Logiety Launches New App built with Watson on IBM Cloud to Speed Export-Import Processes in Latin America

Platform uses Watson Visual Recognition API for quick identification and classification of imports and exports, reducing misclassification of goods and increasing customs agents' productivity by up to 73 percent

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IBM

May 08, 2017, 09:00 ET

MEXICO CITY, May 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Mexican software developer, Logiety, has created a digital platform on IBM Cloud to help speed international customs processes. Using Watson Visual Recognition API on IBM Cloud, the solution enables customs officials to digitize documents on-the-fly with smart phones to quickly identify and classify goods, reducing errors and boosting productivity.

In Latin America, clients who are shipping products internationally must provide customs agencies with physical documents containing all the details of their shipments. Customs agents then manually process these documents and must properly identify and classify the shipment in order to calculate the tariffs and taxes.

The Logiety mobile app allows customs agents to digitally capture these documents with a smartphone camera. The app then sends the images to the IBM Cloud, where the Watson Visual Recognition API analyzes them and provides products' description, regulations and classification, allowing agents to more quickly identify the required tariffs and taxes.

One customs agency in Southeast Mexico is currently using the service in beta and already seeing benefits, including faster document classification, streamlined customs processes and reduced operational costs. By digitizing the manual review process with cloud-based visual recognition, customs agents are now able to examine more shipment containers per week; what used to take a customs agent 15 hours to complete now only takes four hours. The 73 percent increase in productivity for agents translates to faster imports and exports for shipping clients.

"IBM's cloud and cognitive technologies have been essential in helping us create an intelligent app that helps customs agencies simplify and speed the import-export process," said Daniel Alarcón, co-founder of Logiety. "We consider ourselves the first solution in the portfolio of Logistitech, a term we coined that is similar to Fintech, but it applies to the logistic sector – a market in dire need of digital transformation. Our Logiety app helps modernize foreign trade market logistics, starting in Latin America."

The Logiety platform will launch for general availability in Latin America later this month. The rollout will begin in seven Latin American countries, with plans to translate the app into English and extend it into even more regions.

Logiety built its platform on IBM Cloud with the help of the Global Entrepreneur Program, which provides cloud startups with access to resources like IBM Cloud credits, technical support and business mentorship.

"We are proud to support local startups with IBM Cloud technologies and help them bring the next wave of innovation to market," said Claudio Bessa, Developer Ecosystem and Startups Leader, Latin America. "Our IBM Cloud platform provides everything a startup or enterprise developer needs in one destination, giving them easy, on-demand access next-generation technologies like Cloud, Cognitive, Blockchain and Internet of Things. Logiety is a great example of a startup that is using our Cloud and Cognitive capabilities to transform an industry."

For more about IBM Cloud, visit: http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing.

Contacts:
Karla Otranto
IBM Media Relations Latin America
55-11-2132-697
[email protected]

Betsy Rizzo
IBM Media Relations
214-356-2036
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM