Panalpina announces launch of highly innovative and industry-shaping customer portal

Panalpina is intent on steering the logistics industry into the Digital Age by using the newest technologies available to create a truly innovative, end-to-end digital environment for its customers, and thereby reaffirms its role as an innovator and forerunner in the sector. The new customer portal not only addresses many of today’s most pressing needs but more importantly will shape and define tomorrow’s interactions and interfaces between customers and logistics service providers.

“We have recently reached a significant milestone in modernizing the company’s systems landscape by successfully rolling out our new state-of-the-art operational platform (SAP TM) in Germany – one of our key markets. Now, Panalpina is taking the next logical step in creating a seamless customer experience that will make managing global shipments faster and simpler,” announces Panalpina CEO Stefan Karlen. “Our new customer portal is the centerpiece of Panalpina’s technology transformation and one that will greatly impact how we, and likely others in the industry, will interact with customers in the future.”

In a first step, Panalpina has successfully piloted its new, fully automated online quotation and booking platform for ad hoc cargo with selected Air Freight customers. This new centralized digital platform provides customers with a fast, simple and reliable online interface that enables informed decision-making by giving access to easy and instantaneous quotation and booking of ad hoc shipments globally. Some of the first key customer benefits of the new platform are:

1.Speed: instant quotation thanks to automated rate calculation without human intervention

2.End-to-end solutions: rates cover door-to-door transactions including pre- and on-carriage 

3.Ease: rates can be viewed and freight booked instantaneously with a few mouse-clicks and without the need to pick up a phone or write an email

Lucas Kuehner, global head of Air Freight at Panalpina, says: “We were already a pioneer in the industry with our unique Charter Network and we are doing so again, right now. The platform offers key features such as dynamic pricing, global coverage and online 24/7 accessibility. In today’s highly volatile market environment, our automated platform allows us to respond very quickly to customer inquiries by providing competitive rates as well as cargo capacity either through our Charter Network or best-in-class partner carriers.”

Ralf Morawietz, Panalpina’s chief information officer, explains: “Today, anyone can easily set up an appealing front-end tool for freight quotation or booking. The key question to ask is: What happens on the back end when a query is triggered? In our case, sophisticated algorithms immediately scan the industry’s most comprehensive online databases, without manual intervention, to calculate the best freight rates and options for our customers.”

“We are excited to launch the platform in the first quarter of next year, and thereafter extend this new-generation digital portal across our entire product portfolio and customer base,” adds Karlen.