Heineken, IBM, Safmarine and University of Amsterdam Launch Wireless “Beer Living Lab”

Heineken, IBM, Safmarine and University of Amsterdam Launch Wireless “Beer Living Lab”

Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced a new intelligent wireless project with Heineken, international shipping company, Safmarine, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam) in conjunction with Dutch Customs, UK Customs and US Customs and Border Protection. The new project, called the “Beer Living Lab,” will track cargo container shipments of Heineken beer from Europe to the United States using satellite and cellular technology. The goal is to create paperless documentation through better system interoperability, resulting in faster deliveries and reduced costs for international trade.

IBM’s Secure Trade Lane solution will provide real-time visibility and interoperability through an advanced wireless sensor platform and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), based on IBM’s WebSphere platform. The project’s SOA, called the Shipment Information Services, leverages the EPCglobal network and EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) standards, so rather than build and maintain a large central database with huge amounts of information, distributed data sources are linked, allowing data to be shared in real time between Heineken, Safmarine and customs authorities in the Netherlands, England and The United States.

In this project, Safmarine will ship ten containers of Heineken beer from locations in both Netherlands and England, through their Customs Authorities, to the Heineken distribution center in the United States. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will coordinate the project and provide best practices documentation to share across the European Union.

“The Beer Living Lab is setting a roadmap for the next generation e-Customs solutions. We test innovative solutions, based on IBM’s Tamper Resistant Embedded Controller (TREC) and SOA developed by IBM that could revolutionize customs,” said Dr. Yao-Hua Tan, professor of Electronic Business, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “Companies using these solutions could benefit greatly due to less physical inspections by customs; thus these e-customs solutions greatly facilitate international trade.”

Read the complete Press Release