The Strategic Advantages of Choosing a Tech-Enabled Supply Chain Partner
In the ever-evolving world of supply chain, logistics and freight, being a tech-enabled freight company or logistics provider has reached almost virtue-like status. To say that a company is tech-enabled is now on a list of must-haves both for logistics providers and those in procurement. This then begs the question, “What does tech-enabled really mean?”. It’s very easy to place a word like “tech-enabled” on your website or in your marketing collateral, but those espousing it often cannot deliver on the promise.
To add to the confusion, tech-enabled freight companies will often be bundled in with freight tech companies, which at times has happened to us at Navia. This adds to an increasingly complex myriad of providers that companies are now exposed to, all vying for their business.
Tech-Enabled: Weaving Technology Into Existing Operations
The stark distinction between a tech-enabled freight/supply chain partner and a freight tech partner is this: While freight tech providers focus on innovation and developing tools for the freight industry, tech-enabled freight providers harness the power of technology to provide better outcomes for their shippers.
It is key to note that for a tech-enabled supply chain partner, technology becomes not a bolt-on, but an integral part of the business. At Navia, for over 20 years, we have leaned into innovation. Thus, technology not only provides automation, but has been leveraged to prioritize the right shipments internally and give customers ultimate transparency.
Tech-enabled businesses use technology to improve their day-to-day processes and inform business decisions, as well as empower the decisions of customers. In contrast, a freight tech company might be interested in creating technology to solve a particular problem or inefficiency in the supply chain. Thus, its interest could lie in ensuring its technology is used, but it may not be optimal for the shipper.
Enhancing, Not Replacing, What We Do as Humans
A key feature of tech-enabled companies is they aim to enrich their existing human relationships with technology, rather than replace them. Although automation can be used to drive efficiency, at times, this can impact the end consumer or shipper. It could result in a tendency towards self-service, at the expense of service quality. However, this seems to be more of an issue of company culture than of technology.
At Navia, our ethos is that although we look for efficiencies where possible, it’s imperative that this does not deteriorate the quality of service our customer receives (and our interpersonal connection with them).
In a recent example of this dilemma, a new customer was hesitant about being onboarded onto our NaviaHub platform. Their fear was of forever being pushed to seek help virtually. However, after partnering with us, they realized that “the Hub” provided a great deal of efficiency when searching for quick answers. Yet, for more complex issues, they were still able to pick up the phone and speak with their account manager. The account manager, through their years of experience, was then able to decide on a solution and act quickly.
These are the situations where we acknowledge a strong relationship bolsters efficiency and proves to be a qualitative measure of success. At times, as it is said, you need to go slow to go fast. Again, tech enriches our human-to-human relationships, rather than rip and replace them.
How Tech Allows Us to Be Adaptable and Customer-Centric
Injecting technology across our operations allows us to pivot when required and remain agile. For one customer, by leveraging business intelligence platforms, we give visibility over carrier reliability both on international freight and in the final mile. As such, this helps our customers make decisions backed by data in an ever-changing supply chain landscape.
In addition to the above, we’ve noticed through tech enablement, we’re able to progress two concurrent efforts: adapt when required and increase our focus on the customer.
Leveraging technology to make such decisions allows for agility and drastically improves our client’s experience. It mitigates the challenges constantly faced by supply chain leaders. Even when it cannot mitigate exceptions, at the very least, being tech-enabled allows us to anticipate potential issues and plan accordingly.
In contrast, freight tech companies also allow for adaptability and customer-centricity in the supply chain. However, generally speaking, the focus is on solving one particular problem rather than a variety of supply chain problems.
Levelling Up Sustainability Efforts
Sustainability has become impossible to avoid and pressure from shippers and end-consumers on the supply chain industry to reduce emissions has grown immensely. It is almost impossible to do this successfully without technology.
Technology has enabled us to report on the carbon emissions of our clients’ shipments and will be key in offsetting the carbon footprint of said shipments on behalf of our clients.
It will undoubtedly prove essential in the future when we look at other ways to minimize our footprint, whether via route optimization or carbon insetting.
The Road Ahead
It’s clear that both tech-enabled supply chain partners and freight tech companies will continue to dominate our industry and perhaps grow in prominence. In both scenarios, freight providers need to consider becoming tech-enabled in the true sense of the word. They should look to enrich their operations with technology and keep an open mind to new methods.
Ultimately, our value as a forwarder or third-party logistics provider is helping our customers move goods from supplier to end consumer as efficiently as possible, without damage or issue. Any technology or other tools we implement should always be wielded with this key goal in mind.
