Indonesia-based maritime and logistics operator PT Meratus Line (Meratus) teamed up with Google Cloud and PT Metrodata Electronics (Metrodata) to accelerate digital innovation and reinforce its position as a customer-centric organisation.
The multi-year collaboration involves Meratus adopting Google Cloud’s open data cloud and tapping Metrodata’s technical expertise to build Indonesia’s first maritime logistics “super app” and to embed artificial intelligence (AI) into its operations.
A key player in the regional shipping industry, Meratus operates more than 40 agency networks, two container terminals, more than 20 container logistic centers, and more than 65 vessels, which help deliver point-to-point and network transportation services along 35 international and domestic shipping routes.
Meratus has migrated its digital real estate from on-premises data centres onto Google Cloud’s scalable, secure, and carbon-neutral infrastructure.
The company also uses Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to automate application deployment and Google Cloud’s Apigee application programming interface (API) management platform to break down internal data silos.
As a result, Meratus’ services are now accessible to customers via a single application interface. This includes the ability to view the latest vessel schedules, book a shipment, be notified once the order is confirmed, and track the cargo’s location when the vessel is out at sea.
“Google Cloud’s open data cloud empowers our staff to develop a super app with greater speed and agility,” said Farid Belbouab, CEO of Meratus.
“As we expand our logistics distribution services across the archipelago and beyond, we will continue working with Google Cloud and Metrodata to optimise our business processes and deliver integrated world-class customer experiences,” he said.
With its modernised databases running seamlessly on Google Cloud infrastructure, Meratus is turning to pre-trained Vision AI and machine learning (ML) models for computer vision, language, and structured data on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform.
Given that they no longer need to build ML frameworks from scratch, Meratus’ technology teams can now accelerate the development timeline of demand forecasting, dynamic pricing, and predictive maintenance tools.
These AI-powered tools will provide Meratus’ operations teams with granular, real-time visibility into the supply and demand for different types of vessels and shipping containers, thereby helping them to match the right resources to the suitable types of shipment while maximising vessel space and cargo capacity.
With Vision AI identifying patterns from sensor data that indicate changes in equipment condition – specifically degradation or wear and tear, staff can then determine the remaining value of logistics assets and preempt when a machine or component needs to be replaced.
This leads to reduced equipment downtime, reduced maintenance costs, operational effectiveness, and safety improvements.
