ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM) is one of the world’s leading international cargo shipping companies. Specializing in select, unique trade lines, ZIM is a global niche carrier offering distinct advantages to customers worldwide. The company maintains a smart, efficient network that ensures stable and reliable services.
ZIM’s lack of a fully-automated order confirmation process impacted its business goals. The lengthy confirmation process, coupled with ZIM’s inability to make business decisions based on real-time data, led to slower customer response times, lower revenues, and competitive disadvantage.
To resolve this challenge, ZIM looked for a cloud-friendly solution that did not require a long-term and costly investment. It opted for a cutting-edge platform enabling faster time to market and an agile development methodology that would allow its developers to adopt a new mindset when undertaking projects.
ZIM selected VMware Tanzu Application Service (TAS) as its main platform along with the Spring development environment. Enabling customers to focus on developer productivity without ticketing or spending much time digesting new technology, TAS automates the preparation of developer code for running on any cloud in an automated environment. Equipped with self-service capabilities, TAS enabled ZIM to seamlessly transfer workloads from the public cloud to a VMware vSphere-based data center, which is powered by VxRail servers.
Improving ZIM’s DevOps processes, the solution enables company developers to focus on development rather than on infrastructure. Prior to partnering with VMware, ZIM’s software team spent months of development work. With VMware Pivotal Labs, its developers can push code to production on a daily basis, while prioritizing according to the highest business value and reducing development time to market, while improving code quality with extreme programing methodology.
Thanks to VMware Pivotal Labs, ZIM has learned how to make its teams more efficient and how to manage product development. ZIM can also add new features immediately after receiving a request from its line of business, and it frequently implements early production. With VMware, ZIM can quickly build and develop applications that address its real-time business challenges, drive its business performance, and maximize its profits.
Given the project’s success, ZIM is now considering extending the deployment of TAS in developing other modern solutions. It is also looking into VMware New Labs project technology to expand its existing application.
ZIM has sown the seeds to maximize its flexibility and maintain its industry leadership. It anticipates that big data technologies, artificial intelligence, decision-making, and block chain applications will drive the technologies in its supply chain – and feel more prepared to implement these changes and others due to its engagement with VMware.
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