Getting logistics closer to end users

Nowadays, logistics could make you purchase a book in Amazon and delivering it in 24-hours using a service from a logistics operator or a transport company. In a more complex scenario, an order could be traveling around the globe, passing from hand to hand between unknown actors for months. In most cases the client would not be notified in a proper way. But first of all, what does client means? In a logistic chain the client is the company who hires the logistic service; for example, Amazon hiring DHL for transportation. So, where is the end user? For instance, the client of Amazon would be. For sure, the user is also a client in this operation, but it will never appear in a logistics chain scheme. In this paper we will refer to an end-user as the customer of an e-Commerce company, normally known as consignee in logistics. Considering this premise, it seems very difficult to have a more social and modern way of communication between logistics and consignees that are excluded from the chain. Some logistics service providers, specially the big ones, provide them with some kind of tracking system. Sadly, most of the times tracking information is provided by a web page not focused enough on their needs. Once again, consignees are not considered as clients. This white paper is focused in two main aspects: · A scenario where logistics are closer to the consignees and · A publication/subscription architecture as an enabler of implementing that scenario. In that scenario the consignee requests logistics information in the way he is more used to. He would request information like “notify me when my order is 15 kms close to my “postal area”. To notify means a flexible mechanism for real time communicating events, including predictive analytics and forecasting. These events will be used to feed applications designed to support different functionalities, such as a mobile bidirectional track and trace application. In order to make this scenario possible, a publication/subscription mechanism is proposed to create and manage real time communications channels. The architecture is based on the strongly communication needs that we need to face nowadays, with billions of interconnected user/devices and short time of response. It also will make use of standards to facilitate his implementation and integration. Simplifying the scope, this paper shows a vision about logistics and technology from the final user's point of view, instead of a more traditional business-2-business perspective.