May/June 2020
Vervaeke’s
digital
journey
Asset Management
BULKDISTRIBUTOR
11
Mist Wi-Fi is at the heart of Vervaeke’s fleet management
Benelux chemical and fuel logistics operator Transports
Vervaeke has more than doubled in size through two
acquisitions in the past three years.
To ensure smooth operations and continued growth, the company
embarked on a digital transformation initiative. Successfully digitising
the business also demanded IT transformation.
The company chose the WLAN platform from Mist, a Juniper
company, to empower its employees to work easily from anywhere in
its garages, warehouses, and offices.
“We are in the midst of full digitalisation of our company,” says
Mario De Smedt, IT manager at Vervaeke. “We have made a lot of
progress digitising our processes and information flows.”
A family-owned company operating for nearly a century, Vervaeke
serves Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and Germany,
transporting chemicals, gas, fuel, and other dangerous goods. It also
offers a wide range of logistics services by road, train, and boat to
other regions and internationally. The company operates from 13
locations and employs 950 people, 850 of whom are drivers.
After acquiring a multimodal transport provider in 2019, the
company embarked on a business transformation journey. It is
consolidating and modernising applications to create a single view of
its European operations. A single enterprise software platform will
integrate the once disparate business processes of its acquired
companies. A new data lake will provide a 360-degree view of its
operations and customers.
Consolidating its transport management system, which is essential
to ensure that customer orders are delivered to the right place at the
right time, will bring consistent visibility across countries, increase
efficiency, and ensure regulatory compliance.
To accelerate its move toward an AI-driven enterprise, the company
got in touch with Infradata, a leading cybersecurity and cloud
networking solutions provider in Belgium. Infradata introduced
Vervaeke to the Mist Platform for its new wireless LAN.
De Smedt and his team worked closely with Infradata to design and
deploy Mist at its head office. “We have been very pleased working
with Infradata,” De Smedt says. “When we initiated the project,
Infradata assisted us from A to Z for the set-up, implementation, and
connection with the existing network. Because we wanted to make a
segmentation on the network for the Wi-Fi solution, we could
depend on Infradata’s assistance to do so.
“Thanks to the expertise and ease of contact with Infradata, we
were quickly able to plan updates of all the access points and perform
firmware updates when desired. This increases our flexibility on the
work floor and saves us valuable time.”
Vervaeke first refreshed the Wi-Fi at its headquarters in Zellik,
Belgium, and will continue to expand Mist to other locations with the
help of Infradata.
The Mist Platform is built on a modern microservices cloud
architecture, which brings elastic scale and a focus on network
operational simplicity, API-based programmability, and end-user
engagement through location-based services.
“We are pleased with how flexible Mist is,” De Smedt adds. “We
are very happy with the performance and the user experience.”
Mist Wi-Fi is at the heart of the transport company’s fleet
management operations, starting with the customisation and
maintenance of 750 tractors, 1,000 tank trailers, and 750 tank
containers.
Mobile devices are gradually replacing clipboards and paper in its
garages and warehouses. Technicians will access work orders from
tablets, whether the job is to install an on-board computer to a new
Volvo truck so drivers can receive instructions and orders en route, or
to perform maintenance on its fleet.
With mobile devices and great Wi-Fi, technicians can check parts
inventory, place orders, and even automatically trigger invoicing when
the job is complete. “Optimising our process flows depends on Wi-
Fi,” De Smedt says. Wi-Fi is also available to employees and visitors in
its corporate offices. “We have the flexibility within our offices to be
mobile with our laptops and handheld devices,” De Smedt says.
‘’When people travel to other company locations, their laptops are
automatically connected when they arrive.” With Mist, even
demanding applications like voice and video chat perform flawlessly.
With Mist, workers also gain the productivity benefits of mobility,
while IT still retains appropriate controls. “Mist gives us a picture of
the usage and allows us to control Internet use,” De Smedt says. “If
necessary, we can trigger measures to correct the behaviour of staff
during working hours. We appreciate that we can identify this
through Mist.”
“The machine learning capabilities of Mist makes it very easy to set
up and use,” De Smedt says. Marvis, an integrated AI engine,
simplifies IT operations through client-level insight, rapid wired and
wireless troubleshooting, trending analysis, anomaly detection, and
proactive problem remediation. With Marvis, IT staff can ask natural
language queries such as “Why can’t Mathais connect to the
network?,” while guided remediation identifies the root cause and
takes automated actions when possible.
“With Mist, we have an overview of all the access points (Aps) in our
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different locations,” De Smedt says. “Once we install an AP, it
automatically connects to the Mist Cloud, links to our account, and
the AP is available for use. It’s a piece of cake to integrate new APs
into the Mist platform.”
Indoor location services were also a key factor in the decision to
deploy Mist. With virtual Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) built into the
APs, Mist simplifies location services. Vervaeke plans to leverage the
virtual BLE capability to identify trucks as they enter their sites for
maintenance or cleaning, further streamlining operations.
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