Logistics solutions suppliers Danzas had signed up to Bolero, the Internet-based trade finance platform. News of the agreement comes as Bolero further strengthens its corporate credentials with the appointment of former BAe chairman Robert Bauman and Unilever finance director Hans Eggerstedt to the board.
Danzas Group, a corporate division of Deutsche Post World Net, will be the first part of the group to start introducing bolero.net throughout its intercontinental operations (air and ocean freight, project forwarding) at Danzas AEI Intercontinental. The agreement marks Bolero's first incursion into the airfreight sector.
Renato Chiavi, head of Danzas AEI Intercontinental, comments: "With bolero.net, apart from own savings in terms of time and operating costs, we are able to offer value by providing information management in addition to the physical goods flow."
He says that signing up to Bolero is part of an enterprise-wide initiative to introduce customer-oriented e-business solutions covering the entire supply chain. Other parts of Danzas' e-business programme include an expansion of its Internet service offerings. Services which have proved to be successful in different regions, such as Internet booking, personalized reporting and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-based information services, will be rolled out worldwide.
Bolero.net CEO, Barry Morse, says: "For the world's leading postal and distribution group to sign up to bolero.net represents a major milestone in the development of bolero.net as a standard for international trade."
In a seperate move, Robert Bauman and Hans Eggerstedt have agreed to join the Bolero board as non-executive directors. Bauman was chairman of British Aerospace from 1994-1998, chairman of BTR plc from 1998-1999 and chief executive of SmithKline Beecham from 1989-1994 where he oversaw the merger that led to SKB’s creation. He was additionally a non-executive director of Reuters from 1994-2000 and continues to serve on the board of Invensys Plc in that capacity.
Hans Eggerstedt spent more than thirty years with Unilever, including serving as the company’s finance director from 1993-1999. From 1993-1996 his remit included information technology and from 1989-1992 he was Unilever’s regional director for Europe.
Bolero chairman Nicholas Barber welcomed the appointments: "As an emerging international standard, it is important for bolero.net to have wide representation from world business on its board."
Most of the world’s major international banks and container shipping lines as well as a number of major multinationals have so far signed up to the system, which is aiming to create a paperless standard for world trade. In December 2000, bolero.net raised $50 million in first round venture capital funding.