Bridging the app gap for AIA.

The Organisation

Airbridge International Agencies Ltd (AIA) is the leading international service provider in cargo management, with a worldwide network based in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The company provides outsourced General Sales Agency (GSA) services to some of world’s leading airlines, including Royal Jordanian, Aeroflot, Pegasus and Cargojet.

The Challenge

Market forces are marvellous, of course, but they do make things complicated.

If you want to build a mobile app that makes life easier for your customers, you have to think about at least three main operating systems: iOS, Android and BlackBerry. That means up to three times the work, and three times the effort in keeping the app up-to-date and functioning on all three platforms.

Given the rate at which Apple, Google and BlackBerry refresh and nuance their platforms, that can add up to a lot of time and cost devoted to keeping your app useful for your customers.

But, the good thing about market forces is that they do eventually find ways to solve the problems they create. Usually.

In this instance, the best solution we have found so far is the hybrid app, where all the smart functionality happens in the cloud and a lightweight client is the only thing residing on the device. That way, all the heavy lifting round upgrades only has to be done once, with the occasional minor tweak to the clients to keep them fit for purpose as their native environments evolve.

The work we did for Airbridge International Agencies (AIA) is typical of this scenario. They are a General Sales Agent (GSA) providing outsourced cargo services to airlines across the world, including Aeroflot, Royal Jordanian, SAS Cargo and China Southern.

The Solution

AIA wanted to provide its customers with an app that would allow them to track and trace their cargo from despatch to delivery. The challenge was to create an app that would run on Android and BlackBerry platforms, as well as iOS.

We built an app that integrated with AIA’s web-based track and trace system. Using a hybrid model, we developed a small client app to run natively on the device, with the main functionality in the cloud. This allows most updates and modifications to the app to be applied without having to completely re-engineer it for each platform.

“For many of our customers, this app will be the front line of their relationship with us. We were looking for a quick and effective response to our need. Appurity delivered without fuss and with careful attention to the wider business issues.” Mark Andrew, General Manager – Europe, AIA

The Result

AIA needed an app to extend its track and trace service for customers beyond its website and into the mobile arena. They were already developing a version for iOS, but they did not want to reinvent it again for Android, and again for BlackBerry. So they came to us for help.

With the hybrid route, it was simply a case of integrating with the back end systems and feeding the data to a cloud-hosted app, which would then serve the information to the light client on the device.

Now AIA customers can track the progress of their consignments through their mobile devices, from the moment it is accepted by the partner airline to the point at which at arrives at the consignee’s premises.

The AIA example is typical of the development projects we have delivered and is a definitive example what an app should be. In this case, it performs a simple, very specific, but very important function. And, as a world leader in their market, AIA had to be confident that their app would add genuine value to the customer experience.

“For many of our customers, this app will be the front line of their relationship with us,” says Mark Andrew, European General Manager for AIA. “We were looking for a quick and effective response to our need. Appurity delivered without fuss and with careful attention to the wider business issues.”