We have rolled into an era of great opportunity for Logistics service providers (LSPs). The 2016 Global Logistics Report by Haley Garner, Head of Research and Content, EFT, has identified some key factors influencing this sector:
- Innovation is an important tool to avoid commoditization
- Technology is maturing as a key enabler for growth and maintaining a competitive edge
- eCommerce continues to be a significant growth area
- Companies who attract, retain and enable the best talent will prevail
A huge chunk (46.1%) of those surveyed stated that innovating to create new offerings was the key to gaining new business in 2017. EFT defines innovation as “leveraging technology to provide new services or expanding service offerings” such as adoption of Web & Mobile Solutions, eCommerce & Cloud Solutions to enhance the worker and customer experience. eCommerce changes the customer relationship and helps shippers redefine how they interact with their end-customers by becoming more responsive to their needs.
Innovation is the key to making the logistics workplace millennial-friendly. After all,these millennials, who are the future workforce and customers, like to interact with technology, embrace innovation, use data for decision making and take more ownership of their work. EFT has identified some key steps to enable logistics providers to become strategic and valued partners to their customers:
- Turn your goals into action plans by getting an assessment to understand where you are relative to our goals, and to learn what IT systems, technologies and platforms are available out there.
- Hold executive-level meetings with customers to learn what their strategic objectives are and not just their tactical needs.
- Honestly assess internal capabilities and capacities, and compare this with what is needed to support customers’ strategic objectives.
- Implement the new solutions as quickly as possible, considering the best deployment options, including cloud platforms, that meet both your financial objectives and customers’ strategic needs.
- Engage outside experts and/or technology vendors in identifying options, costs and timeframes for filling the gap between current capabilities and customers’ strategic visions.
TechBlocks recently partnered with one of the largest Canadian-owned third party logistics providers to enhance efficiency and collaboration. For this company, high functioning and agile collaboration systems including business process automation play a crucial part in maintaining their solid reputation among clients and in expanding their success. The company has experienced a tremendous amount of growth, reduced bottlenecks and issue resolution time while enhancing productivity and interdepartmental collaboration!
