For the benefit of logistics

On February 15, in Marseille, IBM and the shipping company CMA CGM Group, after long-term cooperation within the framework of a joint subsidiary, announced a new strategic partnership at the highest level and signed a 5-year agreement on the provision of IT services.

Transport shipping company CMA CGM is the largest in France and the third largest in the world, and is mainly engaged in container shipping. It operates a fleet of 390 vessels and serves more than 400 ports worldwide. CMA CGM Group is represented on every continent, in 150 countries of the world, through an international network of its regional branches, consisting of more than 650 offices and branches. The CMA CGM Group employs 18,000 people worldwide.

Under the terms of the new contract, IBM will provide a team of qualified cloud computing and analytics professionals who also have industry experience in the CMA CGM specialization. In addition, IBM will support the growth of CMA CGM through the delivery of high-quality information technology services, which will help CMA CGM significantly reduce its costs.

The IT teams of the two companies will merge into a new subsidiary, CMA Systems, with equal representation of both parties in the management structure and accountability directly to Jacques Saade, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of CMA CGM. According to CMA CGM representatives, the new technologies and services developed by CMA Systems, along with its qualified specialists, will provide CMA CGM with significant cost savings in 2012.
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“Innovative technologies from IBM will help CMA CGM improve the quality of service to our customers. This is one of the key competitive advantages of CMA CGM, - said Mr. Saad. - Creating this new partnership with a global market leader is of strategic importance to the CMA CGM Group. This partnership will allow us to offer our customers innovative, specialized IT solutions, and will also help improve our cost control. ”

In turn, IBM France President Alain Benichou noted that: “A new collaboration will provide an opportunity to support CMA CGM in performance management and innovation development with the help of new technologies such as cloud computing and analytics.”

Most likely, IBM specialists and technologies within this partnership will be used to optimize the time spent at the preliminary stages and during direct transportation, as well as automated selection of the optimal route, taking into account a huge number of a variety of factors: from economic, political, environmental, to terrorist.