Last February, the recruitment of Rajesh Krishnamurthy, former President of Infosys, reaffirmed the key role of digitalization in the Group’s strategy. He heads the expansive Digital, Shared Services Centre, IT and Transformations Department, which will lead the Group into the digital era. Rajesh discussed with us the digital challenges facing the shipping world...

Why is digitalisation essential to the shipping industry?

Because it will create more transparency for shipments! Shippers have high expectations for the industry. They want visibility along the entire transport chain in order to be more reactive and adjust their inventory. In the shipping and logistics industry, we now have a multitude of players, each one working with different tools. For this reason, recovering tracking information is very challenging, making it difficult to provide customers with the traceability they want. Today, we are especially dedicated to offering our customers the level of transparency already available in a number of other sectors.

What is CMA CGM’s digital strategy?

The Group has decided to work at two levels for greater flexibility: of course, we have several structural projects which will help us to eventually improve our performance and efficiency in the long term. Simultaneously, we are working on more short-term projects. We currently have 60 projects under way, including some with start-ups. I think it’s very beneficial, particularly as it encourages our employees to look beyond the maritime shipping industry. We want to become equipped with cutting- edge tools and technology. These include fundamental solutions such as machine learning, big data, robotics, and more. We have launched these initiatives internally to better serve our customers. We want to digitalise our entire ecosystem: we are introducing helpful services such as smart containers, for example, which provide notifications in case of humidity or an abnormal rise in temperature. Finally, we are very interested in future technologies: blockchain could one day make it possible for us to offer a totally paperless and secure bill of landing, a crucial document in the maritime shipping business. We are also exploring augmented reality as a team training aid and as a predictive maintenance tool to anticipate problems on our ships. In a move towards these objectives, we are working with the world’s biggest tech companies as well as start-ups: thanks to the CMA CGM Ventures, we are able to invest in very promising start-ups. We have also created Ze Box, our international start-up incubator which will open its doors this summer in Marseilles.

Has the shipping industry sufficiently embraced the digital transformation?

The industry is behind. Traditionally, the maritime shipping industry has relied on verbal interactions: the customers call, we give them a price, they negotiate, we give them a new price, etc. Sometimes the customers call back to cancel the order or modify their cargo. These 19th century practices have finally begun to evolve. Thankfully, things are changing. Digitalization will make relations between shippers and shipping companies more efficient. Soon, companies will be able to provide a great deal of information on prices, cargo, shipping times, etc. We will connect to our customers’ information systems, and they will connect to ours, all in an effort to exchange accurate information in real time. Digitalization will also move us forward in the invaluable process of going paperless. The maritime shipping industry faces a daunting documentation challenge: merchandise must always be accompanied by documents to comply with the regulations, which often vary from one country to another. Sometimes, the merchandise is loaded on board, but the documentation is missing and needs to be sent by FedEx! This is no longer acceptable. Today, companies like IBM, Accenture and General Electric are working to develop paperless solutions based on blockchain or cloud technology.

Digital is one of our four strategic pillars. Rodolphe Saadé is a true

believer and has invested lots of time and energy into the endeavour!

” “

Rajesh Krishnamurthy Senior Vice President IT & Transformations

INTERVIEW

12GROUP LIFE