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The ECS Group is continuing its drive towards digital booking through the implementation of a system that automates email rate requests and quotations.
The CargoCoPilot solution from CargoAi uses artificial intelligence to automate email processing to help reduce workloads and increase efficiency.
The GSSA said that it had "sought a solution to streamline the overwhelming volume of client emails for rates, quotations, and bookings”.
"By adopting the CargoCoPilot API, ECS Group has successfully automated email-to-quotation workflows, allowing unstructured data from client emails to feed directly into their Quantum quotation tool thereafter automatically generating an email response with a quotation,” ECS Group said.
"This seamless integration has transformed the quotation process, with more than 10,000 quotations processed monthly via [an] API.”
ECS Group chief executive Jean Ceccaldi explained: "Data entry is one of the least attractive aspects of the job for our teams. With CargoCoPilot, we’ve not only reduced manual workloads but also made the process significantly faster, more reliable, and more attractive for our staff as new hires aren’t thrilled about data entry."
The solution turns unstructured email data into structured data, automatically reading shipment details, dimensions, and special handling codes (SHC) into existing system for immediate quote creation. It also has multilingual capabilities and has been used in France, Turkey and Brazil.
Since its implementation, ECS Group has achieved 34% automation of quotations within just a few months.
In a recent interview with Air Cargo News (to be published in the spring issue), Ceccaldi said that the ECS Group is in the process of moving towards full digitalisation of the cargo booking process.
This move is being achieved through the use of CargoAi's CargoMart booking portal.
CargoAi is part of the CargoTech Group of companies. ECS-owned CargoTech makes equity investments in its members.
ECS Group executive chairman Adrien Thominet has also spoken in the past about the challenge presented by online booking portals, which he said offer a low cost GSSA model.
