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Tag: IT

UK organisations “failing to innovate”

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Budget constraints and skills gaps are topping the list of challenges standing in the way of innovation for 71% of organisations across many business sectors in the UK and Ireland, despite almost three quarters (74%) saying that innovation is vital to their survival as a business, according to new research.

The research, commissioned by InterSystems, a leading provider of next-generation solutions for critical enterprise digital transformations, and conducted by data analyst Vitreous World, polled more than 300 business leaders across healthcare, financial services, fintech, supply chain, and education sectors in the UK and Ireland. Among the findings are stark differences between the attitudes towards and capabilities for innovation across sectors.

Skills gaps surfaced as a recurring challenge for organisations across all sectors. More than a third (34%) collectively cite a lack of skills to understand and analyse data as their biggest challenge when attempting to use data to drive innovation initiatives. When asked how innovation initiatives could be improved, almost half (47%) stated by getting access to real-time data, with this rising to 60% among fintechs. Forty-five percent of the total respondents think their innovation initiatives would be helped by using more or better data and insights.

Chris Norton, Managing Director, InterSystems, commented: “In today’s landscape of constant change and uncertainty, digital transformation strategies and traditional organisation practices will continue to be tested. To meet evolving customer demands, guard against market volatility, and navigate the impact of geopolitical events, digital investment is a necessity. However, just digitising what you have today is not enough. Organisations must focus on innovation and expand its impact to create new value.”

Other key findings include:

  • Almost a third of those surveyed (32%) cite technology constraints as a major barrier to innovation, while more than a quarter (26%) struggle to keep up with the latest innovation or technologies, which rises to 43% in education.
  • 31% of healthcare respondents view reluctance to change as one of the biggest barriers to innovation.
  • Just 11% of organisations have reached their current digital transformation goals, dropping to only 3% of those within education.
  • Complying with changing regulation and insufficient skills in-house were found to be the biggest difficulties organisations face with interoperability, with education respondents in particular struggling with regulation changes (57% vs an average of 49%). Meanwhile 41% of financial services respondents say that their current data platform does not facilitate interoperability with financial services standards.
  • An overwhelming 94% of supply chain respondents revealed they are willing to accept some degree of risk to reach their innovation goals, compared with 85% of overall respondents.
  • More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) are using data to enable and drive innovation across their organisation, however, often face challenges including data inconsistencies and unreliability, to delays in accessing the data.
  • Almost a third (32%) of those surveyed think innovation helps their organisation get a competitive advantage
  • 85% of organisations rely on third-parties to plan, collaborate, and deliver innovation strategies.

“Innovation is now key to long term business survival. Without innovation to differentiate organisations and create new customer experiences, then success is just about process efficiency, cost, and price. For all business sectors, scalable and sustainable innovation is underpinned by reliable digital infrastructure, analytics, arming staff with skills and ultimately with timely access and action to the right data,” added Norton.

CLICK HERE to download the full research report.

Cyber Monday: “No delivery chaos”

Posted on by David Priestman

Importers of fast-moving consumer goods don’t need to be on high alert when it comes to mega retail events such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday in November – at least in regards of sea freight rates and transit times. The supply chain experts at Setlog, a software company based in New York City and Germany, do not expect delivery chaos or a sharp rise in ocean freight rates for containers from the Far East before well-known shopping events and in the run-up to Christmas.

The main reason is that importers of consumer goods have learned from the Covid-19 pandemic and are now ordering their products on average one week earlier than they did in 2020 or before the pandemic. In addition, order volumes have fallen by up to 25% since the summer compared to the previous year. This can be seen in an analysis of 80 Setlog customers and brands on October 14th. Another finding: in the months from June to September, transit times shortened by up to seven days compared to the same period last year.

However, retailers only have small reason to be happy about the situation: “The cause of the decrease of order volumes by up to a quarter is the companies’ fear that consumers will buy significantly less in stores or online by the end of the year in comparison to the previous year – due to the current political and economic climate,” emphasises Ralf Duester, member of Setlog’s Board of Management.

In addition to the lower order volumes, other reasons contribute to the fact that the delivery situation is significantly more relaxed than a year ago. Overall, there is more capacity at the moment. There are half a million more containers in circulation and depending on the route, the ships are hardly overbooked at all, compared to being four times overbooked a year ago. As a result, transit times of container ships from Asia are levelling off again at 35 to 38 days, depending on the route and loop.

According to Setlog, sea freight rates have eased considerably, and are now only a quarter of the peak values during Covid-19. Back then, companies had to shell out between $16,000 and $20,000 for a 40-foot container. Now, depending on the port of departure, route, and shipping company, they have to put less than $5,000 on the table. On the spot market, prices of $4,000 and less are now being offered, even if it is not always possible to return the container to an inland depot, which makes drayage costs more expensive.

However, this trend, which is welcome for importers in general, is currently being dampened by a particular misery for European companies: while business is running almost smoothly, for example in Shanghai, the world’s busiest port, ships are still jammed on the North Sea waiting to enter the port of Hamburg. Therefore, it can still be too late for very tightly calculated or delayed promotional goods, even if there is a general improvement of the current status.

According to Setlog, delays of up to eight days are still to be expected in occasional cases. The situation is constantly improving, however US east coast-bound ships that call at a North Sea port prior to their journey across the Atlantic might experience delays, too.

In the pre-Christmas season, the results of many importers of fashion, toys, household articles and more are not only diminished by lower demand, but also by rising purchase prices. Depending on the product and country, Setlog registers price increases of between 8% and 15% – not considering the strong US dollar, as purchases in Asia are generally not made in Euros.

According to supply chain expert Duester, the increased prices for goods from the Far East do not lead to large-scale production volumes of T-shirts or household goods being relocated from Asia to Europe or the US. “Labour and production costs are still significantly higher here,” Duester said.

Nevertheless, he observes shifts in Asia. Some orders are placed in Vietnam or India instead of China. This can also be seen in freight rates and container demand. While ocean freight rates for 40 DC containers continue to fall in China – they are currently about half the price they were at the beginning of the year – price levels in India and Vietnam have stabilised over the past two months. In several ports – including Mundra, Nhava Sheva and Ho Chi Minh City (pictured), the demand for containers has increased significantly though.

A new port of destination, port strikes, political crises: In times of disrupted supply chains, companies that use software to bring transparency into their value chain and who communicate changes to their supply chain partners in real time are particularly in an advantage. “Since the credo ‘resilience before efficiency’ has been applied in supply chain management, many companies have rethought their approach. The supply chain is better planned, monitored, and managed,” concludes Duester.

 

Whitepaper shines spotlight on future of embedded finance  

Posted on by Keith McKinley

London-based plug-and-play finance specialist Weavr has launched its latest whitepaper, entitled ‘Embedded finance: Bringing value into focus.’ The paper, which has been created in collaboration with leading industry experts, reveals a shared and focused vision for the future of embedded finance.

A hot topic amongst the fintech industry, embedded finance is top of the agenda for many. Yet, as Weavr’s whitepaper reveals, there has remained much to discover and understand about how a company can use embedded finance to unleash transformation and make the biggest impact.

The illuminating whitepaper, which is now available to read for free on its website, provides a comprehensive, digestible overview of how embedded finance is perceived today, where it stands to add the most benefits and what businesses require to make that happen. The whitepaper takes a detailed look at three sector-specific applications of the concept.

As Weavr’s whitepaper identifies, individuals are already benefitting from embedded finance technologies on a daily basis, yet the market is predicted to explode within the next five years. With boundless potential for businesses and end users to significantly benefit from the nascent technology. The success of this will be heavily reliant on education around the concept, a point of concurrence between the leading experts in the paper.

In publishing the embedded finance whitepaper, Weavr intends to inform those working in, and alongside the sector. The thought-provoking report makes the case that embedded finance has the potential to transform sectors for the better, and facilitate meaningful, long-term benefits across multiple sectors, however, in order to unleash these changes, education and implementation must be addressed. In fact, as the whitepaper highlights, Weavr is already providing the tools needed to realise the benefits with its Financial Plug-ins.

Speaking on the publication of the new whitepaper, Alex Mifsud, Co-Founder and CEO of Weavr commented: “Embedded finance has all the hallmarks of an unstoppable force that is revolutionising business, just like eCommerce did 20 years ago. We created this paper because we have a vision where most financial services are purchased and consumed through digital products and services that serve broader and more fundamental customer needs like health, education, work, family, and leisure. In these sectors, the focus would become more on the benefits of banking and less on the banking itself – with significant advantages to be had by both the businesses and end users.

“The paper maps out how this vision might be realised, drawing on both our own expertise and that of respected industry leaders who have been generous with their advice on how the real-world benefits of embedded finance can be realised, as well as sharing industry-specific examples to show the concept working in practice.”

At its core, Weavr is on a mission to enable any business to integrate any financial service anywhere its customers need it. The company is doing this by offering its Plug-and-Play Finance solution, which offers simplicity, flexibility, and accessibility to all innovators. What’s more, by adopting Weavr’s solution, innovators don’t need to worry about the burden of upholding compliance, regulation, and data security – because Weavr does it for them behind the scenes. Each of Weavr’s Financial Plug-ins can be tailored to virtually unlimited use cases and are already gaining significant traction with innovative businesses.

CLICK HERE to download the whitepaper.

 

Rugged devices in extreme working conditions 

Posted on by David Priestman

Tash Sievwright (pictured), Transport and Logistics Business Development Executive, Conker, looks back at extreme conditions of 2022 and fit-for-purpose rugged devices.

Largely shaded red and dark red, weather forecast maps of the summer of 2022 were tracking what turned out to be the hottest summer on record for Europe. From June to September persistent heatwaves affected no fewer than 16 countries across the continent. The highest temperature recorded was 47°C and the waves of punishing temperatures resulted in significant danger weather warnings, evacuations and widespread droughts. In the United Kingdom temperatures surpassed 40°C for the first time since records began.

Climatologists and scientists predict that continuing changes in the jet stream will cause heat waves with increasing frequency across Europe causing hot areas to stay hot for long periods of time.

During the unprecedented record-breaking temperatures across Europe, many companies undertook a hazard assessment of extreme conditions to identify the potential harm to staff – a standard requirement for many firms. As most staff will use equipment of some description, extending the assessment to machinery, equipment and tools that workers use to perform their roles makes sense.

The rapid digitalisation of global supply chains, the advent of Industry 4.0 and interest in progressive advanced technology and tools such as AI means that very few industries if any, escape the need for computer devices for on-site staff and remote workforces working in all conditions.

However, day-to-day commercial pressures such as rising costs coupled with improved and advanced functionality such as built-in image readers that decode barcodes and QR codes, buying lower-cost, standard off-the-shelf devices can be tempting. However, do they have sufficient battery life and can they withstand the rigours of extreme working environments – day in and day out – and what happens when they go wrong or get broken?

Extreme working conditions are not limited to high and low temperatures but also include humidity, wet conditions, direct sunlight, dust, snowfall and ice, altitude, atmospheric pressure, low visibility, complex terrain and vibration. These conditions call for a choice of rugged devices that are fit for purpose delivering value for money and with service levels that match the needs of the job.

Many working environments including warehousing, manufacturing, transport and logistics and utilities rely on real-time information that provides visibility of all elements of the supply chain, where goods are or how critical services are being delivered. The cost of failure can be substantial not just in the cost of downtime but in customer satisfaction and brand reputation.

Create operational efficiencies

Streamlining different processes, information streams and the entire workforce helps to better manage delayed production, waste and poor planning. These operational efficiencies rely on quality-connected equipment, cost management, technology stack, internal communication, supply chain and order management, and improved business processes. Linking rugged mobile devices that collect operational data and work seamlessly with back-end platforms removes data input errors and provides real-time visibility.

Rugged devices are not only tough but are designed to work in their specific environments, such as being secure in a vehicle or easily lifted in and out of a holster or cradle. In cold or hazardous environments touch screens are designed to be operated with gloves and equally are usable in direct sunlight. Conker enterprise devices sit securely in an operating vehicle and read barcodes, NFC and RFID tags from multiple angles and all devices have a battery life designed to last the entire shift.

Rugged goes beyond the rugged case that keeps the device protected. Rugged devices are a type of hardware designed specifically to tolerate the harshest environments. From extreme temperatures to dusty environments, wet conditions and then back inside. They can tolerate a range of hazards including exposure to fluids and extreme vibrations. Touch screens can be operated with gloves on and as the battery life is designed to last an entire shift – rugged devices are built to last. These attributes can positively impact costs in downtime and the time and cost to replace devices that are not durable enough. All Conker devices are drop tested typically to 1.2m and for peace of mind have the durability rating of IP65, protecting them against dirt and making them dust and waterproof.

Compared to traditional scanners and other mobile devices, wearable devices are less likely to get damaged or dropped, resulting in lower equipment replacement costs over time. The ergonomic design of wearable scanners makes them feel natural to use in day-to-day operations. When a backhand scanner is used in conjunction with a glove, workers benefit from having a full range of hand and digit movement.

Reduction in TCO

Looking beyond the initial cost to acquire rugged devices and considering the cost of deployment, training, support, maintenance and service and critically the cost of downtime will provide insight into the true cost of ownership. If there is no time for downtime in any mission/time-critical environment, rugged is probably a wise choice.

My colleague James Summers, CEO at Conker, says: “The hard-working products surfacing to deliver across global supply chains are further supported by automation and real-time connectivity with other departments. The results include increased productivity, reduced resources, and speed of response to customers’ orders resulting in improved bottom lines.

“In the current period of cooler weather organisations can use this time of respite from harsh, hotter conditions to take stock and review how well they coped in 2022 and consider necessary improvements to ensure that device performance stands up to what might come their way next year.

“It is vital that production managers ensure good usability testing on all tablets, handheld and wearable devices because good usability will help to support a happy workforce. They also shouldn’t be afraid to demand upfront user testing before committing to new devices in the IT stack.”

Siena joins Partnerverse to build visibility applications

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Siena Analytics, a leader in supply chain AI and image recognition for high-volume logistics, has joined Partnerverse – the Splunk partner programme for accelerating customer success. Through this partnership, Siena is able to build powerful applications for supply chain operations that improve data accessibility, enable simple monitoring of inventory, and share business insights.

Siena’s flagship solution, Siena Insights, captures data in the warehouse through sensors at the tunnel and facility levels, while gathering learning insights with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI). The result is end-to-end visibility into the entire distribution lifecycle and elimination of inventory guesswork.

Siena Insights, built on the Splunk Enterprise platform, will utilise the company’s observability and data monitoring capabilities to develop applications that provide customers with greater visibility into their warehouse operations by leveraging images and data. The outcome is a first-of-its-kind sensor-agnostic solution that captures information across the entire supply chain for actionable package intelligence. Through this partnership with Splunk, Siena has enabled leading retail and parcel shipping organisations to take advantage of big data analytics and flexible AI deployments at the edge.

“In today’s economic climate, gaining real-time visibility into warehouse operations is more important than ever,” said John Dwinell, Founder and CEO of Siena Analytics. “This partnership allows us access to Splunk’s powerful observability and data monitoring platform to build applications that give warehouses greater insight into what’s taking place at their facilities. The result is software that marries data and images to enable package intelligence.”

Partnerverse allows logistics companies to ensure their organisations are secure, resilient, and innovative by removing barriers between data and action to enhance observability and empower IT and security teams. The Partnerverse programme helps Splunk partners deliver value to customers and accelerate their own growth, while expanding the Splunk partner practice.

 

Zeus nets £1.8m in funding

Posted on by Keith McKinley

UK-based logtech startup Zeus, which is modernising road freight management with its next-generation digital freight matching platform, has raised £1.8m in its first-ever angel funding round.

The company, which achieved 326% growth in total volume in 2021, has now raised over £4.3m since it was first conceived in 2019, and comes as the startup passes its two-year milestone since it was launched in August 2020. Zeus’ growth also reached a key milestone last month after it expanded into Europe, handling freight routes in France, Italy and the Czech Republic for the pioneering international fashion retailer Primark.

This angel round had participation from investors: Robin Ladow, Founder of Marl Capital and Lead Investor; Ahmed Abou Hashima, Chief Executive Officer of Egyptian Steel; Jai Shroff, Global CEO of UPL Limited, a global investor in sustainable development; Nick Crosby, Chief Sales Officer at Data Techniques; James Burrows, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Futures, the industry-leading vertical farming startup; Jordan’s former Transport Minister Sahel Al-Majali; and Duncan Lindsay, Founder of Networks Centre.

Clemente Theotokis, Co-Founder and joint-Managing Director, said: “Zeus has seen significant growth since its launch. This investment will further fund our expansion into Europe, where we are already rapidly gaining new clients, and the development of new SaaS solutions to further digitise our clients’ supply chains and accelerate the path to implementing sustainable freight.”

Zeus now serves more than 40 enterprise-level clients, including Primark, P&G, Decathlon, AB InBev and Apollo Tyres, handling over 660,000 tonnes of cargo annually worth circa £6bn.

The platform offers a near ‘zero-touch’ approach to managing road freight, with complete end-to-end tracking, reconciliation and system integrations. It reduces road freight administration for both shippers and hauliers, while helping small-medium fleets grow quickly with fast payment terms.

Ahmed Abou Hashima, who steered Egyptian Steel to securing 25% of Egypt’s national steel production and is now one of the biggest industrial companies in the Middle East, said: “Globally, Zeus may be a later entrant to the freight automation sector, however they are showing a true grasp of the need for layers of innovation and invention meshed together with skilled teams and clear strategic planning. The rapid growth of the technology and customer base convinced me that Zeus represents an excellent vision for the future of freight, globally.”

Zeus Co-Founder and joint-Managing Director, Jai Kanwar, added: “We could not be more excited about the completion of this round. These leaders present great strategic value to a fast-growing startup like Zeus as successful business minds as well as savvy financiers. I’m thrilled about what the future holds for Zeus now that we have these amazing partners onboard and the chance to make our vision truly come alive.”

Furniture company gains inventory visibility

Posted on by David Priestman

Rapidly expanding furniture company Oliver Space, which offers a fully circular home furnishing experience, is enjoying complete inventory visibility for the first time since implementing Synergy’s SnapFulfil WMS suite.

The San Francisco-based business – which not only delivers and assembles its premium quality furniture for customers, but also picks up and refurbishes used Oliver items to be made available at discounted prices – had struggled with inventory, picking and staging accuracy as the refurbishment returns side of the business ramped up.

However, the flexible and highly configurable SnapFulfil WMS has given Oliver Space the multiple tiers of stock and storage categories they require for precise inventory reconciliation. For customers, this means an even better experience as fulfilment is seamless, faster and more accurate.

David Guckian, Product Manager at Oliver Space, says: “We can now separate out, both in the system and the warehouse itself, all the different levels of stock and returns, which immediately optimised our inventory management capacity. We’d outgrown our initial 18,000 sq ft warehouse, but on moving to the new 30,000 sq ft DC realised a more consistent and reliable set of processes was required – and SnapFulfil ticks all the boxes.

“We looked at the full range of WMS solutions available, but around our key requirement of customisation, the so-called top tier systems were too labour intensive and costly to justify implementing. We treated it as a proof of concept and SnapFulfil quickly became the provider of choice because of their ability to work with us and facilitate all the process quirks and anomalies we required for a niche and complex business operation.”

The Oliver Space implementation was handled remotely, which is just as effective as on-site delivery as Synergy is a domain leader in digital onboarding. This saves customers time, money and resources, as well as aligning with their sustainability credentials.

Oliver Space was up and running in just under two months – even allowing for its more cautious approach to go live and use the test system to run live operations concurrently with its existing ERP until it had completed all necessary development internally.

Guckian explains: “The SnapFulfil team is highly responsive and together we worked through the various challenges that our operations model brings quickly and efficiently. They helped our engineering team implement API and other software so they would integrate fully, plus all the go-live training, UAT and testing was done in the staging environment – so that we were able to fine tune and dovetail everything in advance without interrupting our day-to-day operations.

“Consequently, when we were ready to go live it all went to plan and was like flicking a switch because of all the joint preparatory work we’d put in.”

Oliver Space is building the circular economy of furniture for a more sustainable future. With refurbished pieces becoming increasingly popular among an environmentally and fiscally conscious consumer base, SnapFulfil’s renowned reverse logistics capabilities are more necessary than ever. It also has the ability to scale up on user licence costs effectively during busier periods.

Guckian says: “As an exclusively online business we’re tech-centric, so Synergy and SnapFulfil are a natural fit and they understand where we’re coming from. Demand continues to grow, so we’re considering a second DC in Los Angeles early 2023, again powered by SnapFulfil, but I think we could be using their self implementation program that allows customers to onboard the system themselves.

“All we’ll need is their detailed rules engine training and we’re good to go. That’s how configurable their software is, and it will give us the control, independence and system expertise to manage our own roll out.”

 

Zencargo partners with Tive

Posted on by David Priestman

Zencargo, the London-based digital freight forwarder helping organisations make smarter decisions through a real-time overview of their supply chain, has recently entered into a partnership with Tive, the visibility solution provider delivering critical shipment location and condition data via its real-time, best-in-class sensors.

The supply chain industry has experienced disruption over the past two years, which has led to increased costs and longer lead times from origin to destination. Shipments are at risk of delays that can affect the quality of goods, especially perishables, which are required to be kept at certain temperatures and conditions.

By partnering with Tive, Zencargo will offer customers deeper insight into the location and condition of critical goods. Tive works with trusted brands globally to track their shipments in real-time to eliminate cargo delays and damages. Through its industry-leading, hyper-accurate location and condition monitoring trackers, Tive enables businesses to monitor inventory throughout its journey, meet quality and compliance requirements, and improve delivery satisfaction with customers. Tive’s Solo5G sensor also offers geofencing capabilities, provides alerts on arrival and departure times, and sends notifications in the event of route deviations.

Zencargo’s digital platform connects all stakeholders across the inbound supply chain. The platform is designed to help stakeholders access information across the supply chain to optimise performance. Businesses will have a precise overview of their shipments’ location and access data and insights through a real-time collaborative platform to prevent issues before they arise and minimise lost sales from damaged or delayed goods.

Alex Hersham, CEO and Co-Founder of Zencargo, comments: “With this partnership, we’re able to add greater visibility to our customers’ supply chains on top of the existing services we offer. By ensuring they have all the information they need to make agile decisions, delays and damage to goods can be prevented and customers will receive goods in the most efficient and timely way.”

“Tive’s complementary supply chain visibility services enable Zencargo to deliver even deeper value to their customers,” said Krenar Komoni (pictured), CEO & Founder of Tive. “The ability to view hyper-accurate location and condition tracking – in real time – from within the Zencargo platform helps ensure that products arrive on time and in full, preventing issues before they arise.”

Zencargo serves many industries in which shippers are moving high-value, high-risk cargo- such as fashion, luxury goods and beauty products,” said Krenar Komoni, CEO & Founder of Tive. “The higher the value of the cargo, the greater the risk. Real-time, in-transit visibility is invaluable for these shippers, ensuring that products arrive on time and in full.

Complete solution for pharma industry

Further to the announcement of its partnership with Zencargo, Tivehas unveiled a portfolio of real-time cold chain management logistics solutions for pharmaceutical, biologicals, and cell gene therapy companies. Tive’s multi-sensor Solo 5G trackers capture and transmit hyper-accurate location and temperature data of shipments in real time -enabling customers to actively monitor in-transit shipments, take action when deviations occur, and identify areas for supply chain improvements.

With this announcement, Tive now covers the full range of temperatures required to protect all critical cold chain shipments – including dry ice and cryogenic shipments. In addition to lithium and non-lithium Solo 5G trackers (TT-7000/TT-7100) already covering the temperature range of -30°C to +60°C, Tive is adding new trackers with probes that will reach -200°C to monitor dry ice and cryogenic shipments.

“Tive dedicated a tremendous amount of energy to create hardware and software offerings that give biotech, pharmaceutical, and cell gene therapy companies a complete cold chain solution – as well as a tremendous competitive advantage,” says Komoni. “As the demand for low and ultra-low temperature shipments increases, it becomes even more critical for companies across the globe to have complete in-transit visibility – so they can deliver high-quality products that assure patient safety.”

“Biocair wants the best of the best, and that’s why we use Tive: they offer a full cold chain solution that enables us to be proactive rather than reactive at every point in the supply chain,” says Robert Pagan, Packaging Solutions Engineer at Biocair. “We are an extremely customer-centric company, and by using Tive we demonstrate to our clients that we are on the cutting edge of technology and medicine to better serve them, and to set ourselves apart from the competition.”

Approved for use on more than 130 air carriers, Tive’s solutions are GxP compliant and all the components (hardware and software) are developed and tested following the Good Automated Manufacturing Practice 5 (GAMP 5) model. A 3-Point NIST-traceable Certificate of Calibration is included with every Tive Solo 5G tracker, and both trackers and probes are fully calibrated by an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. In addition, the Tive cloud-based application complies with both FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and EU Annex 11 requirements. Tive is SOC 2  Type 2 and ISO 27001 compliant.

Sustainable home delivery is a win-win

Posted on by David Priestman

Focusing on sustainable home delivery will generate greater sales and more profitable operations, explains Chris Jones, EVP, Descartes.

Two seemingly conflicting trends are coming together that, if addressed correctly, could provide retailers with a competitive advantage and make them more profitable. First, consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment and are more willing than ever to act to protect it. Second, the pandemic kicked online buying and home delivery into “high gear” as many consumers embraced its convenience and dramatically expanded the scope of their online purchasing.

So, how can these two trends be mutually beneficial? Isn’t home delivery supposed to be the antithesis of sustainability? Since neither trend is going away, harnessing both represents an excellent opportunity for retailers to improve their competitive position and profitability while helping the environment.

That’s exactly what the recent study “Retailers: Sustainability is Not a Challenge, It’s an Opportunity” concluded. Conducted by Descartes and SAPIO Research, the study surveyed over 8,000 consumers in Europe and North America for their perspectives on retailers’ sustainability practices around delivery operations. Here are five points that paint a compelling picture of why retailers need to adjust their delivery practices to take advantage of consumer environmental concerns.

Consumers are making purchasing decisions based upon environmental impact. The study found that overall, 39% of consumers do consider the environmental impact of a product and company when making purchasing decisions. This number rises to 42% for respondents aged 25 – 34. Interestingly, only 11% said they never made a purchasing decision based upon the environment.

There’s plenty of room to differentiate with sustainable delivery. The study found that only 38% of consumers thought retailers were doing a good job of using sustainable delivery practices. This means that consumers are paying attention to retailer delivery practices and many retailers are not performing well in this area. In the case of grocery and apparel purchases, 40% and 39% respectively said that they would buy more from those retailers whose delivery practices were more sustainable than the competition.

Consumers want sustainable delivery options. Half (50%) of the respondents were quite/very interested in environmentally friendly delivery options. Even more (54%) said that they would be willing to accept longer lead times for environmentally friendly deliveries.

Consumers are more flexible than retailers think. Half (50%) of the respondents thought the ability to combine orders was quite/very important. Almost half (48%) said that they were quite/very interested in having retailers recommend the most environmentally friendly delivery option. In fact, three of the top four options involved combining orders or having the retailer select the most sustainable delivery option.

Sustainable home delivery options result in lower costs to the retailer. Options from increasing lead times to grouping orders to providing eco-friendly time windows help retailers lower both their carbon footprint and their delivery costs. Longer lead times decrease delivery costs through better delivery planning and mode selection. Order consolidation means fewer trips to the customer and higher delivery density. Eco-friendly deliveries also create greater delivery density, which reduces distance per delivery. These concepts apply to multiple delivery modes including private/dedicated fleet, LTL and parcel.

Instead of thinking that sustainable home delivery is a challenge, retailers need to see it for the opportunity it presents. It is clear that consumers are increasingly interested in more sustainable home delivery. These trends are an opportunity to create a win-win-win situation. Sustainable home delivery makes consumers happier and more loyal, lowers delivery costs and helps the environment. Not every consumer will care, but the numbers are significant enough to easily justify offering sustainable delivery options. Better for the environment is better for your business. What are your sustainable delivery strategies?

CLICK HERE to read the report “Retailers: Sustainability is Not a Challenge, It’s an Opportunity”

Panduro increases picking capacity by 20%

Posted on by David Priestman

Panduro, a market leader in hobby materials in Europe, has successfully implemented ZetesMedea Warehouse Execution System to help improve market responsiveness and agility, whilst ensuring that sales are maximised, and delays minimised. The new system was fully operational in less than three months, and speed was a critical requirement as growing surge in demand was putting a mounting pressure on the retailer to fulfil more orders efficiently.

Panduro has 96 stores distributed throughout six European countries. With a total assortment of 10,000 items, distributed through a hybrid retail model, the rapidly expanding organisation was seeking to replace existing outdated voice picking system with a next generation solution to meet rapidly growing market demands.

Ensuring capacity matches demand

Panduro has faced a significant growth in demand in recent years, which the pandemic accelerated. To stretch and align capacity to meet customer demand, it needed to ensure maximum utilisation of its  warehouse operations, without expanding warehouse space. But operating on a legacy system, based on outdated technology, it was not possible to increase efficiency levels.

Panduro was therefore looking for a new solution that needed to meet certain specific requirements; it had to be a next-generation cloud-based solution, capable of being properly integrated into modern structures, and able to reduce operators’ workload whilst increasing productivity. It was also crucial that productivity would not decrease during the implementation stage. Panduro found all this in ZetesMedea’s voice picking solution.

Implementation in less than three months

The new cutting-edge technology from Zetes has allowed Panduro to increase the number of orders executed every day, reaching up to 18,000 order lines per day. A critical factor to meet increasing order volumes and support the company’s continued growth.

User acceptance and uninterrupted productivity was a key reason in implementing the ZetesMedea voice system. Smooth, efficient onboarding of both permanent and seasonal associates is critical to consistently fulfilling order demand throughout the year. This is enabled through the intuitive ‘untrained’ features of the new voice picking technology, ensuring rapid system familiarity and productivity. In addition, less management attention is required to manage onboarding, releasing time for more added value operational focus.

Finally, the speed of implementation was also of significant importance. From first discussion to implementation, the solution was fully operational in less than three months.

Cutting-edge technology

Many companies face the need to upgrade outdated equipment in order to keep up with logistics advancements and avoid risks. In conjunction with ZetesMedea software, Panduro opted to equip its warehouse pickers with cutting-edge Android technology from Panasonic Toughbook. Operating on the FZ-N1 handheld device and headset, the system simply instructs warehouse operators in their tasks and picked items are registered immediately. Panduro can easily access real-time order status updates, performance intelligence reports and track critical operational KPI’s to gain full visibility into operations.

“Thanks to ZetesMedea, we have increased our picking productivity by nearly 20%, reaching up to 18,000 order lines per day. In less than three months from start to finish, we are now processing more order per picker and day than ever before,” said Fia Collin, Warehouse and Production Manager at Panduro.

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