FedEx Network and a System Interface For Customers

FedEx is a freight shipping company which has FedEx Ship Manager Application that provides software and hardware standalone to speed up of the entire process of shipping. The FedEx ship manager helps a customer to process their shipment in more than 200 countries. FedEx aims to help customers that are shipping packages that are between 10 and 100 in a day. In the site of the FedEx Ship Manager, customers have to submit specific requirements to ease how their shipments are processed. The customers are required to have a telephone number or connection of network (the connection that is preferred) and a network configuration if the configured software is in the server or client mode.

The communications via FedEx Ship Manager is based on the network protocol. The network protocols that FedEx Ship Manager uses are IP/TCP protocol where there is a need for IP address.

The shipping manager communicates with mainframe systems of the FedEx through a network connection to the internet or via dialup.

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Communications via FedEx are secured through 128-bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer). The communications help customers integrate with their servers through a FedEx Integrator utility. The programs for development of FedEx Integrator are performed by authorised personnel. The credentials to update or retrieve customer data in the servers is supposed to be entered in the scripts to help in establishing how the FedEx Integrator is working through communication to customer servers in session. This study aims to explore various security measures FedEx company undertakes to ensure the packages it ships are safe and secure when reaching to the customers.

FedEx is an abbreviation for Federal Express an American Multinational Courier Services has its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee (FedEx, n.d). FedEx is a prominent company because of its specialisation in overnight shipping services and complex shipments tracking systems that the company has pioneered. The systems are designed in a way that they provide real-time updates on the location of the package which help in finding lost packages a feature the company pioneered, and other shipping companies are using it. FedEx operates the largest fleet of aircraft in the world which are wide-bodied to enable them to carry more freight than any other airline. Some of the FedEx fleets include Caribbean Transport Services, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Supply Chain. The company uses SCAC (Standard Carrier Alpha Code) that helps customers identify transportation companies. These codes include FXE (FedEx Express), FedEx Ground (FXG), FXSP (FedEx SmartPost) and FSDC (FedEx Same Day City).

Process accessing FedEx network and a system interface for customers

Customers can remotely monitor their packages via FedEx Ship Manager. Through FSM@fedex.com which is a system based on the internet and higher speeds shipping, it allows customers to ship more than ninety packages in at least 240 countries by just using the computer, printer, and internet. The shipping administrator in FSM gives an opportunity for one or multiple administrators who have access privileges to control and manage package shipments that are destined to many locations. The administrator configures various options of shipping that can customize references information, restrict services and reports to departments on the whole process of shipping activity of users in the whole firm.

Role and responsibilities

FedEx Insight helps FedEx Ground, FedEx Express and FedEx Freight customers to see the inbound and outbound status, third-party payments and shipments even without a tracking number. FedEx Insight (FI) helps in matching customer shipments on an account by company name and address, and account number, the consignee and the shipper gain shipments visibility. Through FI, customers receive instant notifications via-mail for events such as delay in clearance, when delivery is released, delivery proof and package inbound prior alerts. FedEx Insight also provides its customers with actionable information on the status of the shipments. When information is provided, customers can integrate the status of FI and the recommended information for action with their technology and processes to improve internal operations.

Effective date

Profiles of customers and data of shipment are stored in FedEx servers in the database of FedEx Insight. The systems are designed in a way that there are full backups and recovery mechanisms in case of failover, disaster or system redundancy. Upon proof of delivery, scanned data is purged in 4 days or fifteen days from the previous scan. Customers who are not active for over 90 days are regularly purged from the database. Package shipment effective dates depend on the size of the package but mostly they are delivered on the overnight basis upon clearance, but if one changes mind upon the effective delivery date they can redirect the package to the nearest FedEx office.

Information Assistance

FedEx Quickshop helps in communicating information about FedEx Web services through HTTPS protocol. The information is secured or encrypted by 128-bit SSL. The information does not necessarily change as long as the customers can access the internet. If there is a failure in the authentication of information, a customer can be helped through contacting the customer via FedEx Technical Support. During the shipping course, numerous request and inquiries from customers are backed up by FedEx Servers where all transactions which have not followed procedures are displayed as an error.

Approval

To access FedEx Quickshop, customer approval and knowledge is required since customer must activate a remote to have a connection on a device. Only an authorized representative can access the system using FedEx remote connectivity tools that are approved since it's upon FedEx to protect the information of the client both electronically and physically.