Logistics and the global supply chain drive the world as we know it today. Everyday tasks such as going to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner to online shopping all rely on the supply chain operating smoothly and efficiently. However, the logistics methods of the past have since become obsolete, especially in the wake of ever-expanding global operations, the boom in e-commerce and tightening delivery expectations, all of which put pressure on the supply chain. While navigating these challenges is a daunting task, business intelligence is the necessary game-changer for shippers to enter into the next era of the supply chain with an edge over the competition.
Fortunately, logistics and the supply chain have entered into a veritable digital renaissance. Driven by ever-increasing competition, both carriers and shippers need to step up their operations if they want to remain competitive, both in terms of a consistent brand experience for their customers as well as balanced and competitive pricing structures.
Driven by ever-increasing competition, both carriers and shippers need to step up their operations if they want to remain competitive.
There are challenges that need to be overcome in order to streamline operations to the point of optimal efficiency. These obstacles include compliance to ever-changing regulations, volatile fuel costs, supply chain management, and increasing demands from customers and consumers. These challenges are compounded by the fact that the supply chain across the United States is incredibly volatile due to a surge in e-commerce brought about by the pandemic, and the snarl in the global supply chain as a whole due to a shipping container shortage and heavily congested port traffic.
As a result, shippers are constantly on the lookout for solutions that will make their lives easier and help them excel during these uncertain times.
The Benefits Of Business Intelligence
Business intelligence is developing an operating strategy by leveraging technology to analyze data from the supply chain. This data analysis extracts actionable data from a seemingly incomprehensible data stream and can offer significant benefits for shippers.
Reduce Labor Costs through Automated Reports
Business intelligence is the key to the kingdom of Automation. BI tools can reduce the need for labor hours that are spent on mundane tasks such as generating reports. Shippers can generate comprehensive reports automatically without requiring a manual effort allowing those employees to be dedicated to more value-added tasks.
- Automated data collection creates more detailed reports
- Reports are generated automatically on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
- Reduces time spent on training staff which further reduces labor hours.
Information Transparency Leads To Better Visibility Into Your Supply Chain
Supply chain visibility is crucial to the success of shippers. Business Intelligence reduces the need to sift through and extract the necessary data to create a comprehensive report. Organizations can drill down to specific metrics to create operation-specific dashboards based on their needs. BI tools can help to define and extract data as needed (avoiding data-overload syndrome) which improves efficiency and eliminates information blockages and data silos.
In short, your company can find the data it needs, when it needs it, without all the hassle that comes with standard data analysis.
Translate Data Into Actionable Business Intelligence
Having data is all well and good, so long as you know what to do with it. The problem is, extracting the data is not the same as being able to interpret it. Transportation and logistics companies that rely on manual report generation often run the risk of working with outdated information, which can negatively affect business operations. Because Business intelligence tools can generate this information automatically, working through a BI suite can provide real-time information as to the current state of the business. This can, in turn, be used to spot issues as they happen and identify detailed information from a top-down view.
Better Decision Making
Armed with actionable intelligence, supply chain leaders are able to make better decisions about their supply chain and their operations. Higher levels of visibility within the supply chain means your company can perform a supply chain analysis. Business intelligence tools can help to draw out latent inefficiencies and reduce operating costs, which makes the supply chain run leaner and more efficiently than ever before.
