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Logistics

Logistics is defined as “handling an operation that involves providing labour and
materials to be supplied as needed”. E-logistics is defined to be “the mechanism of

automating logistics processes and providing an integrated, end-to-end fulfilment and
supply chain management services to the players of logistics processes. Those logistics
processes that are automated by e-logistics provide supply chain visibility and can be
part of existing e-Commerce or Workflow systems in an enterprise”. (Watson
Research Centre, 2007).

In a typical E-logistics process, three components come into play: Request for Quotes
(RFQ), Shipping and Tracking. The Logistics intercommunicate with the business
process manager in an e-commerce server. It is the role of the business service manager
to invoke the RFQ (request for Quote) process. After getting the response, the purchase

order is updated, after which the shipping process is invoked by the business process
manager. Once the products are shipped for the specified destination, the tracking
number is then provided to the customer. This tracking number is mapped to the PO
number in an e-commerce system. This facilitates easy tracking of shipments for the
customers. This is the essential interaction of a business process manager and e-
logistics.