Integration capabilities enable ocean carriers to realize accelerated benefits of container visibility

International Asset System (IAS), a supplier of asset management solutions to the container shipping industry, has selected webMethods, Inc., to provide the technology infrastructure that IAS will use to integrate with its customers.

The webMethods integration platform will provide the mechanism through which IAS’s Event Manager application can communicate data directly with ocean carrier systems and those of their trading partners such as shippers, consignees, trucking companies, terminals, depots and railroads.

In the course of providing container asset visibility to its customers, IAS Event Manager processes large volumes of data messages related to container events such as pre-arrival notifications, gate moves, cargo stripping notifications, transport work orders and equipment interchanges. These messages are exchanged between multiple subscribers, in a variety of formats and by a variety of communication protocols. Leveraging the webMethods integration platform, the IAS Hub infrastructure can process more than 5 million messages each month.

IAS will use the webMethods integration platform to receive and transmit ocean carrier/trading partner data messages and will leverage the platform’s capabilities to support a variety of message formats and protocols,including industry-recognized EDI such as ANSI X.12 and UN/EDIFACT, as well as customers’ proprietary formats.