The Transformation Algorithm

How logistics and distribution companies succeed

By Tom Bane, Chief Technology Officer at VCG

As e-commerce and the digital economy transform our buying habits from traditional ‘in-store’ shopping to online purchasing, one thing is for sure – the tracking and delivery of goods is becoming the new battleground for customer service.

Logistics and supply chain partners are working hard in this area, but so often delivery information, parcel tracking, and live map updates are disappointing, and it’s clear the sector must do better.

The gloomy economic outlook, cash flow concerns, and rising operating costs offer little encouragement for investment, but regardless of market conditions, customers expect the logistics sector to continually speed up deliveries and improve productivity. All of which requires investment and innovation at a tough time for the balance sheet.

A Modular Digital Approach

An historic over reliance on manual processes, legacy IT platforms, and storing data on different and disparate systems, mean the sector has lots to gain from innovative and streamlined IT platforms.

Supply chain integration is key to reducing the impact of geographical distribution and administration, but a lack of real-time data visibility across warehouses, stores, locations, and delivery is negatively impacting management and service performance.

E-commerce is boosting growth, but many transport and logistics companies struggle to find efficient ways to improve productivity, profitability, and the customer experience. Project costs seem high, and the expected return on investment (ROI) seems too long, meaning there’s a real danger the issue will not be resolved quickly.

The Modern Network Foundation 

Logistics companies have always been ‘businesses on the move’ and consequently, fluid and flexible collaborative operations are built into their DNA – despite clunky and outdated technology.

Contact centre agents at kitchen tables and temporary distribution hubs have supported the surge in business, along with greater bandwidth, secure connectivity, and cloud-based collaboration tools, all of which are necessary for innovative and flexible IT systems.

End-to-end supply chain visibility to enhance productivity and collaboration drives improved operational efficiency, but to get to this nirvana, network solutions that are scalable, data focused, and cloud enabled are needed to ensure companies can take advantage of new applications and the software-defined services that deliver the results.

Connecting sites and blending networks with the right combination of cloud services creates an agile infrastructure that supports the technologies required by logistics companies, and having the right platform to run innovative and sustainable workloads will enable the speedy adoption of new applications that drive productivity, lower operating costs and reduce carbon footprints.

Simply deploying new applications alone is not the answer, and for digital transformation to be truly successful, organisations need a modern scalable infrastructure with the right security, management, and visibility.

Only then can the right blend of analytics, automation, reporting, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) be deployed to provide efficiency, control, and insight – as well as helping organisations to make better business decisions. Innovative and cost-effective technology is both available and cost effective when working with an insightful tech partner.

Single, secure infrastructure

Once the appropriately designed and scaled platform is in place, everything becomes possible, including the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and data analytics to revolutionise and make supply chains more sustainable.

A modular approach that starts with modern networking and connectivity will enable multiple applications and systems to be consolidated and managed on a single, secure infrastructure. In many cases, Professional Services guidance helps simplify operations and systems integration, improving end-to-end management and improving the experience for both customers and the workforce.

With a proven record in supporting logistics and retailing customers, we are technology transformation experts in networking, collaboration, security, and cloud – including the application layer.

If you’d like to know more about our solutions and how we bring everything together in a single, unified IT Services, click here to visit our website or email us at info@vcg.group