Download PDF
Webmethods: the Central Data Hub for Every Destination
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Applicable Industries
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
- Public Transportation Management
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The infrastructure at Zurich Airport is highly complex and must meet the requirements of a wide array of user groups: passengers, airlines, ground crew, customs, security services and air traffic control, to name just a few. Vastly different systems are used for these tasks, requiring millions of data to be transferred among them every day. Until a few years ago, scenarios like this in which data from one system needed to be made available quickly to several other systems posed a major challenge for Flughafen Zürich AG as the airport operator. The interaction between these applications constantly needs realignment as well. But the file export provided in most cases means that nearly every change or new development requires pulling in 30 to 40 IT service providers to achieve a one-to-one integration among the affected partners.
About The Customer
Flughafen Zürich AG operates Zurich Airport as a diversified, publicly traded company and license holder from the government. In 2015, the company with more than 1,700 employees posted revenues of Fr.989 million and profits of Fr.179.8 million. The Canton holds 33.3 percent of shares in the company, and the city of Zurich holds 5 percent. The Zurich Airport is Switzerland’s gateway to the world: 26.3 million people departed, arrived or changed flights here in 2015, making it the region’s top transit hub as well as its most important meeting place. Around 280 companies employ more than 25,000 people at the economic driving force that is Zurich Airport. Recognized international awards confirm Zurich Airport’s strong performance, high quality and customer orientation again and again.
The Solution
To ensure a quick and precise integration at all times, Flughafen Zürich AG utilizes the standards-based, platform-independent webMethods product suite. It was used to develop StarGate (the SOA gateway), the backbone for smooth data sharing between all of the instances involved in a business process. Today 300 interfaces between the different applications are managed by an in-house team of experts with the help of the webMethods ESB for controlling the data transfer. These include typical business solutions such as its fully electronic accounting with airport partners through the integration of Flughafen Zürich AG’s SAP system with Conextrade, Switzerland’s leading e-commerce platform. Furthermore, webMethods intelligent operations technology also enables live monitoring and real-time analysis of processes.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Airport SCADA Systems Improve Service Levels
Modern airports are one of the busiest environments on Earth and rely on process automation equipment to ensure service operators achieve their KPIs. Increasingly airport SCADA systems are being used to control all aspects of the operation and associated facilities. This is because unplanned system downtime can cost dearly, both in terms of reduced revenues and the associated loss of customer satisfaction due to inevitable travel inconvenience and disruption.
Case Study
IoT-based Fleet Intelligence Innovation
Speed to market is precious for DRVR, a rapidly growing start-up company. With a business model dependent on reliable mobile data, managers were spending their lives trying to negotiate data roaming deals with mobile network operators in different countries. And, even then, service quality was a constant concern.
Case Study
Digitize Railway with Deutsche Bahn
To reduce maintenance costs and delay-causing failures for Deutsche Bahn. They need manual measurements by a position measurement system based on custom-made MEMS sensor clusters, which allow autonomous and continuous monitoring with wireless data transmission and long battery. They were looking for data pre-processing solution in the sensor and machine learning algorithms in the cloud so as to detect critical wear.
Case Study
Cold Chain Transportation and Refrigerated Fleet Management System
1) Create a digital connected transportation solution to retrofit cold chain trailers with real-time tracking and controls. 2) Prevent multi-million dollar losses due to theft or spoilage. 3) Deliver a digital chain-of-custody solution for door to door load monitoring and security. 4) Provide a trusted multi-fleet solution in a single application with granular data and access controls.
Case Study
Vehicle Fleet Analytics
Organizations frequently implement a maintenance strategy for their fleets of vehicles using a combination of time and usage based maintenance schedules. While effective as a whole, time and usage based schedules do not take into account driving patterns, environmental factors, and sensors currently deployed within the vehicle measuring crank voltage, ignition voltage, and acceleration, all of which have a significant influence on the overall health of the vehicle.In a typical fleet, a large percentage of road calls are related to electrical failure, with battery failure being a common cause. Battery failures result in unmet service agreement levels and costly re-adjustment of scheduled to provide replacement vehicles. To reduce the impact of unplanned maintenance, the transportation logistics company was interested in a trial of C3 Vehicle Fleet Analytics.
Case Study
3M Gains Real-Time Insight with Cloud Solution
The company has a long track record of innovative technology solutions. For example, 3M helps its customers optimize parking operations by automating fee collection and other processes. To improve support for this rapidly expanding segment, 3M needed to automate its own data collection and reporting. The company had recently purchased the assets of parking, tolling, and automatic license plate reader businesses, and required better insight into these acquisitions. Chad Reed, Global Business Manager for 3M Parking Systems, says, “With thousands of installations across the world, we couldn’t keep track of our software and hardware deployments, which made it difficult to understand our market penetration.” 3M wanted a tracking application that sales staff could use to get real-time information about the type and location of 3M products in parking lots and garages. So that it could be used on-site with potential customers, the solution would have to provide access to data anytime, anywhere, and from an array of mobile devices. Jason Fox, Mobile Application Architect at 3M, upped the ante by volunteering to deliver the new app in one weekend. For Fox and his team, these requirements meant turning to the cloud instead of an on-premises datacenter. “My first thought was to go directly to the cloud because we needed to provide access not only to our salespeople, but to resellers who didn’t have access to our internal network,” says Fox. “The cloud just seemed like a logical choice.”