platform for new integration development endeavours we have been able to speed up development time significantly through the expansive out of the box component library in combination with the ability to add custom code or components as needed. Development of new integrations under a consolidated platform has also resulted in a reduction in knowledge transfer needs from developer to developer. This has allowed us to further expand upon internal best practices and design methodology standards all driven around a single unified integration framework."
Standardized APIs - A unified platform for developing and maintaining integrations across the organization has not only reduced the need for inter and intra team knowledge transfer, but has also helped in creating standardized APIs. This standardization of APIs further helps third-party developers in deploying new applications.
GlobalTranz has met all the milestones set for their integration project timelines. After completing the Fiorano training, the IT team developed more than 40 critical integration flows within 2 months. Without Fiorano, such integrations would have taken 8-9 months for development.
Brett Garrick, Integration Specialist at GlobalTranz explains: "Through use of the Fiorano platform for new integration development endeavours we have been able to speed up development time significantly through the expansive out of the box component library in combination with the ability to add custom code or components as needed. Development of new integrations under a consolidated platform has also resulted in a reduction in knowledge transfer needs from developer to developer. This has allowed us to further expand upon internal best practices and design methodology standards all driven around a single unified integration framework."
Standardized APIs - A unified platform for developing and maintaining integrations across the organization has not only reduced the need for inter and intra team knowledge transfer, but has also helped in creating standardized APIs. This standardization of APIs further helps third-party developers in deploying new applications.
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