Panalpina Welttransport : rolls out new IT platform in Germany

Panalpina continues to upgrade its new operational IT platform and is in the middle of its roll-out in Germany. Ocean Freight is currently the prime focus and will be followed by Air Freight. Germany is already handling the highest number of transactions on the new platform. Panalpina's new transport management system will secure significant operational benefits which will lessen the impact of current market volatilities and corresponding margin pressure.

As planned, Panalpina went live with its new transportation management system at the end of May, in different business units throughout Germany. Before the actual go-live took place in Germany, a major release upgrade was installed, that brought significant improvements and new functionalities to the system.

"With the go-live and phased deployment of our new transportation management system in Germany, we have successfully demonstrated the system's ability to scale-up to higher volumes and are now tackling larger countries with more confidence," says Alain Dejalle, chief transformation officer at Panalpina. "To put things into perspective: Panalpina Germany is our third biggest organization in terms of shipment transactions globally. The successful roll-out in Germany will further confirm the system's capabilities. Germany is now the fifth country using our new operating platform, after Switzerland, Singapore, Italy and Canada, where the system has already been fully implemented."

Once the roll-out in Germany is completed, about 30% of all transactions will be handled on the new platform. The preparations for deployment in the next big country, the U.S., are well advanced and its roll-out will be another important milestone in this project.

"Ensuring business continuity for our customers is always the top priority when we roll out the new system in a country," explains Dominik Wiesler, Panalpina's country manager for Germany. "I am happy to report there have been no disruptions or negative impacts on our customers. We've made great progress and our teams have done a tremendous job."

During the ramp-up, Germany will focus on having all Ocean Freight transactions handled on the new system by July and all Air Freight transactions by October, at the latest.

Panalpina's CEO Stefan Karlen says: "I am very pleased with the successful roll-out in Germany. This is an important milestone in our operations transformation program, and validates both the scalability and robustness of our approach."

Market update

"While we see continuous strong volumes, we are still facing margin erosion, as previously communicated. As a result, we expect these market challenges to adversely impact our profitability levels and we anticipate lower results for the first half of the year, compared to the same period last year," adds Karlen.