Why are businesses needing logistics technology?
The rising volume of goods that businesses are moving around the world, and the evolving expectations from customers and clients about a better customer experience, have created a requirement for a new type of transportation technology.
Research from my firm, Reis, shows that for the first time in four years, the volume of global sea freight, air freight, and cross-border trade surpassed the U.S. dollar value of the world’s trade flows.
As we face increased demands from our customers, businesses are now seeking more transparency into the movement of goods and seamless integration between inventory management, sales, and customer experiences.
Driven by this paradigm shift in supply chains, businesses are turning to logistics technology and systems that help them perform multiple tasks across their businesses from end-to-end, while at the same time helping companies become more efficient. The way customers perceive the supply chain and transportation technology has transformed from a supply-chain function to an end-to-end business function, and the time has come for the supply chain and transportation technology to evolve as well.
Many businesses continue to struggle with complicated transportation and distribution systems, in which they run multiple logistics applications and employ multiple modes of transportation at the same time. As a result, businesses need a transportation technology solution that can be used by multiple businesses from different industry segments and geographies to help them integrate the supply chain into their overall business strategy.
Logistics technology has several attributes that differentiate it from other technology solutions, including:
By leveraging connectivity, it is able to connect suppliers, buyers, and logistics partners on the same platform, with a single view of data. This greatly improves transparency and visibility, reducing costs and friction, and increasing operational efficiencies.
Consultants can design their business strategy with technology from the outset and get the right balance of flexibility and scalability. It can scale easily to meet the needs of various markets and cross-border trade, without needing to dedicate resources to scale up.
The use of logistics technology has increased over the last decade, as the expansion of cross-border trade and e-commerce have increased the complexity of global shipping, warehousing, and distribution, including deliveries and returns. The use of robotics and other automation solutions have allowed businesses to streamline operations and process orders, reduce cycle time, and increase efficiency.
Integrating technology to drive business strategy
A growing number of businesses have looked to logistics technology to deliver significant improvements to business operations. The impact of using a transportation technology can be significant, whether it is a new client for a new product, an automated fulfillment solution for a sales floor, or the efficient delivery of packages across the globe.
Businesses that continue to rely on their legacy supply chain and transportation technology solutions and integrate them across their organizations may not realize the benefits of using a single platform that provides a solution across all businesses, from point A to point B, and across multiple channels. These businesses will miss opportunities to take advantage of the benefits of the supply chain and transportation technology movement by failing to integrate these systems and continue to run multiple software applications.
For example, clients that are not looking to improve customer experience and improve their overall supply chain may not consider the benefit of having a more flexible and scalable transportation and delivery solution that can be used for cross-border trade, e-commerce fulfillment, returns management, and delivery.
Consider what this means for a retail and consumer goods company with a single sales channel, e-commerce site, and fulfillment center:
The customer is already in the company’s sales channel, sales portal, or sales app, as they use one e-commerce site and are located in one retail or consumer goods center.
If the company wants to fulfill a shipment for a customer outside of its typical delivery zone, it would have to travel to another distribution center to pick up the shipment, fill it with inventory, and prepare it for delivery. This is an inefficient and costly route for the company, and is unable to meet the needs of the customer in the best way possible.
By adopting a single transportation and delivery solution, the company can leverage its sales channels, inventory management and fulfillment technologies, fulfillment center, and store pickup system, including e-commerce site and app, to manage the cross-border shipping of any products or services.
What is warehouse management software?
Warehouse software (WS) is used by a company to manage the daily activity of its warehouse, such as receiving, storing, receiving, storing, transporting, shipping, receiving, storing, shipping, etc. WMS can be used to manage the following categories:
• Inventory control and management
• Product planning, development, and design
• Time and resource management
• Working capital management
• Payables, receivables, accounts payable, and accounting
• Insurance, risk management, and compliance
• Customer order history, planning, and analysis
In addition to these benefits, by migrating to a new transportation and delivery platform, the company can save on third-party fees and significantly reduce its operating costs. For example, using a transportation technology solutions provider with sophisticated pricing models that makes pricing transparent to the business and its clients, rather than negotiating rates on a case-by-case basis, can offer the company significant cost savings.
What does it take to transform a company from a single point to multi-point integration?
Transforming a company from a single point to multi-point integration takes many months, and requires changing numerous software applications across multiple departments. While businesses can launch new software applications relatively quickly, it takes years for old software to go away.
Think about how long it would take a company to fully transition from a legacy point-to-point platform to the modern supply chain and logistics system described above. Moving a company from the way things have been done in the past to the way things are done today is not an easy undertaking. It can take years of investments to build a modern platform, and requires changes to multiple legacy systems.
It is worth noting that moving into the future requires changes to the way the company works. For example, if a client is not looking to improve the customer experience and can be satisfied with the status quo, the transformation may not be worth the investment. While the focus is typically on acquiring new customers, a retailer also wants to retain its existing customer base and not lose business to rivals. With this in mind, a retailer may choose to improve its customer experience by embracing cutting edge technology in an effort to remain competitive.
How can a company create a roadmap to transformation?
We’ve designed a comprehensive methodology to help our clients reach a successful single point to multi-point transformation. We help clients to:
• Assess the company’s current state of its current operations and services
• Identify the most viable approach to transformation
• Put together a plan of attack for implementing the transformation
• Measure the success of the transformation and make improvements where necessary
• Prepare a full transition roadmap to the new system
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For more information on how a company can transform its operations and deliver the best customer. If you need more information and you have any question please let me know below comments.
