Large retailers seeking ways to increase operational efficiency in their supply chain are forcing the logistics partners to innovate constantly. Charterers and brokers go through a lot of procedures that involves emails, phone calls to find out whether a cargo ship with adequate space is available from a port. OpenSea.pro, a ship chartering marketplace, gives instant visibility of suitable ships, and their supply and demand. As soon as you've placed a position, the web-application shows you suitable matching candidates. Another major concern that international shippers face is the delay due to the documentation that needs to be filled in before the cargo can enter or leave a port. The documents once created are often couriered to the destination port for goods to be received on time. The delay in receiving shipping documents could incur demurrage charges, which would add on to the product cost. CargoX, is a block-chain based solution is perfectly suited for this purpose. It removes the paper-based documents and converts them into digital format and transfers them across partners in a supply chain over a block-chain enabled network. When the agreed conditions are met, the ownership of the digital bill of lading is transferred to the legal owner – instantly. This removes the couriers in the middle and the possibility of incurring additional demurrage charges at the destination port. With a shared database that runs a blockchain protocol, the digital documents auto-execute, and all parties validate the outcome instantaneously, without wasting time on further exchanges and without the need for a third-party intermediary. Once the documents are linked, they should have fewer errors even when multiple parties make amendments to shipping documents in a short period of time. The need of audit, reconciliation is minimized, and they translate into cost savings. CargoX uses standard RESTful APIs that offer enough convenience of interoperability and can seamlessly connect with your existing web-based enterprise applications. One can also view the transactional history and the sequence of events. Additional References OpenSea.pro - is a ship chartering marketplace, which helps to find the matching business for your ship or cargo within just few clicks. - https://opensea.pro/ CargoX a software solution for global trade documentation using blockchain - https://cargox.io/ Cerasis is a North American transportation management company, working as a 3PL, offering transportation technology & solutions for shippers - https://cerasis.com/ E-commerce & Retail Leave a reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marker *

Fast-food restaurants managers are in the eternal pursuit of reducing waiting time for customers. They understand that customers have a busy lifestyle. During the rush hour, when people queue up before the cash register and it becomes crowded, kiosks give customers the option of placing their own orders. They could enter their choices on their own and have the kitchen preparing their orders, reducing the wait time for their meals. Order taking kiosks are designed to emotionally engage the end user, in line with the restaurant’s brand. When customers place their own orders through a kiosk, it’s easy for them to see all options available, add-on or a request for special preparation. Kiosks never forget to upsell — and offers for side dishes, drinks, or upsizing options to a full meal automatically. Order taking kiosks integrated with cloud-based Fast-food restaurant solution provides a unified seamless experience – throughout the entire workflow integrating the peripherals such as point of sale systems, kitchen monitors, digital menu boards, back office systems, and even restaurant analytics using a comprehensive interface. Centralized management platform adds a layer of security with customizable login privileges along with the flexibility of customizing the business rules, along the way. Additional References Micah Solomon, High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service: Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World of Social Commerce, 2012, pp 41-58 Yeti - software provider for self-service kiosk systems, headquartered in San Francisco, in the United States - https://yeti.co/services/interactive-kiosk-software/ Touchway - software provider for self-service kiosk systems, headquartered in Switzerland - https://www.touchway.com/en/ Faronics - software provider for self-service kiosk systems, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - https://www.faronics.com/deep-freeze-cloud-endpoint-customization Provisio is a - software provider for self-service kiosk systems, headquartered in Miami, Florida, in the United States - https://www.provisio.com/web/us/homepage E-commerce & Retail Leave a reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marker *

Today’s shoppers demand unified experience across channels. They wish to buy anywhere, receive anywhere, and return anywhere. If they bought it online, they want to return in-store. If an item is out-of-stock in-store, they want to see it on their mobile. They walk into the store and ask the in-store sales associate to order something online for them and wants to get it delivered at their residence. In-Store shoppers are also demanding more details about the inventory – such as expiry date of the lot across the stores. They want to check it themselves on their mobile, rather than walking into the store to ask for availability. In-Store shoppers are now looking forward to sharing feedback of their purchase online using their mobile. They expect prompt assistance and product recommendations irrespective of which sales channel was used to enquire or buy the previous product. They expect it to be relevant and timely. Merchants are currently sync data across multiple, disparate software systems and this finds it hard to offer the experience that customer wants. Unified commerce calls for a single platform, with an advanced middleware, to replace that. The central pillar of unified commerce is a blending of data across channels in real-time, enabling a consistently seamless customer experience. The unified commerce operation is achieved by replacing the existing e-commerce software, retail POS billing software, ERP or warehouse management software, and software used to manage marketplace listings, with a single software for a consistent order management and fulfilment capability. The single software approach removes the need for syncing data completely. If the item that customer ordered happens to be sitting in a store closest to the customer, why not leverage that store as a distribution center and redirect logistic deliveries to that store instead of the central fulfilment warehouse? To make the most of unified commerce, retailers in addition to setting up a single unified software need to set up internal processes that enable products to be shipped from the most effective locations. The shopper could even elect to pick it up themselves if they need it as soon as possible. E-commerce & Retail Leave a reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marker *

Globally supply chain managers are constantly faced with the challenge of reducing variability with regard items procured from vendors. The problem of variability is far higher in the real world and an off-the-shelf ERP software does not provide meaningful support to handle this crisis. In order to reduce variability, custom cloud-based vendor qualification systems are developed that break down the sourcing and inspection at site procedure into a series steps for inbound materials ensuring that they conform to the order specification and is fit for use even before it leaves the vendor’s dock. Integrating the need for submitting a ‘certificate of analysis’ before the lots are shipped, creates a ‘virtual material quality check’, ensuring that every inbound material has been checked and has met their specifications as ordered by a qualified inspector. The accountability of the ‘virtual material quality check’ is with an inspector who must sign off based on the order specification. Over time, the consistency of QA data, the vendor moves up the ladder of trust based on the least variability, enabling stock receipt managers to reduce the number of fit-for-use checks on inventory being received. The variability most often stems from inconsistent communications between the manufacturer and the vendor and shows up itself as outdated parts, not fit for use material specifications, damaged shipments, incorrect quantity, incorrect safety stocks, mislabelled packaging, missing documentation or as too late deliveries. The best means to address vendor variability is to address it at the source, with the vendor. This requires shared systems that communicate the order specification requirements effectively allowing for further communication on the order and collaboration in real time. A collaborative platform that highlights issues in near real time will reduce vendor quality issues. Documenting the issues regarding individual vendors creates additional checkpoints for inspectors to double check in addition to the standard inspection that all loopholes have been fixed before it is deemed fit to ship. Finally, it’s important to understand the potential benefits of reducing variability. It is probably the best ‘bang for the buck’ when multiple vendors are participants of a single supply chain performance. If the supply side presents an opportunity, and it very often does, the methods mentioned above provide a very strong return on investment.Additional References Walter L. Wallace and Yusen L. Xia, Delivering Customer Value through Procurement and Strategic Sourcing: A Professional Guide to Creating A Sustainable Supply Network, 2014 Zycus is a software provider for sourcing raw materials, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States - https://www.zycus.com/ Supply Dynamics - software provider for sourcing raw material in highly distributed environments, headquartered in Great Lakes, Midwestern, in the United States - https://supplydynamics.com/ Eximware - a software provider of sourcing raw materials, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States - https://www.eximware.com/ E-commerce & Retail Leave a reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marker *