Geodis hooks up to GT Nexus portal

Geodis hooks up to GT Nexus portal Alameda, Calif.-based GT Nexus said Wednesday that French freight management firm Geodis Wilson has implemented an ocean shipment management platform through the GT Nexus online Trade and Logistics portal.
   The system enables Geodis Wilson to exchange data between its internal Freight Monitor visibility system and its global network of ocean carriers.
   Geodis Wilson, which came about from the yet-to-be finalized June merger of Geodis Overseas and TNT Freight Management, is the freight management arm of the Geodis Group. Based in Clichy, France, just outside Paris, the Geodis Group ranks among Europe’s top-five transport and logistics companies. It claims 26,000 employees in a network spanning 120 countries.
   Throughout the container ocean shipping industry, data for freight in transit resides in different systems all over the world, in many different formats. The GT Nexus portal, already integrated to the systems of all major ocean carriers, offers a common platform to access that data.
   In some cases, such as with Geodis' Freight Monitor visibility system, customers have their own proprietary systems and do not need any additional applications. GT Nexus also serves as a data utility operating behind the scenes, processing, formatting and exchanging information between different systems all over the world.
   In the case of Geodis Wilson, the GT Nexus portal supports information exchange both ways between Geodis Wilson and multiple ocean carriers. The portal also provides Geodis with tools and services to monitor and enhance the quality of the data that's flowing through the platform.
   Geodis will initially use the GT nexus portal in two ways. Electronic shipment status and bill of lading information from ocean carriers will be standardized by the GT Nexus portal and fed directly into Geodis' Freight Monitor system. And Geodis Wilson will send electronic shipping instructions from its systems into GT Nexus, which will be standardized and fed back to the ocean carriers.
   The GT Nexus system is fully operational in Europe and Asia, with a full North American roll out planned for later in 2007.