With the technological boom becoming the phenomenon to reckon with in the modern days and times, a well-integrated and cost/service efficient logistics technology has become the sine qua non for any shipper to function and stay relevant in the market. These days a well-defined logistics tech is not only meant to have an edge over other firms but it has been necessitated to stay afloat in a highly competitive market. Companies can no longer afford to use redundant versions of logistics tech or rule out the possibility of using it. With the dynamics of the market becoming more cutting-edge, logistics tech is no longer a luxury for the larger companies, but a need that all concerned companies should judiciously develop upon keeping the data base of the company in context.
Execution of modern logistics technology in any company calls for making a highly configurable technology stack. Now what is a tech stack? The term in itself is quite self-explanatory. It is a stack or combination of divergent technological solutions which is piled on to make a chain of intertwined, organised system functionality. It would be delusional on the part of any shipper to think that in this aeon of increasingly complex market and also given the complex nature of the industry with multiple parties concerned, a singular, one-dimensional technology solution would cater to all the needs of the company. Furthermore, with data becoming the new gold in the modern market, seamless integration and modelling of a data pool is a prerequisite to run an agile and flexible operability.
It must, however, be noted that there can and should not be a pre-fixed nomenclature on how the tech stack of a company may look and function like. One must acknowledge the plurality of circumstances and hence the stack of one company has to differ from the other. The building blocks of the tech stack of a company may typically include:
● Generally, it is a Transportation management System which forms the cornerstone of a tech stack with other solutions and information getting incorporated and interlinked. With the passage of time, TMS has increasingly become intelligence-driven, helping in lading in far less time-consuming and cost-optimised way.
● Solutions to enable better decision making, i.e. carrier choices and other insightful data that are suited to the needs of the shippers in an increasing need of multimodal approach to transportation that are reliable, accountable and data-driven.
● Solutions that help the shippers in tracking the load because shipping requires the easeful cooperation of multiple stakeholders and visibility is indeed the key to success in the demanding world of logistics, with service and delivery performances taking the centre stage gradually.
● Usage of business intelligence and preferably predictive analytics model to gauge a highly volatile market and use the resources of the company in an optimised way.
All these and more are to be taken into consideration keeping at the fore of the mind that all the efforts meet the KPI of the organisation and remain cost-efficient because with the increasing burden of the cost of shipping, it is the bottomline of the chain that has to bear the brunt. Hence combinations of solutions that are more accurate, less susceptible to mistakes and are adaptable to extract the best possible results do add to the credibility of a shipper. Application of AI, co-relation and co-habitation of different information to be used in the best possible ways and active participation of all concerned department with formidable data at disposal yield in smooth discharge of the company’s duties.
At best, tech stack can be explained with the analogy of a board game that we all have played in our childhood wherein we had to put all the rubrics together in order to make a dismantled picture complete. The rubrics are the tech solutions that provide inter-connected API/EDI rendered data to make a cohesive and comprehensive system work. This works with and on data that can complement each other, can get exchanged optimally between systems making the disparate departments function collaboratively, which have a stringent watertight division between them and appeared to be difficult to manage. The solutions aligned must be designed in such a way that working with other tools/platforms/solutions becomes lucid and simple.
The biggest possible hindrance in implementation is probably the cost or rather the fear of it, which seems to be a very practical thing to put into perspective. On the top of that, even if the companies do subscribe to them, the apprehension of a complete overhaul of the prevalent, dominant work culture looms large, making change difficult all-the-more. Moreover, usage of high-end technology and change in operational means calls for a holistic training of the employees. Sometimes they can be met with a lot of resistance. And even if we speak of change, it is advisable to change the system from the grass-root level. If a company aims at a complete system upheaval in a targeted, short span of time, it is bound to end up doing more harm to the business than good. So the dictum of going slow and steady has a pragmatic bearing in this domain as well.
Hence a company should first set an objective of identifying the red flags within the folds of its system. The foibles related to carrier choice, delays and ensuing cost, visibility, service provided, data operation must be singled out and a well-chalked out strategy should be made to gradually resolve or eliminate the issues one-at-a-time.
At this point, this must also be stated that complacency is the recipe for disaster. One must concede to the fact that business world is in a flux. It is perennially changing its dimensions for the service providers, manufacturers, buyers. Unfortunately, it took a devastating pandemic to act as an eye-opener in this regard. Therefore the industry must also recognise the variability, adapt itself with the transit, keep itself in a loop, and keep a track of the latest solutions, ever-evolving business models to avoid being slipped into oblivion. All these should be done maintaining the satisfaction of the stakeholders and especially the employees intact. So a proper benchmark must be set and tech opportunities must be explored extensively and exhaustively to stay relevant and reap the fruit of the arduous efforts put in.