Does your legacy system have what it takes to manage efficient, streamlined reverse and forward logistics workflows?
Navigating the complexities of modern logistics within dynamic markets and evolving customer needs requires a strategic, nimble approach. For 3PLs and OEMs, the challenge lies not only in efficient workflow management but also in addressing the limitations often posed by legacy systems.
In the race to compete, logistics providers are faced with the daunting tasks of designing and operating efficient workflows, integrating technologies, accessing critical data, and meeting compliance requirements, all while delivering superior customer service. With clients and partners presenting unique requirements, technologies, and processes, the need for adaptability and expertise is more pronounced than ever.
The bottom line? Legacy systems may be functional, but that doesn’t make them scalable.
How Legacy Systems Hold You Back
Many companies feel locked in to their legacy systems because they are highly configured, with custom deployments for various customers. Shifting applications requires data transfers, training, system configuration and more. To justify a change, companies must determine whether the ROI of the new system will offset the costs.
It’s a valid question and can be difficult to answer. If the company plans to grow, will their customers’ requirements change? If so, will their current system support that change? . Outdated, hard-coded custom deployments pose a substantial obstacle for change management and speed to market. While these systems may have initially conferred a competitive edge, the persistence of unnecessary customizations impedes functionality over time. Eventually, outdated configurations can slow your processes down, impact productivity, and damage customer satisfaction.
This happens for several reasons:
- Persistent Reliance on Manual Processes
Manual processes eat up time and introduce the possibility of human error. Effective, efficient systems must be able to capture, store, and retrieve data efficiently. In addition, data needs to be integrated so key insights don’t get missed. Manual processes often result in:- Data Entry Errors – Manual data entry undermines efficiency and accuracy by introducing human errors and preventing crucial real-time actionable data. .
- Reporting Problems – In the high-stakes environment of reverse logistics, real-time information is critical for decision-making. Manual reporting slows down the process, leaving teams and customers to rely on guesswork or inaccurate information for in-the-moment decisions and forecasting future demand.
- Increased Costs – The longer it takes to perform manual tasks, the more those tasks cost. Over time, problems with efficiency, productivity, and quality will drive up operating expenses, resulting in lost revenue and even lost customers.
- Poor Customer Experiences – Customer experiences suffer when you can’t share data quickly and accurately, especially since many customers also have highly specific workflows requiring unique configurations. Automating processes and minimizing operator decision-making ensures adherence to process and delivers the expected results every time.
- Loss of Revenue – Legacy systems often don’t capture material consumption and time spent on work effectively, which means the numbers may not show the true cost of a project. Added to poor customer satisfaction, this can impact your bottom line.
- Integration Woes
Another problem companies often run into with legacy systems is that they don’t support the capabilities to seamlessly integrate with WMS and ERP systems. This creates data silos, with key information locked away in separate systems. Team members must pull data from multiple sources and aggregate manually to create effective reports, which makes it difficult to see data trends in real time. - Upgrade Issues
Older systems may have reached the point where they can no longer be upgraded or configured to support new business processes due to incompatibility with current versions of Microsoft or MacOS. Instead of your technology working for you, you are working for it, creating processes that fit the system rather than the other way around.
Ultimately, what’s at risk is your overall customer experience, your revenue, and your ability to compete in the market. Your system must help you achieve process and cost efficiencies to serve customers effectively and deliver competitive advantage.
Our Solution: Designed By Operators, For Operators
With so many issues at stake, why don’t companies replace legacy systems with upgraded technology platforms? In many cases, it’s because they are so closely entwined with the legacy system that replacing it can be a monumental task.
When you have years of sunk costs invested into setting up the system, licensing it, and customizing workflows for each customer, switching over to a new system seems like a cost prohibitive expenditure of time, effort, and money. You need to know that the ROI of the new system is worth the disruption of migrating and consolidating data, building out new workflows, and navigating the implementation and change management process.
At Triage, we have spent decades in the industry, and we understand exactly the complexities you are facing. Because we’ve done the work and managed the operations ourselves, we have the process expertise and operational knowledge to identify solutions and solve root problems.
Our approach includes:
- Adaptable, Scalable Technology – Our cloud-based SaaS solution, WipIT, is a highly adaptable, scalable platform that helps you optimize your forward and reverse logistics workflows, integrate data from multiple systems, increase productivity, and improve efficiency across operations. WipIT adapts to your customers’ unique data needs and specific workflow requirements so they can capture the right data at the right time.
WipIT is also easily configurable, empowering you to make workflow changes in minutes, not hours. This makes it easy to support new programs and projects, optimize workflows, and scale.
- Seamless Integration with Existing Systems – WipIT easily integrates with your existing WMS or ERP so you can pull all the information you need into a single screen. With WipIT, you can quickly streamline processes for efficiency, make configuration changes, and accelerate your forward and reverse logistics operations for greater customer satisfaction.
- Expertise and On-Site Support – In addition to technology, efficient workflows require expertise and personnel support. We provide process expertise and colocation services to help you solve workflow problems, scale quickly, and provide flexible control.
If you are frustrated with outdated technology, workflow bottlenecks, and inefficient processes, we can help.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you simplify your forward and reverse logistics operations, gain control over your workflows, and keep your customers happy.