bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

International freight forwarders, logistics companies, airlines and cargo terminal firms have developed their own business software.

 But many small to medium-sized companies, unable to pay the millions of dollars in development costs, rely on systems produced by software houses.

 Here we showcase some of the new products on offer.

 Local company, International Transport Information Systems (ITIS), has developed a full range of software especially for the freight forwarding and shipping industry.

 Satti Wong, the firm's managing director, says several new products will be launched in the next few months.

 These include its In.Cargo which is being re-written for the Java platform in time for a formal launch between April and June next year.

 Previously In.Cargo was only available on a Sun Microsystems server.

 Continental Air Express (CAE), a local freight-forwarding company, has become the first client for the new Java-based In. Cargo package. CAE will initially install the system in four of its 14 branches worldwide but the software will also be extended to include the firm's 50 agencies in Asia, Europe and North America.

 ITIS will also launch its EC One - EDI trade declarations, shipping orders and instructions software - early next year.

 Ms Wong, who has 11 years' experience developing software for freight forwarders, says the new software, suitable for Windows 95 and NT, will complement existing ITIS packages including EDI Gateway and In.Logistic.

 ITIS has also developed In.Profile, an Internet software package that Ms Wong says is ideal for shipping companies who want to put sailing schedules, charging costs and other catalogued information on the World-Wide Web.

 'The major benefit is that allows secretaries to update the information without the need to pay an Internet service provider,' ITIS sales manager Felix Chan says.

 ITIS will be demonstrating its range at the December 3 to 6 Software '97 show.

 IPACS Computer Services has launched Logistics/2000, a family of system applications for the freight industry.

 The software includes systems modules covering air freight, sea freight, order processing and warehouse distribution, global tracking and tracing, financial and executive information using Oracle as the development tool.

 Tham Fun Yuen, branch manager for IPACS in Hong Kong, says Logistics/2000 capitalises on the latest information technology and applies it to freight operations, particularly supply chain management and total logistics.

 The initial group of customers are KWE Kintets, K-Line Air Service and Jet Air International Group.

 Discovery Suite, a range of three fully integrated Windows components which provide integrated electronic document management, workflow and document imaging capabilities, has been introduced by Filenet.

 The firm says among the advantages of Discovery Suite is that it is installed from a single CD. 'This eliminates hassles of multiple disks, saves time and avoids potential installation errors,' the firm says.

 Discovery Suite requires a Soros document server for back office or Windows NT, Sun Solaris, AIX or Hewlett-Packard-UX as a Mezzanine library system.

 Pacific Connections specialises in producing Web sites and Intranets, Web sites that are closed to outsiders but allow staff in a number of different offices to work on projects simultaneously.



ITIS develops software for small firms in business