Customer Success Story
Transports Vervaeke Boosts Fleet Operations with AI‑Driven Wi‑Fi
Transports Vervaeke, the leading chemical and fuel logistics provider in Benelux, more than doubled in size through two acquisitions in recent years. To ensure smooth operations and continued growth, the company embarked on a digital transformation initiative. Successfully digitizing the business also demanded IT transformation.
Overview
| Company | Transports Vervaeke |
| Industry | Travel, Hospitality and Logistics |
| Products used | Cloud Services |
| Region | EMEA |
Delivered
A great Wi-Fi experience for technicians, drivers, and other employees
Leveraged
AI-driven networking to accelerate digital transformation
Streamlined
Network operations
“We are in the midst of full digitalization of our company,” says Mario De Smedt, IT manager at Transports Vervaeke. “We have made a lot of progress digitizing our processes and information flows.”
After acquiring a multimodal transportation provider in 2019, the company embarked on a business transformation journey. It is consolidating and modernizing 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 transportation 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.
Because successful business transformation depends on IT transformation, Transports Vervaeke also fully refreshed its IT infrastructure.
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 Transports Vervaeke to the Mist Platform for its new wireless LAN. Mario De Smedt, IT manager at Transports Vervaeke, and his team worked closely with Infradata to design and deploy Mist at its head office.
Transports 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. Mist Wi-Fi is also at the heart of Transport Vervaeke’s fleet management operations, starting with the customization and maintenance of 750 tractors, 1000 tank trailers, and 750 tank containers.
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 enduser engagement through location-based services. Mist Wi-Fi delivers an exceptional network experience for users and simplifies operations for the IT team.
AI-powered Mist delivers unprecedented connectivity insights, which ultimately simplifies network troubleshooting and operations. “The machine learning capabilities of Mist makes it very easy to set up and use,” De Smedt says.
Marvis, an integrated AI engine, also simplifies IT operations through client-level insight, rapid wired and wireless troubleshooting, trending analysis, anomaly detection, and proactive problem remediation.
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 behavior of staff during working hours. We appreciate that we can identify this through Mist.”
“We are pleased with how flexible Mist is,” De Smedt says. “We are very happy with the performance and the user experience.”
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. Transports Vervaeke plans to leverage the virtual BLE capability to identify trucks as they enter their sites for maintenance or cleaning, further streamlining operations.
The Products
Juniper enables your business to scale elastically while minimizing capital investment through our modern cloud services that span the network and security domains.
Published March 2020