Occam’s Razor asserts that among competing hypotheses, the one with the least amount of assumptions is usually the best — and growing up, that usually translated to my father saying “why are you making things so complicated for yourself?” I was reminded of this recently when we were called in to a prospect’s office to talk about logistics management software.
In their environment we found; two different warehouse management systems, an external shipping optimization tool (which charged the prospect per optimization), two different ERPs, a CRM system, countless Excel spreadsheets that were critical to daily operations and a huge IT infrastructure to support it all. In other words; they knew they had a rats’ nest of systems, growing ignorance of how it all worked together, and unnecessary expense — but they were stymied about how to deal with it all.
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With more and more consumers shopping online, it’s critical for retailers to execute shipping flawlessly – to get the right product to the right customer as quickly as possible – the first time, every time. In fact, just one shipping error or delay will cause many consumers to stop shopping with a particular retailer – online as well as in physical stores – according to an article in Internet Retailer.
Results from a new survey about fulfillment and delivery errors indicate that 29% of respondents will stop shopping with a retailer entirely if they receive even one incorrect order.
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Well, we’re finally doing it. Yup. Kewill’s starting to blog. Why? Well, after decades in the global trade and logistics software space we think we’ve got quite a lot to say about parcel shipping, import and export trade compliance, spend management, transportation management and the extended supply chain in general. OK, you’ll be the judge of whether what we say is worth the bits used to post it, but I for one am pretty confident that you’ll find it interesting.
So what keeps us up at night? The still-ailing global economy and its effect on the supply chain. Energy prices and their impact. Changes in consumer behavior. Our customers’ need to respond to changes in the market ever-more quickly. The declining quality of referees in professional sports (just testing to see if you’re reading). Outsourcing. Insourcing. Near-shoring. In short, the extended supply chain and how our customers can get their goods to their customers. (more…)
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Every year, for the past six years, Kewill has conducted a survey of parcel/LTL shippers. This includes both domestic shippers and exporters.
The questions result in a whitepaper that shows trends in the industry. This week Kewill is kicking off it’s 2012 survey. You should participate! By participating in the survey you’ll not only get the results of the findings, but we’ll also enter your name for a drawing to win an Apple Ipad. The survey only takes about 10 minutes to complete. (more…)
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Do you remember the days when voice mail was brand new? How about the day when your company first starting sending emails? Those days are now long gone. Gone are the days of the VCR flashing 12:00. Probably because your VCR is now a Blue Ray player but I think you get the point. Another example of how quickly things are changing is laptops, tablets, and PCs. You buy a computer and the next day it is out of date and antiquated. Sounds familiar? Think about it. Today our cell phones infiltrate our every part of lives. They carry our conversations, send us emails, can update our social media sites and ping us when we have changes in our status. It is actually remarkable how quickly technology has become part of our everyday lives. Technology is part of daily fabric and technology is moving at a pace that is truly unprecedented. Another interesting trend in technology is Cloud-base computing. Today the Cloud is everywhere and everyone is focused on the Cloud. How you keep up with technology in this rapidly changing world? The answer is the Cloud. Why the Cloud and why now? The Cloud has been evolving too in fact the cloud is not new. It has actually been with us for some time but it now has name. It has grown up. So, what can the Cloud do? Ask someone in Marketing and they would tell you that the Cloud can anything and everything. The Cloud offers us all kinds of solutions. We can rent computers by the hour, tracks sales, keep in touch, and or business with anyone in the world, all thanks to the Cloud. Just stop and think about it. The Cloud has become part of daily lives just as voice mail and email did back in the day. In fact, we are connected to Cloud right now. It is probably more integrated into our day to day lives than we even realize. Just remember when you look to the Cloud make sure you pick the right app or the right vendor because there is more to the cloud than distributed computing. You should think about things like; Internet security, identity theft and your digital footprint. When selecting a cloud based solution price is not the only criteria. You have to think about up time, access, performance and all sorts of other related stuff. In fact, the Cloud is not free. The Cloud has a cost. What is the cost? Well, the cost is proportional the value. Just like everything else in life. The main difference is we are moving from our premise based solutions to cloud based solutions. In a future post, we will take a deeper dive into the topics related to this shift. In a future post, we will take a deeper dive into the topics related to this shift.
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