• September 17, 2020 4:16 pm
• by Ajanth

These are some of the untold secrets of Logistics IT

1. Unavailability of Developers

Deep knowledge in technologies & frameworks, interpersonal communication, and problem-solving skills are some of the important benefits that most 3PL vendors expect from a developer, but the significance of his/her expertise in handling multiple logistic projects is as important as the other ones. For most start-ups and midsized 3PL companies, the development and maintenance of their IT ecosystems demand a greater resource investment. For instance, in order to build a dashboard that provides realtime data of your freight carriers, you need access to a team of skilled developers and data analysts who can precisely collect data from IoT devices and transform it into powerful business insights using predictive analysis and other data modeling tools that can aid developers in building a powerful dashboard that integrates well within your freight management system. This can sound easy, but in order to develop a dashboard of this complexity, you need some seriously skilled tech resources in your development team.

However, the unavailability of skilled developers is one of the major challenges that are faced by most of the 3PL companies today. This is because most of the developers have a false belief that working in a logistics company won’t benefit their career in any way whatsoever. They always prefer to work in a pure tech environment so they can keep up with new technologies and learn new trends on the go.

2. Custom vs off-the-shelf software

With custom logistics software, you’ll have enough flexibility to access your critical business operations seamlessly by integrating both the front and back-office operations together in one single interface. As far as the upfront cost is concerned, off-the-shelf software definitely wins over custom software development. Another cool thing about off-the-shelf software is that it can be used right away without any downtime. Even with all these advantages that off-the-shelf software deliver, most 3PL companies prefer to use custom software for managing their logistic processes. Let’s find the reasons below:

Even though most off-the-shelf software offers lots of features that can be used right away after purchase, many of these may be irrelevant for your Logistics business. Whereas, in the case of custom software development, you will have the complete control of adding features that are specific for your business.

Many off-the-shelf logistics software providers trick customers by offering free future upgrades support and maintenance, However, after you made its purchase, it may be another story as they can charge you for additional upgrades or even ask you to purchase new software or additional support as your needs change. In this comparison. Custom logistic software development definitely wins over off-the-shelf software.

3. Round the clock delivery

Due to the volatile nature of the 3PL business, their important value proposition is to achieve increased customer satisfaction at the lowest total cost. This makes timely deployments an important factor in determining the efficiency of the process and can contribute significantly to increasing your customer satisfaction. This has more importance in today’s pandemic situation as more customers now rely more on online delivery and e-commerce systems. So, 3PL companies must ensure that their IT systems are working properly without any downtimes. The only way to address this challenge is to make use of 24X7 development, where your in-house development team works with a development team from another timezone. This will enable your onsite team to start working on a task and get it done by the next morning.

Moreover, some 3PL companies rely on certain hiring models to address their inhouse IT resource requirements. These are developed to minimize operational cost, manage resource complexity, deliver the best in class talent, and bring in trending technologies to your business. In our current financial situation, these hiring strategies are highly useful to bring down expenses that are otherwise spent on the traditional hiring process such as recruitment, insurance, workstation setups, office infrastructure, vacations, and perks.

Wrapping everything up, we can finally say offshoring is something that every 3PL companies should follow in order to bring out a digital solution for their business needs at a relatively affordable cost. A recent industry report found that almost 85% of 3PL companies in the United States are working with an offshore software development company in India for their logistic development needs. The popularity of outsourcing tech operations to offshore software development companies by 3PL businesses has increased exponentially over the years. This clearly outlines the offshore vendor’s ability to trim down its client’s operating costs and address their bottlenecks in handling their logistics operations efficiently.