The addHelix platform designed and developed by Axians in Austria uses AI algorithms to make logistics services more flexible and more agile.
The near-instantaneous movement of data in an environment shaped by digital networks is contributing to the acceleration of both tangible and intangible exchanges. This new real-time temporality particularly affects the transportation of goods.
New standards and ever-shorter deadlines are taking hold, and logistics services are on the front line. Faced with increasingly rapid changes, professionals need to adapt constantly. “The main challenge for logistics service companies today is flexibility and automation,” says Stefan Labenski, Division Manager of Business Applications at Axians Austria.
Axians, the VINCI Energies ICT brand, has been working on these logistics issues for more than 20 years. It has drawn on this experience to design a platform, addHelix, which offers logistics managers the flexibility they need. Based on artificial intelligence, this tool integrates various solutions to create high-performance processes. These processes make it possible to manage, engage, and monitor all participants in the management and transport of goods, including shippers, customers, and drivers.
“AddHelix ensures flexibility for the logistics manager, who can constantly adapt, and operates independently in a flexible mode.”
In real time, addHelix develops solutions that enable decision-making across various parameters, such as route selection based on geocoded departure and arrival locations. These solutions also take into account traffic conditions, regional weather forecasts, statistical data, toll charges for different routes, and even calculate the carbon footprint.
Forecast data
The platform can forecast the number of deliveries expected the next day, the following week, or even a month in advance. It also generates other forecast data that can help improve planning, better manage transport volumes, more accurately predict the workforce required for an operation, and improve stock management in depots.
“addHelix ensures flexibility for the logistics manager, who can constantly adapt, and operates independently in a flexible mode,” says Stefan Labenski, “because it’s designed not as a single, centralised programme to be plugged into the company’s information system, but as a suite of additional microservices combined into a tailored solution designed specifically for routing and logistics scenarios.”
The “Agent of logistics”
addHelix does not bog the customer down with software to install, says the Axians manager. In this smart “Agent of Logistics,” he explains, all the mechanics are handled behind the scenes—outsourced via the cloud and operating through microservices and solutions. These building blocks, each containing a function, are autonomous and interconnected in the network via programming interfaces (APIs). They can be upgraded or downgraded on demand without disrupting the overall process.
Directed by artificial intelligence, addHelix microservices ensure flexibility in logistics management and contribute to the versatility of information systems in companies that use them in a simple, user-friendly way. Access to the logistics gateway is handled via a web service and user interfaces integrated into users’ usual working tools. Stefan Labenski emphasises that this digital transformation approach allows companies to forget the “machinery” and instead focus on function and performance. This approach also ensures continuous innovation and adaptation to customer requirements at any time.
Updated on 06/18/2025
