Digitization of Transport Logistics

By deciding to digitize business processes, the company embarks on an arduous but necessary journey. A digitization project that is ultimately successful brings with it quite a few challenges:

• Acquaintance with own business processes, optimization of processes and their formalization
• Selection of appropriate software that will successfully support the target business processes
• Software deployment and customization
• Educating colleagues and raising awareness of the benefits of digitization

The path of digitization could also be called the path of self-discovery, which is not always easy. Perhaps this is also the reason why many ambitious projects fail or do not bring the expected results.

How to reduce the risk?

In our company i-Rose d.o.o. we offer a wide range of software solutions for transport logistics and fieldwork logistics, under the common name MSP TMS.

• TMS (transport management software)
• Portal solutions for clients (customers) and subcontractors
• Complete mobile support for the driver’s workplace
• ePOD – electronic proof of delivery
• optimization of delivery routes
• slot management

The listed sets of solutions are modular and can be introduced partially or gradually. Individual modules solve certain rounded sets of challenges faced by the company, and the puzzle of modules is determined according to the needs of the individual business environment.

Really effective software solutions are not independent islands in the information ecosystem, because those solutions can effectively connect and integrate with others, such as ERP, CRM and WMS.

The set of MSP TMS solutions contains not only interfaces for integration with back-end solutions, but also a set of ready-made integrations with services such as: telematics, business partner identification, card payment service providers, traffic status check, navigation, cost calculations of planned routes.

The decision to digitize has been made, so how to proceed..

With the experience we have gained over the three decades of the company’s existence, we are happy to help you find the optimal way to digitize transport logistics.

We help you set goals, find bottlenecks and areas that make sense to digitize first. Of course, we focus on those where the savings and implementation challenges are in the right balance.

Examples of successful implementation of digitization solutions

The listed examples are working in practice and those are real companies and real users.

Transport company, 100 employees

A company with 100 employees and 80 tractors, which provides distribution services in the long-distance segment, decided to fully digitize its operations. Paper documents have disappeared, and they use the portal way of working and integration mechanisms of automatic data exchange to communicate with customers and clients. The entire planning of transports is carried out by 1 dispatcher and the calculation of services by 1 employee in accounting.

By introducing comprehensive digitization into their operations, they secured a solid basis for growth at practically the same back office operating costs (at the beginning of digitization, they had less than 40 vehicles).

The growth of the company is exceptional, and the investment in digitization was recouped earlier than in a year, after the handover of the entire environment.

Today, the company is one of the most successful in its segment in the Republic of Slovenia.

International manufacturing company, 1.800 employees

The company operates in the meat processing industry. It produces durable, fresh, perishable and frozen products. A special challenge is their own distribution of goods. Like bakeries, this company also faces the challenge of tight delivery windows.

With the MSP ePOD module, the company acquired an efficient and robust solution for assigning delivery plans, load control, batch tracking, electronic delivery note, electronic proof of delivery, complaint order, field order and monitoring of routes and delivery costs.

At any time, an accurate review of the stocks in transport and fulfillment of the delivery plan is guaranteed.

MSP ePOD also provides the company with a mobile fiscal cash register and ambulatory sales.

By investing in ePOD, the company replaced the old existing solution with a new one, with a wider range of functionality and more efficient information transfer.

International logistics company, 1.000 employees

The company is one of the largest forwarders in the former Yugoslavia. Managing communication with tens of thousands of customers, thousands of logistics service providers and countless delivery points is a challenge for everyone.

In the company we have established:

• a portal for managing work with subcontractors
  Digitized allocation of transports to subcontractors, support for the dispatcher for planning individual trips, client for mobile devices, tracking of trips (cargo) and recording of key events – loading, unloading, approaching and moving away from the key point, delays.
• portal for subscribers
• a complex portal for managing order acceptance and performance tracking
  The portal is designed for heavy loads. It provides the customer with all the vital information he needs and enables manual and batch entry of orders and packaging of shipments with appropriate labels (label with transport codes).
• support for fieldwork
  The MSP product provides robust field support without a constant internet connection, which is extremely important for areas of the former Yugoslavia, Switzerland and countries with poorer mobile network coverage.
  The MSP mobile client provides the entire working environment of the driver. Actively alerting the driver to changes in the route plan, routing through required points, routing to selected rest stops or pumping stations, recording costs, monitoring the route, alarming the back office in case of detected deviations.
  The driver receives all the necessary transport documentation in digital form via the mobile client, and the delivery is carried out by capturing the recipient’s signature, a picture of the delivered package, and automatic capture of the delivery location and exact delivery time.
  MSP also provides cash acceptance, fiscal cash registers, leanpay integration, navigation, customer and delivery location information, customer calling.

The investment provided the company with the replacement of existing solutions and the upgrading of the digitalization of the entire business.

Service company, 100 employees

The company faced various problems in fieldwork. Work planning was done on paper, service tasks were incompletely completed, they traveled to accounting for several days or even got lost, there was no proper inspection of material stocks, it was difficult to plan working resources, in short, the entire business was unclear.

With the digitization of the service, we have introduced electronic work planning, which is easy to use and at the same time much more transparent. We have reduced the time of work planning and distribution of work tasks from a few hours to a few minutes. In near real time, the service technicians received the work plan and the necessary documentation for the work on their devices. We have placed mandatory fields in the service tasks, and at the same time we have also arranged warehouses that deregister material stocks and the possibility of planning working resources. When the service technician completed the service order, he returned to the back office in near real time.

We also took care of integration with ERP, which reduced administrative work. We shortened their business processes and increased the efficiency of the employees’ work.

For the company the investment paid off in 9 months.

Each of the unknown examples represents a successfully implemented entire chain of steps necessary to implement a wider or narrower set of software solutions.

It is important to realize that every company, every example of digitization has its own characteristics, just as people have their own personalities.

We incorporate the experience we have gained into digitization projects, form them into best industry practices and, together with future users, design a solution that emphasizes the features and business advantages of the client.

Digitization brings transparency, efficiency, improves the flow of information, optimization and savings. By using optimization algorithms and artificial intelligence, costs in the field of own logistics are reduced by 30%. On average, investments in the digitalization of transport logistics and field services are recouped sooner than in one year.