Verastream Host Integrator Helps Automate Package Sorting for DHL

It’s no surprise that DHL is the world’s leading express and logistics organization. The company is smart about optimizing processes and using technology in innovative ways. Its latest feat: improving service and cutting costs for DHL Belgium, thanks to a new automated sorting system with integrated shipping information. Attachmate® Verastream® Host Integrator was key to making the integrated system a success.

Unlocking Vital UNIX-Based Data

DHL Belgium has become the linchpin of DHL’s worldwide express and logistics activities. It has 10 modern sorting centers and nearly 3,700 employees. At the Zaventem Airport alone, DHL handles an average of 900 tons of packages a night.

Sorting that many packages by size and weight is a slow, error-prone, and expensive process. In an effort to ensure faster, more reliable, and more economical delivery, DHL Belgium decided to implement an automated sorting system that would automatically scan, weigh, and measure packages, and then ship them to their appropriate destinations.

For that to happen, DHL needed to somehow integrate the required shipping information with the new sorting system. The problem was that all shipping information was locked inside a home-grown, London-based UNIX application. The application did not have a programming interface, and there was no way to access the database directly. Rewriting all the business logic was not an option. The only alternative was to access the data through the application’s VT terminal interface.

Extending Legacy Value Through Web Services

Working with Dolmen IP, a vendor for warehouse distribution systems and software, Mr. Vanherck, development and deployment manager at DHL Benelux, figured out how to handle the necessary integration via the VT terminal interface. He deployed the Verastream Host Integration server.

Using Verastream, Vanherck found he could capture selected application logic and data in the central shipping application and wrap them up as easy-to-integrate web services. The web services, which retain all the information about the UNIX application behavior, can then be consumed by the automated sorting system’s Material Flow Controller software.

With Verastream, there’s no need for DHL’s IT staff to rewrite code on the underlying UNIX application or replicate any data. What’s more, they can reuse the newly created web services as needed to enhance their business processes.

A Fully Automated Process

With Verastream in place, DHL Belgium has been able to automate the entire sorting process—from weighing a package to routing it by destination. “Verastream is a high-performance product that never slows down the automated sorting system,” said Vanherck.

Ultimately, the new automated solution allows DHL Belgium to process packages faster and more accurately—which has a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. 

About Verastream Integration Solutions

The Attachmate Verastream product line accelerates the reuse of legacy applications in service-oriented architectures. This suite of solutions provides a complete range of mainframe, web, and desktop modernization tools—from basic rejuvenation to customized presentation and sophisticated high-performance integration.

Verastream-generated services can be mixed, matched, and reused selectively to extend legacy functionality to new users or new composite applications. No code changes to legacy applications are required, so you can avoid risk while speeding up application integration, application development, and workflow enhancement. 

Another DHL Success With Verastream

See how DHL Sweden used Verastream to web-enable mainframe applications for customer self-service.