Aramex turns to AWS for digital transformation
Aramex has built a big data platform on AWS leveraging machine-learning capabilities, which increased accuracy in shipping-date predictions by 74 percent
The disruptive leader in the global logistics and transportation industry moving all technology infrastructure to AWS
Aramex (DFM: ARMX), a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions, has announced that it will migrate all of its technology infrastructure from the company’s on-premises data centers to Amazon Web Services (AWS), in order to increase agility, speed of innovation, and security. In its first phase of cloud adoption, Aramex has built a data lake, which is hosting a big data infrastructure that leverages machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to further enhance the customer experience by transforming the last mile delivery.
Taking advantage of Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed machine learning service for building, training, and deploying machine learning models, Aramex’s in-house data science team built a data analytics and machine-learning platform on AWS. Utilizing this platform, Aramex is improving delivery accuracy and solving for the lack of proper physical addresses in the region by developing intelligent address prediction models that convert descriptive addresses into geo locations. The ML-based platform is also providing the company the ability to have accurate and instant delivery time predictions, using calculations based on seasonality and capacity constraints. As a result of this adoption, Aramex has increased accuracy in shipping-date predictions by 74 percent, and lowered its average processing time for a prediction from 2.5 seconds to under 200 milliseconds.
Commenting on the move to AWS, Mohammed Sleeq, Chief Digital Officer at Aramex, said: “Adopting AWS is pivotal to driving further innovation within our business and provides a platform for growth within Aramex. We are focused on enhancing the customer experience and solving industry challenges primarily around address management, volatility in volumes and last mile capacity. Today, we are able to look at our customers’ delivery experience and expectations from origination to last mile delivery and work backwards to identify technologies and processes that can help us to deliver faster, more efficiently, and operate with elasticity. We are now starting the full migration of our IT infrastructure to AWS and are excited to realize the full benefits of the cloud.”
Andy Isherwood, Managing Director of Amazon Web Services EMEA said of the news:
“Aramex has a longstanding history of innovation, over many decades, and it is great to see how it is using cloud to solve unique industry challenges in the Middle East and North Africa. Combining this with our own experience of using ML technology for the transport and logistics of packages with Amazon.com, we look forward to helping Aramex leverage advanced and secure AWS technologies to further improve the customer service they deliver.”
The move to AWS is the latest milestone in Aramex’s digital transformation journey. In October 2018, Aramex became one of the first companies in the logistics and transport industry to roll out WhatsApp for Business to customers in the form of an AI-based Chatbot. In December 2018, Aramex launched ‘Aramex Fleet’, a crowd-based delivery platform that connects individuals to flexible last mile delivery work to support strong demand for Aramex services in the region.
Aramex’s new, 60,000-square meter fulfillment center in Dubai features new technologies including a ‘Pick to Light’ system, which uses light-directed picking technology to improve accuracy and efficiency, and an automated conveyer belt system.