The Metro team talk: Simon George

Technology is one of Metro’s four key service pillars – together with forwarding, supply chain and outsourcing – and a unique selling point for the business. As Technical Solutions Director, Simon George is in a critical role, leading the businesses technology strategy and driving the team that develop and support technical solutions globally.

Joining Metro’s IT support team in 1997, Simon progressed through managerial and executive roles, before being appointed as a director in 2016.

He has master-minded the creation of the award winning secure cloud based visibility tool MVT, a hyper-secure cloud based platform, providing real-time data, and end to end supply chain control and most recently led the team that delivered back office process support in Malaysia and India.

More recently Simon has driven the development of our 4PL product set, he is also currently supporting two Blockchain projects, in addition to exploring the opportunities in Industry 4.0, commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, where Metro is using data from sensors, geo-fencing and GPS to track client assets and monitor environmental conditions with pinpoint global accuracy.

Commenting on the pandemic Simon said. “Significant supply chain disruption could easily last another 18 months and businesses trying to get back to work may find their overseas suppliers are still nowhere near capacity. The more supply chain information available, the better you can prepare for and manage what’s coming your way, managing disruption, flexing your supply chain, or finding alternative suppliers if you need to.”

“Accurate real-time data provides the intelligence required to make effective strategic and tactical decisions. Supply chains were already trickling onto the cloud and coronavirus will accelerate that move, with technologies like blockchain and machine learning becoming commonplace very soon.”

Simon is one of 200 hand-picked transport and logistics technology experts, who lead the technical work that develops UN/CEFACT standards and recommendations, to harmonise trade documents and the exchange of information in the supply chain.

UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body charged with trade facilitation recommendations and electronic business standards and Simon’s inclusion in this respected forum is an acknowledgement of the leading technological role Metro have in the global freight forwarding sector.