A customer Q&A with Missy Barron, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.As companies face increasing pressure to improve KYC, customer onboarding speed and data quality, solutions like Identity Exchange are becoming part of day-to-day operations. Identity Exchange is a DCSA-developed service for business identity verification, helping organisations access verified company information through a single gateway. We spoke with Missy Barron, Doc. & Business Processes Supervisor, from Global Customer Service at ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., about why ZIM engaged early, what value stood out during testing, and how Identity Exchange fits into their workflows today.
Why did Identity Exchange matter to ZIM from the start?
At ZIM, we always aim to lead the industry and provide an excellent customer service, being involved at the earliest stages of new solutions development, we can help shape them ensure operational excellence which will result in superior customer experience.From the outset, Identity Exchange stood out for two reasons:1. It allows us to fill in missing customer information2. It supports customer verification as part of our KYC process. Identity Exchange improved our processes and sharpen our customer experience.What operational value did Identity Exchange deliver during early testing?
One of the biggest advantages was how the platform takes basic customer details and returns complete, validated information. This significantly accelerated our customer coding process. Identity Exchange was also very user friendly and intuitive, which meant our teams could start using it quickly without extensive training. The combination of speed, accuracy and ease of use delivered immediate operational value during testing and moreover it also supports the continuous enhancement of quality of service provided to our customers.How does Identity Exchange compare with ZIM’s previous identity-check workflows?
The most significant difference is the time savings. Before Identity Exchange, many steps required manual effort and follow-up across multiple sources. Identity Exchange streamlined and simplified those steps, allowing our teams to work more efficiently, focus on higher-value tasks instead of manual verification, complete tasks faster and provide better service to our customers.Which ZIM teams benefit most from Identity Exchange today?
All ZIM agency functions benefit from using Identity Exchange. We have now connected Identity Exchange to Zim’s CRM and so, it has become particularly valuable for customer service teams, but any business unit that needs to create a new customer code, has also seen clear benefits. Faster access to verified data, improved accuracy and easier access to information have changed how these teams work on a daily basis. Ultimately, this improved process helps us respond to our customers more efficiently and contributes to a better overall customer experience.How has collaboration with the DCSA Identity Exchange team supported your rollout?
From the initial stages through full development, the Digital Container Shipping Association team supported us closely and consistently. They responded quickly to issues, worked with us proactively and continued to follow up after implementation to ensure the process worked smoothly end to end. That level of engagement made a real difference.How do you see DCSA software products supporting ZIM’s future digital initiatives?
As we are continuously reviewing and enhancing ZIM’s digital offering to streamline customer experience, DCSA software products have the potential to further support our processes. For example, having indication of defunct companies as well as visibility into company mergers or structural changes, would support identity validation and ongoing data accuracy. These types of signals are relevant when assessing counterparties and maintaining reliable customer records, particularly as company structures evolve. Having this information readily available would help create smoother and faster internal processes, allowing teams to provide quicker and more accurate responses to customers.What would you say to organisations considering Identity Exchange?
Identity Exchange supports our strategy to deliver high-quality service to our customers. By giving us access to reliable and verified information, it helps ensure that our customer service teams can respond quickly and accurately to customer needs. At the same time, the platform supports our ongoing commitment to compliance with international regulations and sanctions, allowing us to maintain trusted and secure business. For compliance officers managing sanctions screening, risk managers assessing counterparty exposure, data governance leads cleaning master data, and operations managers accelerating onboarding, Identity Exchange provides a reusable single source of truth for company identity across borders. Identity Exchange is a neutral, industry-backed identity gateway developed by DCSA . It helps carriers, forwarders, and logistics platforms verify business counterparties across jurisdictions by querying multiple authoritative sources - public registries and trusted commercial datasets - and returning one reconciled, standardised company profile.Discover Identity Exchange
Use Identity Exchange when you need a consistent, cross-border company identity record for onboarding, compliance, or master data management. Identity Exchange helps you:- Confirm a company exists and is active in the relevant registry
- Retrieve and validate trade-critical identifiers (e.g., VAT, EORI, LEI, national registration numbers, DUNS)
- Reduce duplicates by matching and reconciling variants of the same legal entity
- Enrich CRM/MDM records with more complete, standardised attributes Improve screening inputs for sanctions/PEP checks to reduce noise, rework, and screening queues
Learn more about Identity Exchange
Discover Identity Exchange and request a free trial or book a demo with the DCSA team.