By Baek Byung-yeul (The Korea Times)
Samsung SDS will increase the availability of its digital logistics platform Cello Square to 30 countries by 2024 and will expand the scope of its service to make it easier for customers to use digital technology to quote, transport, track and pay for logistics services, the company said Thursday. “Logistics is all about how well a company runs its operations. When the Suez Canal congestion occurred in 2022, companies didn’t wait for the problem to be solved there ― they went around the African continent. This is because the risk of holding logistics for a longer time is more expensive than the cost of avoiding risk,” O Koo-il, executive vice president and head of the Logistics Business Division at Samsung SDS, said during a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Seoul.
“In that sense, we have advanced the features of Cello Square to support the integration of all areas of logistics and drive management efficiency.”
Cello Square is a digital logistics platform through which customers can directly access all services from price quotation to booking, transportation, tracking and payment. It recently added new features such as data analytics and automation. The platform even provides carbon emissions tracking data so that clients can check estimates of the carbon emissions generated in the logistics process.
“It is said that the cello is an instrument that plays a role of harmonizing an orchestra. We have been doing business with the goal of harmonizing our supply chain with our Cello platform. With the Cello Square platform, we want to collaborate with our customers and partners and provide more value,” he said.
Currently Cello Square is operational in 13 countries including in China and the United States. The number of countries will be increased to 16 by the second half of this year by adding three countries and will reach 30 by 2024.
“Cello Square is the culmination of over a decade of Samsung SDS’ digitalization experience. Customers can easily access logistics services through a digitalized self-service. Through Cello Square, customers can book, order, monitor and pay for logistics directly,” he said.
“Our platform also helps with document automation, which is the most important part of import and export operations. We store the shipping document information in the platform, which is automatically extracted by optical character recognition technology, and then automatically generate the necessary additional documents.” The EVP added that automation of tasks allows for reduced labor costs and faster workflow.
