Austrian Cargo, the cargo division of Austrian Airlines, has chosen IBS’ iCargo to replace its legacy cargo management system, as well as its cargo revenue accounting system. As a result of this long term deal, iCargo will enable Austrian Cargo’s business growth in the next decade by providing a single efficient end-to-end IT solution for its current and future business needs. With this deal, IBS’s next generation cargo management system, iCargo, has made a significant stride in the European market.

Austrian Cargo has opted for iCargo’s hosted version, iCargoNet, based on the latest ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) model, which is becoming increasingly popular in the industry due to its simplicity and cost effectiveness. iCargoNet for Austrian Cargo will be hosted at IBS’s state-of-the-art data centre in Trivandrum, India, which will also provide Austrian Cargo’s business users with a 24/7 global helpdesk.

Pleased with Austrian Cargo joining the iCargo family, Akshay Shrivastava, senior vice president and global head of IBS’ cargo line of business, said: “Today iCargo is the only solution in the industry that addresses all automation needs of a cargo-carrying airline in one single homogeneous system, be it traditional airport-to-airport air cargo management, cargo and mail handling, cargo terminal operation, ULD management, cargo and mail revenue accounting, or cargo revenue management. More and more airlines are seeing immense benefits in such an offering of one system, one architecture, one technology and one vendor, for all their business automation needs.”

Austrian Cargo, which was recently awarded the “Best European Airline 2008” by business magazine, LOGISTIK, has opted for iCargoNet to further strengthen its quality of services and to improve upon its process efficiencies, while reducing its automation costs.

Commenting on the selection of iCargoNet, Thomas Bernardy, director of cargo processes and systems at Austrian Cargo, said: “We at Austrian are very proud of our efficient processes and our focus on quality of service to our customers. Finding an alternative to our aging systems, that had served us well for a very long time, was a tough task. We are pleased that in iCargo, we found a solution that not only met our current and future business needs but IBS also provided us a proven transition path from legacy to the modern technology platform, that too in a very cost effective manner. IBS and iCargo made the task of selecting the IT solution that will enable and support our business in future simpler for us.”

Welcoming Austrian Cargo to the IBS family, V K Mathews, chairman and CEO of IBS Group, said: “While we set out the inventing future with our next generation solutions, we were keen to provide airlines a viable and attractive option for moving away from expensive and inflexible legacy systems. The decision of a reputed quality airline like Austrian to choose our offering is a true endorsement of our vision and what our solutions offer to the industry.”