Logistics on the Fast Lane, a Digital Roadmap

It is certain that the future world, wars will be won not with missiles or nuclear bombs, but with the logistics brilliance. Yes logistics has risen to that stature within a decade and everyone looks up to efficient logisticians to win even world wars.

The modern logistics is not all about moving things far and wide, rather it is sheer efficiency in delivering services or products or manpower wherever it is wanted at the right time and withdrawing them the moment they no longer required. It is a much bigger canvass and business around the world that rides critically on such logistics planning alone. The importance of logistics is rising day by day. Thanks to advancing globalization, declining trade barriers and accelerated growth of economies around.

The Transport and Logistics industry is emerging as a global industry that continues to enjoy above average growth. In future it has to take the center stage of every industry and business vertical, more so if inventory is perishable or vulnerable to sensitivities. The distributed nature and ever moving destinations makes it a vulnerable proposition to track and trace, not to mention controlling them. The task is to report and plan prior to the bottlenecks and reorganizing everything else. But most often even this is not been carried out due to absence of communication about the status of logistics.

The valuation and worthiness of goods and articles flown through logistics is another daunting feature. The goods may be mission critical in some business, but for a logistician it may be just a sack of ashes. The assumptions and communication creates more confusions even if talked to the right person.

The future of logistics clearly lies on technology and it’s future is definitely digital. Many of the bottlenecks in logistics can be overcome through cleverly deployed information systems. The advancement of web technology, affordable hardware systems, low priced gadgets and devices makes it possible for even small operators to embrace the digital way without affecting the bottom line.

It makes sense to rely on technology to avoid intensive communication needs which cannot be sidelined or under estimated in this industry. The lack of efficiency in communications or the absence of it can play havoc in otherwise streamlined scenarios also. The best part of software systems comes here, that the communication is clear, crisp and has only one meaning. Where the same message over the phone or otherwise can be interpreted according to the situations.

All this facts point to the need of an organised logistic solution which rely on standard procedures, code of transactions and communication. The system should act as an efficient traffic manager, who could understand what to do in trouble, but need to keep the objectivity high.

Most of the logistics solutions work on proprietary environments, requiring high bandwidths, consuming hi-config hardware resources. There are few simple alternatives available to manage the entire operations of this business. The Air and Ship Cargo operating companies are little fortunate, because they have systems that work. But for the surface transporters, the situation is rather grim.

I recently came across such a logistics solution, which claims to control the entire operations of surface transporting. After seeing the demo, I believe Carego Logistics Management Solution as they call it, is developed with the help of industry experts squeezing their business acumen to form best solutions. Again it is not a web application, seemingly a disadvantage but it is a huge advantage here. I am amazed to see it’s potential to intelligently track and trace every stage of the workflow and it’s ability to cross connect everyone of the loop.

From the moment you make a booking request to transit and final delivery, every operation is accountable and a centralised head office or an operation centre can derive the flow of operations. The financials and commercials prevailing in this industry throws myriad of challenges to anyone try to create a standardised system. Here in Carego Logistics Management Solution, it is addressed efficiently to support franchisee or vertical branch model and suits to both commission and fixed charge based income mode. The modules of branch creation and rate settings itself is the beauty of the solution, which is highly versatile and complete.

All the branch operations can be controlled from the head office, their rates calculation, policies, weight and volume criteria, hikes and changes, and up to anything that a branch does. Any number of branches can be added and system doesn’t have a limit for the number of branches or transactions it can handle.

The best part is it doesn’t need high configuration systems, or round the clock broadband connectivity; it connects as and when necessary to communicate with an external dedicated server. The system is easy to understand and the entire installations, new versions, software patches are all been done online with a simple click and install procedure. This saves lot of travel, lodging costs besides precious manpower of competent hardware and software engineers. They also provide remote desktop support using support software.