The company is a recognized leader in cold-chain solutions that maintain supply chain integrity from end to end. Many industry verticals have a cold-chain element, whether it is Food, Pharmaceuticals, Floral, or even Aerospace, to meet established guidelines or regulations. From proper storage and handling of chemicals to delivering food that is safe to eat, cold-chain logistics play a crucial role in preserving temperature-sensitive cargo as it is shipped around the globe. It offers cold-chain solutions in China, Mexico, South America, Europe, Japan, the South Pacific, and South Africa.
US retailers throw out about 9 billion lbs. of fresh produce at an estimated cost of $8.9 billion, and approximately 45% of cut flowers are disposed of before being sold. Farmers can use temperature data to avoid financial loss. For a grower-shipper, monitoring the temperature of a shipment is critically important. If there is ever a “warm load,” the shipper must know where and when the temperature violation occurred to protect itself from financial loss. If the shipper does not have the temperature history, it could lose thousands of dollars on a rejected load.
Real-time tracking can provide temperature and humidity levels as well as current location and expected arrival times. This helps reduce logistics costs by avoiding unnecessary wait times and inefficient resource deployment. Additionally, it reduces risk by minimizing claims and rejections.
The company was introduced to Aeris by an existing customer. They wanted to simplify global connectivity with a single service bundle providing uniform control across their geographies. We pitched our connectivity solution over a single core network, enabling superior operational analytics. Catching overages and overconsumption of data by the data tracking device requires a trigger to alert them, and sometimes even a pause is required. Early in the demo phase, we introduced Aeris IoT Watchtower. Like many customers, they wanted security as a separate add-on, but we insisted on a bundled solution.
Since their customer base includes any business with temperature-sensitive commodities, including processing, manufacturing, storage, shipping, and handling, they can benefit from implementing the tracking system. They also offer third-party certified calibration services. These services can be used to support compliance, traceability, validation, and quality assurance programs. Calibration services may even be used as evidence for insurance claims pertaining to poorly handled temperature-sensitive commodities. Deep visibility and continuous monitoring of their cold-chain solution, as well as auditable documentation of compliance, were crucial to their business operations. In addition, immediate or near real-time notification and rectification of operational malfunctions and violations of business rules were important considerations.
The benefits of our bundled solution in operational efficiency as well as cybersecurity were evident to the company. At an operational level, they could catch cost overages due to overconsumption of data and set triggers against violations of policies and limits. They liked the flexibility to pause and reactivate as a self-service. It was obvious how the analytics could be used for efficiency. They could also control any operational malfunctions. Any violation of policy rules triggered an alert. For example, they do not want their logger to work in certain countries. These policies can be monitored in near real-time and modified immediately to manage operational malfunctions or business rules and policy violations.
In terms of security, the company was impressed by the dashboard providing a visual chart of unauthorized devices (IP addresses) communicating with their backend servers or unknown and sometimes unauthorized destinations. They did not believe they had security issues, but when they saw the dashboard, they truly appreciated the capabilities of our solution. At this stage, they were quite willing and happy to purchase the connectivity and security as a bundle. Aeris IoT Watchtower™ Enforcement turned out to be a critical need for their business operations.