ONE turns to Google to accelerate customer service innovation

Container line Ocean Network Express (ONE) is broadening existing relationships with infrastructure provider Google Cloud and Deloitte Consulting to incorporate artificial intelligence “across every aspect of its business,” the companies said Tuesday.

The move includes building a center of excellence in Singapore, where ONE is headquartered, to more quickly find and develop use cases where AI can improve the shipping line’s online customer service and back-end processes.

“We recognize that our shipping services underpin smooth economic activity and believe that we must constantly raise industry standards,” ONE Executive Vice President Kosuke Wada said in a statement.

ONE has been relying on WNS, a business process outsourcing provider, as a transitional phase between the starting point of its digitization efforts and its aspirational state of full automation across its back-end and front-end operations. WNS has developed a number of internal robotic process automation (RPA) solutions, bots that help with operational tasks like bookings, documentation filings, container movement updates, and cargo available messages.

At the same time, ONE said in the statement it has been trialing Google AI applications that help automate tasks and reduce workload on internal support teams. ONE’s internal virtual assistant chatbot automates employees’ queries regarding policies and processes.

ONE said Google and Deloitte were instrumental in helping it migrate to its SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and finance systems.

In a February conversation with JOC.com, Wada said the shipping line is on a multiyear path to digitize core processes.

“Our digital transformation started two years ago,” he said. “The root project was focused on digitalizing customer touchpoints. COVID drove us, even if running the project was more difficult due to working remotely, but it helped because people’s minds have been changed. Digital enablement can be achieved.”

Specifically, he said, ONE is focused on reshaping the quotation process, the e-commerce experience, and mobile capabilities.

“We want to continuously improve customer expectations, and the systems need to be designed for that, for external and internal customers,” Wada said.

Wada noted in the JOC interview that ONE has an advantage that other major shipping lines cannot replicate in that the carrier had a sort of blank slate on which to redesign its system architecture on the back of its origins. ONE is the brand for the merger of Japan’s three major container lines — NYK Line, MOL, and “K” Line. Most shipping lines have decades of software and systems upon which they are dependent for everything from core business operations to more granular functions like yield management and container inventory tracking, among a host of other challenges.

For some lines that have turned historic 2021 profits into numerous acquisitions, the universe of systems they must juggle has only grown.

Google Cloud’s broadening relationship with ONE is also indicative of how cloud services providers are targeting the supply chain — and within that, transportation and logistics — as a key vertical for their own growth. Microsoft Azure is the cloud backbone for both Maersk and MSC as well as freight broker and logistics services provider CH Robinson. Amazon Web Services has also been growing its footprint in the logistics industry.

Among Google’s other prominent supply chain customers are Canadian National Railway and retailer The Home Depot.

Eric Johnson.

Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com and follow him on Twitter: @LogTechEric.