Speakers

Paul Zalai, Director of Freight Trade Alliance

Sean Crook, Director of NEOLINK

Shane D’Aprile, Director of OrangeLime Consulting

Julian Alvarez, CEO of Logixboard

Below we are sharing a sneak peek of what was covered in the webinar by our speakers! Access the full webinar here.

Technology Forwarders Should Prioritize

Technology has been part of freight forwarding and logistics for some time, but the recent push toward digitization has the industry playing catch up in many areas of automation, visibility, and efficiency-driven technologies compared to other industries. Our speakers discuss the options that are now available for forwarders to use new technology in their own workflows.

A lot of the new solutions and tools being used are directly linked to customer experience and result in great efficiency of internal forwarding operations teams and overall return.

Providing customers with ease of mind during the whole process has become crucial and standards have risen with the available visibility software solutions now at play in the industry.

Every forwarding business will need to look at their own TMS and evaluate where they can use software to amplify the current operations. With many different types of automation and technology offerings, it is important to find the ones that take your business to the next level, working backwards from the results you aim to achieve from implementing them.

With many ways to apply technology into your operations to see benefits internally and externally, many are asking what the real return on these investments is for their forwarding business.

Digital ROI

Although it can be hard to decide on one metric to explain the return from investing in digital solutions for your business, our speakers discussed what ROI means to them when discussing this topic with forwarders in the industry and different ways to measure the return.

Sean discusses how having information from customers earlier, giving Sean’s team the chance to start helping their supply chain before the actual order is sent, and getting them to use the software he uses is cutting down transit times for his customers.

On the internal side, operations teams can be empowered with new technology. If your team is spending less time on tedious, manual tasks that have great automated solutions, then you are getting hours back to be spent on higher-value work.

Another key discussion point around ROI was that you do have to treat these tools and solutions as an investment. They are investments that should be looked at as revenue drivers and not cost centers.

An additional factor in the digitization of the forwarding industry is the impact on employees.

Employee Recruitment, Retention, and Education

With the emerging digital solutions and push towards implementing automation into freight forwarding workflows, our speakers have noted trends and important topics they see in regards to employees during these changing times.

As the experience offered to customers becomes more advanced, the tools enabling that also leave more time for employees to focus on valuable tasks. Seeking out new employees may require a shift in mindset when considering new desired qualifications.

The specialized nature of the logistics industry leaves recruitment very competitive. You want to be able to offer your potential employees tools that will make their lives easier and be on track to have an experience that will grow with the changing technology of the industry.

Show existing employees that you care by making their lives easier and investing in their role as integral points of interaction with your customers.

It is also important to note that the changes in the implementation of technology should come with education for the team. Being able to use, explain, and understand the benefit of new tools and resulting workflows makes for a more seamless transition.

Along with the education and recruitment of employees, forwarders need to support their teams and software solutions with change management.

Change Management

With talks of integrating new technology into current systems and protocols of logistics companies, the importance of having change management strategies in place was highlighted in the webinar.

Not only do the speakers discuss the importance of having an internal person (or team) in place to make sure change is managed with smooth transitions and on top of upcoming tools that should be evaluated, but also the importance of choosing external solutions that prioritize aiding your team in integrating their solution into your systems.

Change management is so key because digitization and providing the best experience for your shippers as a freight forwarder demands your team to be constantly innovating, building, or working with a solution that is taking that off your shoulders.

The speakers discuss digitization mainly in terms of external solution usage and internal team education and best practices for their workflows. Although a case for building your own digital solutions is there, this webinar highlights the success of external digital solutions and the success it has brought when implemented.

Watch the full webinar!

We invite you all to watch the complete webinar and reach out with any questions on digitization happening in the freight forwarding industry and the resulting ROI.

Unlock the full webinar.