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Advance Technology: A Brief Guide To What Is Hybrid Mail

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Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

Advance Technology: A Brief Guide To What Is Hybrid Mail

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In an era where digital transformation is at its peak, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to streamline their operations. One such advancement in the realm of data and technology is the concept of hybrid mail. The term ‘hybrid mail’ might sound complex, but it’s a simple yet revolutionary idea that bridges the gap between traditional postal systems and digital communication. This article will explore what is hybrid mail?, its workings, benefits, and why it’s becoming an essential tool for businesses and individuals alike.

Understanding Hybrid Mail

Hybrid mail is a service that combines electronic and physical mailing systems. It allows users to send physical mail (like letters, invoices, statements) from a digital platform. Essentially, users create and submit their documents online, which are then printed, enveloped, and mailed by a hybrid mail service provider. This system melds the convenience of digital communication with the tangibility and trustworthiness of traditional mail.

How Does Hybrid Mail Work?

The process of hybrid mail is straightforward yet sophisticated. It typically involves the following steps:

Creation of Document: 

Users create their documents digitally, using any word processor or specialized software provided by the hybrid mail service.

Uploading and Submission: 

The document is uploaded to a secure online platform provided by the hybrid mail service provider.

Printing and Processing: 

The service provider receives the document, prints it, and prepares it for posting. This step includes printing, folding, inserting into envelopes, and franking.

Delivery: 

The final step is the physical delivery of the mail through standard postal services.

This seamless integration of digital creation and physical delivery is what makes hybrid mail an efficient and modern mailing solution.

Benefits of Hybrid Mail

Hybrid mail offers numerous benefits that make it an attractive option for businesses and individuals:

Cost-Effective: 

The hybrid mail system is designed to be economical. It significantly lowers the expenses related to traditional mailing processes such as printing, purchasing stationery, and handling postage. For businesses that send out mail in bulk, hybrid mail services can offer lower postal rates due to their volume of operations, leading to substantial cost savings.

Time-Saving: 

One of the most notable benefits of hybrid mail is its efficiency in saving time. The traditional tasks of printing, enveloping, and posting can be highly time-consuming, especially for large volumes of mail. Hybrid mail simplifies this process, allowing users to dispatch hundreds of letters or documents with just a few clicks, freeing up valuable time for other important tasks.

Environmentally Friendly: 

Hybrid mail is a more sustainable alternative to traditional mailing methods. By optimizing the volume of printouts and reducing the need for transportation in mail delivery, it contributes to a reduction in carbon footprint. This makes hybrid mail an eco-friendly option, aligning with the growing global emphasis on environmental responsibility.

Data Security: 

Security is a paramount concern in today’s digital world, especially when handling sensitive information. Reputable hybrid mail services place a high priority on data security, employing robust measures to ensure that all information remains confidential and protected against unauthorized access.

Accessibility and Convenience: 

The accessibility and convenience offered by hybrid mail are unparalleled. It allows users to manage their mailing needs from any location with an internet connection. This level of accessibility is particularly beneficial for remote workers or businesses with multiple locations, offering a consistent and reliable way to handle postal communications.

The Role of Hybrid Mail in Business Communication

Hybrid mail has become an integral part of business communication strategies due to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It is particularly beneficial for businesses that send large volumes of mail, such as billing statements, marketing materials, or general correspondence. The automation of the mailing process saves substantial time and resources, allowing businesses to focus on core activities. Moreover, hybrid mail ensures consistency and professionalism in business communications, as the final output is uniformly printed and presented.

Industries Benefiting from Hybrid Mail

Various industries can reap the benefits of hybrid mail. Financial institutions use it for sending statements and notifications, healthcare providers for patient communications, and retail businesses for marketing and promotional materials. Government bodies and educational institutions also find hybrid mail advantageous for distributing mass communications efficiently and cost-effectively.

The Future of Mail: Integrating Digital with Traditional

The future of mail lies in the integration of digital and traditional methods. Hybrid mail is at the forefront of this evolution, offering a practical solution that adapts to the changing needs of communication in the digital age. As businesses and consumers become more environmentally conscious and digitally inclined, hybrid mail stands as a testament to how traditional practices can evolve with technological advancements.

The Impact of Hybrid Mail on Postal Services

Hybrid mail also has a significant impact on postal services. By streamlining the process of mail preparation, it reduces the workload on postal staff and improves the efficiency of mail delivery. This advancement is crucial for the survival and relevance of postal services in a rapidly digitalizing world.

Challenges and Considerations

While hybrid mail offers numerous advantages, there are some challenges and considerations:

Dependency on Service Providers: 

The quality and reliability of hybrid mail depend heavily on the service provider. Therefore, choosing a reputable provider with a track record of security and efficiency is essential.

Digital Literacy: 

For some users, particularly in traditional industries, transitioning to a digital platform for mailing can be a challenge.

Regulatory Compliance: 

When sending sensitive or confidential information, it’s vital to ensure that the hybrid mail system complies with relevant data protection and privacy laws.

Conclusions

In conclusion, hybrid mail represents a significant advancement in the field of communication, blending the digital and physical realms to create a more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly mailing solution. As we move further into the digital age, the relevance of hybrid mail will only grow, offering businesses and individuals a versatile tool that adapts to their changing communication needs. Whether it’s for business communications, marketing efforts, or personal correspondence, hybrid mail stands as a shining example of how technology can transform traditional practices for the better. It’s a concept that not only answers the question of what is hybrid mail? but also redefines our approach to mailing in the 21st century.

 

Global Trade Daily, Uncategorized

How Digital Transformation is Redefining Global Business Operations 

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Is your business ready for the digital revolution reshaping the global market?

In the current fast-paced business environment, embracing digital transformation has become essential. Driven by advanced technologies, this shift is fundamentally changing the way companies function, compete, and achieve success. Moving from conventional methods to digital strategies is transforming various industry landscapes, highlighting the importance of adaptability for thriving in the market.

Central to this revolution are technologies like cloud computing, AI, automation, and digital marketing, each playing a pivotal role in creating new opportunities and challenges. As we delve deeper, we’ll explore how these digital advancements are not merely enhancing efficiency but are also driving innovation and competitive advantage in a globally connected market. From enhancing operational agility to personalizing customer experiences, digital transformation is the cornerstone of modern business strategy.

This journey into the digital world is not just about adopting technology; it’s about fundamentally reshaping business models to thrive in the digital age. Let’s uncover how embracing this digital shift can propel businesses into a future of unparalleled growth and innovation.

Acceleration of Cloud Computing and Data Analytics

The swift rise and widespread adoption of cloud computing mark a transformative era in business operations, emphasizing its critical role in enhancing both operational efficiency and scalability. Cloud computing stands out for its adaptability and cost savings, providing businesses with the ability to scale resources as needed without heavy investment in physical infrastructure. This flexibility is invaluable for both small and large companies, enabling rapid adaptation to market changes or emerging opportunities, potentially leading to improved EPS figures over time by optimizing operational costs and expanding market reach.

Cloud platforms have become pivotal for data analytics and handling large data sets. Storing and processing extensive data in the cloud allows businesses to delve into analytics, yielding valuable insights into customer behavior, market trends, and internal operational areas needing improvement. These insights are integral to making well-informed decisions, customizing marketing efforts, and refining products or services.

Moreover, the synergy of big data and cloud computing is transforming how businesses interact with customers. Personalized customer experiences, such as tailored product recommendations in online retail or customized content in digital media services, are now possible at an unprecedented scale thanks to cloud-enabled data analysis.

The real-time data processing capabilities of cloud platforms are essential in today’s fast-moving business environment. The capacity to make swift, data-informed decisions gives companies a competitive edge, facilitating prompt adjustments in strategy driven by up-to-the-minute insights.

To sum up, the emergence of cloud computing, coupled with data analytics, signifies a major transformation in the way businesses function. It brings about enhanced operational efficiency, greater scalability, and a deeper comprehension of customer needs.

Adoption of AI and Automation

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation into business processes has marked a pivotal shift in the landscape of productivity, efficiency, and innovation. AI and automation are not just futuristic concepts but practical tools reshaping how businesses operate across various sectors.

AI’s impact on productivity is profound. Automated systems and AI-driven algorithms can handle repetitive tasks, freeing human employees to focus on more complex and creative aspects of their jobs. This shift not only boosts productivity but also enhances job satisfaction by removing mundane tasks from the daily workload.

In terms of efficiency, AI is revolutionizing data management and document processing. AI-powered document analysis tools are capable of parsing large volumes of data with a precision and speed unattainable by human efforts alone. These tools can extract relevant information, categorize documents, and even identify trends and patterns. This level of accuracy and efficiency in handling data significantly reduces errors and speeds up decision-making processes.

Various industries are leveraging AI in unique ways. In healthcare, AI algorithms assist in diagnosing diseases and personalizing treatment plans. In finance, AI is used for risk assessment and fraud detection, analyzing vast amounts of transaction data to identify anomalies. The retail sector employs AI for inventory management and customer behavior analysis, enhancing the shopping experience through personalized recommendations.

AI is also transforming manufacturing with predictive maintenance. By analyzing data from machinery, AI can predict equipment failures before they occur, reducing downtime and maintenance costs. In the field of logistics, AI optimizes routes and delivery schedules, improving efficiency in supply chain management.

AI and automation are not just enhancing existing business processes; they are opening doors to new levels of innovation and efficiency. From streamlining mundane tasks to providing critical insights, AI is a key driver in the modern business world, propelling industries towards a more efficient and innovative future.

The Shift Towards E-Commerce and Digital Marketing

The transformation towards e-commerce has significantly reshaped the retail industry, deeply influencing both traditional retail methods and the global market. The surge in online shopping has altered consumer habits, pushing businesses to adopt a digital-first strategy. E-commerce’s appeal lies in its convenience and the wider array of choices for consumers, while also opening new avenues for businesses to extend their reach globally.

Traditional retail has been greatly impacted by this digital transition, prompting physical stores to innovate and blend online elements into their traditional models. The emergence of e-commerce has spurred a shift towards omnichannel strategies, emphasizing the need for a seamless blend of online and offline customer experiences to attract and retain clientele.

Advancements in digital technology, illustrated by the rise of real-time trade alerts, have become crucial for businesses. These alerts offer immediate insights into market trends, allowing businesses to quickly react to shifts in market conditions and consumer preferences. The ability to respond rapidly is increasingly important in a business world where timing is key to influencing sales and customer engagement.

In line with these shifts, digital marketing strategies have evolved to be more data-centric and dependent on real-time analysis. Utilizing advanced analytics, digital marketing now enables more precise and individualized campaigns. Companies can track customer interactions across various digital channels, obtaining insights into customer likes and behaviors. This approach of using data allows for the crafting of more effective, personalized marketing initiatives, boosting both engagement and conversion rates.

Furthermore, digital marketing today transcends mere advertising. It’s about nurturing customer relationships, providing value through tailored content, and interacting with them across various digital platforms. This comprehensive strategy is crucial for fostering brand loyalty and staying competitive in the digital marketplace.

Ultimately, the move towards e-commerce and digital marketing signifies a critical shift in how companies handle sales and customer interactions, with strategies rooted in data and real-time insights being essential for successful digital commerce.

Cybersecurity in the Age of Digital Transformation

In today’s digitally driven business environment, the significance of cybersecurity has surged, becoming a critical element in protecting sensitive information and upholding ongoing business operations. As businesses become more reliant on digital technologies, the urgency to implement strong cybersecurity defenses grows to counteract the rising tide of cyber threats.

Cybersecurity’s role in the digital landscape is crucial. Digital security risks pose a threat to sensitive information and can interfere with a business’s fundamental activities. A lone incident of a security breach can inflict significant monetary damage, damage the business’s image, and cause legal ramifications. Consequently, protecting online assets and client information is now a critical priority for all companies.

Adopting a layered approach to cybersecurity is one of the best practices for businesses. This starts with training employees, as human error can often be a weak link. Educating staff about recognizing phishing schemes, enforcing robust password protocols, and emphasizing the necessity of regular software updates can dramatically lower risk exposure.

Ensuring network security is also vital, encompassing the use of firewalls, encryption methods, and VPNs for secure remote access. Conducting frequent security audits can help in pinpointing and strengthening potential weak spots.

Another key aspect is data protection. This involves employing data encryption techniques, securing data storage, and establishing firm data management policies. Moreover, having an effective data backup strategy is crucial for data recovery in case of a cyber incident.

It is crucial to actively monitor for threats using technologies such as intrusion detection systems and anti-malware software, to enable early identification and reaction to security risks. Additionally, organizations must establish a clear plan for incident response to swiftly address any security breaches that occur.

Keeping abreast of the latest cyber threats and trends is another important practice, as cybersecurity is a continuously evolving field. Staying informed about new security technologies and threat intelligence is vital in strengthening defenses against emerging cyber threats.

In conclusion, as digital transformation advances, the importance of cybersecurity in protecting sensitive data and ensuring uninterrupted business operations has become more pronounced. It’s essential for businesses to employ comprehensive, forward-thinking cybersecurity strategies to maintain customer trust and safeguard their digital ecosystem.

Conclusion

In today’s world, where digital transformation is rapidly reshaping the business environment, embracing technologies like cloud computing, AI, and digital marketing has become indispensable for any business focused on staying ahead. These advancements have revolutionized operational processes, opening new paths for growth and enhanced customer interaction.

Yet, this technological evolution brings its own set of challenges, especially in cybersecurity. Ensuring the safety of sensitive information and sustaining uninterrupted business operations in an era of increasing digital threats is imperative. Adopting proactive and vigilant cybersecurity measures is not just a necessity but a critical strategy for modern businesses.

Ultimately, navigating the path of digital transformation is an ongoing journey, filled with opportunities for growth and challenges to overcome. By strategically embracing these technological changes, businesses can unlock the potential offered by digital advancements, leading to innovation and sustained success in a competitive marketplace.

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Archives, Education, Global Trade Daily

4 Digital Transformation Best Practices For Small And Mid-Sized Businesses On A Budget

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Companies have acknowledged that they must undergo a digital transformation to maintain their competitiveness in the quickly evolving business environment. However, it might be challenging to digitize your business on a tight budget. If companies don’t find out how to transform their best practices to take advantage of the latest technology, it’s predicted that 40% of them would close their doors in the near future. While just around 40% of organizations have scaled up their digital activities, a Gartner survey claims that approximately 87% of top corporate leaders think that digital transformation is a primary concern.

In this competitive and fast-paced digital world, it is crucial for companies of all sizes to embrace digital transformation. Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into the strategy, operations, and products of a company. Since digitalization is becoming the need of the hour, how businesses with limited budgets can transform their process? SMBs can adapt to digitalization in an economical way by taking the following four specific actions.

1. Make Sure The Business Systems Are Integrated Seamlessly

The digital transformation effort begins with a commitment to improving customer satisfaction by streamlining operations, automating activities, and boosting productivity. However, flawless communication is also needed to achieve digital transformation between all the departments that are closely integrated. Building an internal system involves automating the connections between various corporate systems used by departments like administration, customer service, marketing, etc. Keeping things transparent, eliminating internal differences, and fostering a customer-centric mindset all support a firm to adopt technological change.

2. Provide Employees With Data-Driven Insights

Data must be at the core of making effective business decisions. Companies should focus their time on employing technology that lets their team draw conclusions and value from varied datasets. When developing products and procedures to enhance productivity and boost revenue, it’s imperative to have reliable data that may help SMBs to better understand the psyche of their employees and customers. Businesses can invest in artificial intelligence to enable employees to successfully decode data performance. 

3. Bringing Technology And Systems Together

Businesses implement technology integration to select and upgrade the systems or practices they use in their business processes. A complicated system results from the execution of several dissimilar systems to satisfy digital transformation demands. Bringing technology and systems together requires an integrated approach. Similarly, businesses operating in different locations and looking to optimize their transfers or withdrawals can take advantage of digital banking solutions using different payment services, such as Airwallex, to facilitate their business operations even more. On the other hand, neobanks facilitate instant deposits and withdrawals which are quicker than traditional banking methods. Since neobanks are exclusively virtual banks, businesses can access their financial reports at any time. Without ever setting foot inside a bank branch, employers can better manage their financial affairs with neobanks.

4. Educate Staff About Emerging Technological Innovations

Educating your team about system changes or technology innovations is one of the most effective ways to ensure an effective technology transition. When companies provide guidance and support, they will feel more comfortable using modern technology. Also, maintain a line of contact so they can share their thoughts on digital transformation. A business‘s strategy for digital transformation will be successful if it is well thought out and carried out.

The Bottom Line

An attempt to convert your business digitally may seem daunting at first. Businesses may use technology to their advantage as well with strategic planning, setting priorities, collaboration, and staff training. It is crucial for small to medium size businesses to keep up with their employees’ digital literacy. Companies should decide on their key priorities, start small, and make incremental changes to the way their business operates. Enterprises should conduct studies to ensure employees are instilled with a digital culture when developing digital transformation strategies. In this way, they can make sure digitalization efforts are carried out as efficiently as possible.

 

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Archives, Banking, Banking on Global Trade, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

DIGITIZATION’S NEXT FRONTIER: NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS ARE A GAME CHANGER FOR TRADE FINANCE

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Trade finance is known for its stubbornness in the face of change. Even as the world has gone digital, paper-based manual processes remain commonplace across the complex network of counterparties involved in financing global trade. Thankfully, the tide is now turning. To digitize or not digitize is no longer the question–it’s now a case of “when,” not “if.”

The operational challenges of relying on manual processes and systems are well known and much maligned across the industry–incorrect documentation and KYC, non-interoperable systems, manual reconciliation, poor visibility, excessive costs, to name just a few.

Digital solutions have emerged in many different shapes and sizes, but one of the technologies which seems most encouraging is enterprise blockchain. Trade is a fundamentally decentralized system. The industry is heavily intermediated–predominantly by banks that help to facilitate transactions and provide the financing behind them, but also by insurers, customs officials and other market participants. Firms have tried countless times to apply centralized solutions to this decentralized system but, unsurprisingly, none have really worked. 

The decentralized nature of blockchain makes it a perfect fit for trade finance. For the first time, the entire industry is getting behind a technology and moving it into real world deployment at a record pace. The architecture underpinning the entire ecosystem of trade is undergoing complete digital transformation, and exciting new blockchain-enabled developments continue to emerge. One such development is non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. But what are they and how do they benefit participants? 

WHAT IS AN NFT?

A non-fungible token is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger. NFTs use blockchain technology to provide a public proof of ownership. You’ve probably heard of NFTs in the entertainment industry, largely because they can be associated as unique items with easily reproducible items such as photos, videos, audio and other types of digital files. But they also have wide applicability in the financial services space–and specifically in trade finance. 

It’s important to note that an NFT is simply a specific type of tokenization. Once a trade finance document or obligation has been tokenized, it can be referred to as an NFT. By contrast, a smart contract is a digital contract, stored on blockchain, which will execute once specified conditions are met. In the case of trade finance asset distribution, both smart contracts and tokenization work together to facilitate this activity.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF NFTs IN TRADE FINANCE?

In reality, NFTs for trade finance have been around for some time, though we’ve only just begun to describe them this way. You could think of trade finance as a practical implementation of the NFTs in the news today. Marco Polo is one such platform which already tokenizes payment obligations and invoices. 

Storing ownership data on blockchain reduces the costs and complications of paperwork that is otherwise required to verify the process. This is no small feat when you consider many of the processes and technologies underpinning trade finance have not been modernized in decades.

Take, for example, invoice financing. While a common activity, managing invoice payments and terms can be slow and inefficient for companies and their trading partners. They must navigate different currencies and jurisdictions, each with unique requirements in terms of contract terms and payments. 

By digitizing these manual processes and storing the data as an NFT, a technology such as blockchain has a real impact on reducing the costs, risks and delays to participants involved in trade finance. 

MAKING TRADE FINANCE MORE ACCESSIBLE TO SMEs

It is complicated and legally difficult to provide an optimal level of credit support to small companies. Nearly $1.5 trillion of demand for trade finance is rejected by banks, according to the Asian Development Bank, with 60% of banks expecting this figure to increase over the next two years. SMEs in developing markets that rely heavily on access to trade can be severely hindered through these outdated processes.

Tokenizing the payment guarantee of the final buyer can make it easier to provide this support, but there are important caveats to this. While tokenizing payment guarantees makes it cheaper and easier to execute credit support, there is no guarantee that these processes will then be used to extend supply chain financing through to the long tail of suppliers. It certainly could be used in this way, but it also might not be. This needs to be adopted at the industry level as suppliers would need to pass the NFT onto their own suppliers in turn for the tokenization of payment guarantees to truly be effective.

Although tokenizing the payment guarantee of the final buyer is a frequently mentioned use case, NFTs can also be used to digitize invoices for factoring, for example. Asset originators can tokenize invoices which can then be financed. This could be a very helpful step in enabling small companies to access the financing they need to grow trade.

EXPANDING THE TRADE ASSET ECOSYSTEM

Beyond their immediate benefits to banks and trading businesses, NFTs can also enable institutional investors to expand their activity in trade finance assets. These assets have historically struggled to scale for well-known reasons: investors find them complicated, there aren’t trusted quantitative benchmarks available and there often isn’t the necessary infrastructure to process them properly. Tokenizing trade finance receivables and payment obligations can simplify the process of asset transfer and solve one of these challenges, thus contributing to the scaling of trade finance assets.

Interest in trade finance as an asset class has grown over the past couple of years for reasons unrelated to NFTs. NFTs, as we think of them today, are relatively new and tend to be associated with digital content rather than physical goods. This framework suits trade finance assets because while they are linked to physical assets, the securities themselves are digital.

Programmable contracts used in combination with NFTs have shown great promise in tackling the problem of trade finance asset distribution. The use of the two functionalities together has promise as a way to support the building momentum around trade finance as an asset class.

OLD MEETS NEW

In order to get the most out of NFTs and blockchain for trade finance–like any nascent technology–they must be used alongside existing systems. In reality, most businesses will continue to use their long-standing legacy systems throughout this transition to a fully digitized space. 

It is crucial, therefore, that disruption is kept to a minimum. NFTs and enterprise blockchain platforms should be viewed as a means of supporting and improving current processes, rather than replacing them. In other words, integration is the single most important factor in helping this industry to keep up with the rapidly digitizing world around it.   

_______________________________________________________________

As head of Trade and Supply Chain at R3, a Dublin, Ireland-headquartered enterprise technology and services provider with offices around the world, Alisa DiCaprio is responsible for trade strategy, standards and governance design. She was previously a senior economist at the Asian Development Bank and holds a doctorate from MIT.

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Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily, Software

Start With The ‘Why’: How Good Project Leadership Drives A Digital Transformation

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The term “digital transformation” has become embedded in the business world’s vocabulary for companies large and small, as more of them incorporate technology to streamline their processes and customer interactions.

Recent research shows 61% of IT decision-makers agree that the global pandemic forced their organization to begin or implement a digital-first strategy. It’s a big step of change for any company, and having the right project leadership in a digital transformation is crucial to navigating chaos, organizing a business and winning the battle for customers, says Denise Brinkmeyer (www.jumptechnology.com), author of Project Orienteering: A Field Guide For Project Leadership and president of Jump Technology Services®.

To simplify and coordinate what can be a complicated process, she says a digital project leader’s first step must be establishing the “big why” behind every aspect of the project.

“Asking and clarifying answers to ‘why’ questions must happen at the start of every project,” Brinkmeyer says. “If you haven’t defined and fully understood context and purpose, your project will be increasingly vulnerable to all the challenges it will meet along the way to completion.

“There will be pressures and conflicts, there will be temptations to go off track, and there will be some delays along the way. That’s what makes it critical to be clear at the outset about why a specific project should be pursued. Ensuring that you’ve done your best with this first step will also enable you to act as your project’s salesperson, ensuring stakeholder investment and support all along the path to completion.”

Brinkmeyer has these tips for project leaders when determining the “big why” during a digital transformation:

Know your constraints. Brinkmeyer says three primary constraints – time, cost, and value – give focus and concreteness to any project vision. “Knowing, for example, that you can’t mandate overtime unless you’re outsourcing work is important to establishing a realistic project timeline,” she says. “Having a grasp on your constraints helps determine how to convert the project’s wish list into objectives that can actually be achieved. As the project leader you’ll have to coordinate resources, address potentially conflicting needs and concerns, and problem-solve. For those reasons, you need a very strong sense of the why that motivates and joins all the pieces together.”

Ask these questions:

Why do you want to do this project? Brinkmeyer gives an example of one answer to this question, geared to what current or potential problem a company is trying to solve: “We must have a new system, so that if we don’t hire more staff and we take on more customers, the work can continue at the same level of quality.”

She says a project leader’s job entails both having a strong sense of the whole with its parts and articulating all of it so that the entire team can understand and act on it. “The words we use to articulate the big why matter dramatically to a project’s trajectory,” Brinkmeyer says.

Why are these the proper objectives for the outcome you seek? In the end, the project leader needs to prove that the project has been successful, which means they need the ability to measure results accurately. “Asking ‘why’ can help clarify the relationship between objectives and vision,” Brinkmeyer says. “You need to provide a clear context for your objectives. The more you leave open to interpretation, the more vulnerable you leave the project to expensive detours and even failure.”

Why are these the people to help you achieve your goals? Brinkmeyer emphasizes spending time finding a vendor whose initiatives and capabilities actually suit your project. And reference-check your vendor options. “Find out if they’ve told the truth about their past projects,” she says. “Then, when you interview vendors directly, ask them, ‘Based on your history, when are we going to start receiving value from this project?’ And be wary of the promises attached to a single, mammoth system that’s said to take care of all your needs. It could take years to learn and implement.”

Regarding the core team in the company involved in the transformation, Brinkmeyer says the project leader’s goal is “to inspire and motivate the people you’ve been given in order to make possible the most positive impact for your project. The question, ‘Why are these the people I’m working with?’ needs to be followed with, “Knowing how they work, how will I activate them to achieve the project goals?”

“Setting yourself up for project success begins with establishing the big why behind your vision and objectives,” Brinkmeyer says, “so that the way you explain it and what you really need come together for the sake of the project’s success.”

______________________________________________________________

Denise Brinkmeyer (www.jumptechnology.com) is the author of Project Orienteering: A Field Guide For Project Leadership and president of Jump Technology Services®. She has over 20 years of diverse business experience with various-sized companies and develops business consulting service strategies. Brinkmeyer focuses on the development and implementation of software project management and software design methodologies that dramatically increase both customer satisfaction and department performance.

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Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

B2B Customer Behavior is Changing. What Should Marketers Do?

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If there’s anything the last decade has taught us—and that the COVID-19 pandemic punctuated in grand fashion—it’s that businesses must get digital, or they may become invisible. Branding—once an exercise that involved plastic signs, billboards, and newspaper print ads—has now firmly taken up residence in the world of bits, bites, smartphones, wearables, and, occasionally, a desktop computer.

The digital transformation—already fully ensconced when we dropped the ball in 2020—picked up considerable steam in the last year or so. Today, forward momentum in the digital strata is not just required—but mandatory—to assure business growth, especially in the B2B arena.

Customer behavior is changing

About 15 years ago, the one-two punch of social media and email campaigns entered the picture – and established a new method of showcasing your expertise as a means of getting people to look in your direction. Post Covid-19, a McKinsey study on B2B buyer preference showed how much of each phase of the buyer’s journey is being done online in a self-service way. The punch line: there has been a dramatic change in consumer behavior over the past 3 years.

In the research/education phase, there has been an 85% increase in the preference for B2B buyers to conduct their research online. In the evaluation stage, the results are even more dramatic: a whopping 238% increase in buyer preference for self-serve looking for information on the companies’ website.

The implications for a B2B marketer are huge. Now they must literally compete online, providing the information for which buyers are looking, and they need a comprehensive content strategy to win.

Learn how customers want to interact online

What the past decade taught us—and what COVID reiterated in the past couple years—is that the conversation around digital goes far beyond just plain awareness. In fact, the businesses that are the best at digital branding have constructed a lead generation machine around these capabilities. They’ve taken the knowledge of clients’ needs and wants and translated it into an incubation device that effectively appeals to this group.

So, what are some of the ways that you can change the thinking within your business to improve the success of your digital branding efforts? Here are four critical elements every marketer should master:

#1 Know The Decision Makers

In B2B in particular, you’ll often find multiple decision-makers involved in the buying process. That’s OK. This simply means  we have to appeal to each of their “decision journeys.” We have to understand their challenges and obstacles, whether they are a CFO or an engineer, etc. Invariably, they will have different selection criteria, success metrics, and the like.

#2 The “Amazon” Effect

With so much buying activity across the digital space during COVID, a remarkable thing has happened. Now, even B2B buyers want the same type of information and transparency in their professional lives as they get when they make personal purchases from Amazon. These buyers give a thumbs-up to live chat and clear, concise information; and a thumbs-down to having to dig for information, deal with technical issues, and to overly complex websites.

#3 Big M, Little m

It’s time to draw a solid, unbroken, line in the sand. Marketing today—with a capital M—relates to what we’ve mentioned here: real insights and strategies that will drive new business and grow your company. No longer is it satisfactory to lean on “little m” tactics, like pretty pictures that look gorgeous but say nothing.

#4 Marketers: The Business Development Rep’s Best Friend

No longer should marketers consider themselves an ancillary resource to more sales-oriented folk; they should take hands-on responsibility to ensure that their activities drive as many qualified leads to business development as possible. As important is to be in close coordination with business development so the leads that come in get the attention they deserve! Research shows that up to half of sales go to the partner or vendor that responds first. In the past, we’ve done a great job, as marketers, of saying we are experts, but then throwing the ball over the fence to business development. That’s an old way of doing things; now, we should be aligned and attached at the hip as we jointly journey further and further into the funnel. This includes being aligned on the funnel metrics that are used to measure efficacy and success.

Bottom Line

Time is of the absolute essence in today’s marketplace, and you must find that extra gear to operate your digital branding machine.  When you decide to turn on your digital machine, you need to know exactly what you’re looking for and to be ready to respond.

So, how is your company’s digital brand presence? Are you relevant or invisible? If you want to know, a digital audit—to see how your company stacks versus the competition—is a great place to start, and we are ready to help you.

___________________________________________________________________

Adriana Lynch is a Partner and CMO with Chief Outsiders, the nation’s fastest-growing executive-as-a-service company.

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Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

Want to Bring Digital Transformation to Your Business? The Right Leadership is Key.

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When Under Armour ramped up its digital transformation efforts after the pandemic began, positive results soon emerged, and this year executives at the sportswear maker were able to report higher profit margins and a more seamless product-to-market pathway.

But Under Armour’s success story isn’t everyone’s success story. Plenty of companies spend lots of money on digital transformations, but only a small percentage achieve their desired outcome, says Sri Manchala, the ForbesBooks author of Crossing the Digital Fault Line: 10 Rules of Highly Successful Leaders in Digitalization (www.digitalfaultline.com).

That’s because digital transformation done right isn’t just about the money invested. It requires leadership of a particular kind, the kind that “methodical innovators” provide, says Manchala, CEO of the highly specialized digital transformation services firm Trianz.

“If heroic efforts, motivational speeches, and incentives alone worked, then more companies would be succeeding,” he says. “This battle requires intelligence, not superhuman efforts.”

In other words, he says, this is not a time to be a Marvel superhero.

“You are fighting to understand, control, and get ahead of a dynamic situation, not beat down an enemy,” Manchala says. “This is the time to think and act like a lead planner or the leader of a crisis-management center.”

After all, digital transformation entails more than building better intranets and websites, he says. It involves harnessing data to truly understand customer behavior in a digital world. It includes reimagining products and services. It concerns delivering high-velocity, digitalized experiences across the value chain to all stakeholders, even if that means discarding existing models.

The Methodical Innovator Persona

So just what kind of leaders are methodical innovators and why are they right for this moment? First and foremost, they are big-picture thinkers, Manchala says.

“They have an ability to connect the dots and boil down complex dynamics into simple, easy to understand root causes, dynamics and impact,” he says.

Methodical innovators also are exceedingly stakeholder-focused, whether those stakeholders are customers, suppliers, employees, partners or regulators.

Manchala says they also analyze data and develop their vision, strategy and priorities based on what the data reveals to them.

“Given their focus on outcomes, they are less emotional or attached to the past,” he says. “They are very willing to let go of prior business models and processes if the analytics support doing so.”

Also, instead of letting their egos get in the way of what they want to achieve, methodical Innovators practice a “no ego” approach, Manchala says. They quickly figure out just how big the problem is and just how little they really know about it, then they surround themselves with people who can make up for the knowledge they lack.

That may sound easy enough, but it’s not, he says.

Being Honest With Themselves

“It is incredibly hard for any leader to say ‘I don’t know’ in the corporate world,” Manchala says. “There is fear of being branded as ignorant, of being behind the curve, or of not being effective. A large percentage of leaders choose the tactics of ignoring, deflecting or deferring problems.”

But in the Digital Age, he says, you can run, but you cannot hide from what you don’t know.

That ties directly into what Manchala says is at the core of a successful leader’s character – an inherent honesty. For more than 100 years, study after study shows that the most important and admired quality in leaders is honesty, Manchala says.

“While we tend to think of honesty in transactions with others, methodical innovators are first honest with themselves,” he says. “In an environment of unknown forces, dynamics, pace and outcomes, they realize the importance of knowing what they don’t know. It is by acknowledging what they do not know that they begin the process of personal transformation.”

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Sri Manchala, the ForbesBooks author of Crossing the Digital Fault Line: 10 Rules of Highly Successful Leaders in Digitalization (www.digitalfaultline.com), is the CEO of Trianz, a highly specialized digital-transformation services firm headquartered in Silicon Valley and serving clients globally. Manchala shares data-driven insights on transformations and adaptive business leadership based on his two and a half decades in the technology industry, and leadership experience in the military and as a CEO. Manchala is a graduate of the National Defense Academy, an elite training academy for India’s Armed Forces officers, where he served in the infantry and Parachute Regiment (Special Forces). He is also an alumnus of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, where he is now a corporate advisory board member.

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Software, Special Reports

Train Your Employees in Digital Tools: 3 Best Practices

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Mastering flow management solutions, interacting with autonomous mobile robots, running a warehouse remotely during periods of confinement: the digitalization of the supply chain requires logistics professionals to develop their digital skills. Here are the 3 best practices to make your digital transformation a reality and optimize it.

In a sector that is constantly evolving and undergoing digital transformation, the effectiveness of training for logistics operators and managers is both a competitive lever and a competitive advantage.

-How can you transfer new skills and reflexes to employees in an agile and sustainable way?

-How can you encourage the adoption of digital tools in the face of potential resistance to change?

Our advice for optimizing the commitment of employees in the crucial process of ‘digital upskilling’:


 

1. Make digital meaningful again, with training in context or on the job

According to McKinsey, 90 million European workers will have to significantly renew their skills in the coming decade, as more than 20% of their current tasks will be taken over by technology. This is considerable, and it is likely that this figure will be even higher in the supply chain sector, where robotization and process automation are already prevalent. If these transformations can raise legitimate concerns in warehouses and logistics platforms, professional training is the ideal place to demystify technology by providing evidence of its usefulness and interest for employees. However, this is only possible if it provides concrete and realistic answers to everyday problems.

For your training courses, avoid focusing on generic e-learning modules or only on theoretical training courses, which are too disconnected from the reality of the field. When it comes to digital technology, employees need to project themselves. By organizing sessions directly in the workplace, through real-life applications, employees will be able to appropriate digital tools and perceive their impact. And thus, judge for themselves their potential benefits. This includes: the reduction of work drudgery, more space for initiative, quality control, and communication.

The rate employees are trained in digital technology and the completion rate of training courses are indicators that HR/training departments monitor closely. Especially in an industrial context, where access to online training is more complicated to organize. Some companies, such as Continental, have decided to install “learning boxes”, a kind of bubble equipped with screens and digital tools, in the heart of production areas, to encourage employees to take self-service training through technical tutorials or serious games.

2. Encourage reverse mentoring

In the jargon of human resources, we speak of ‘reverse mentoring’. The principle is to create a bilateral learning system between a young ‘digital native’ employee and a senior employee, less familiar with digital and technological uses. This approach can be part of an official mentoring program run by the company’s training department, with predefined training content, an action plan, and objectives. Or it can be more informal and spontaneous, with exchanges and collaborative workshops. In all cases, this practice not only promotes the transfer of digital skills, but also stimulates intergenerational links within companies, while encouraging employee commitment and retention.

3. Leverage virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) devices

Used for training purposes, virtual reality offers the advantage of immersing employees in a work environment similar to their own, without risk to their safety and without interrupting the production line. In the case of augmented reality, they can even be immersed in the real ‘setting’ of their company. Equipped with a helmet, a joystick and a screen, learners can thus familiarize themselves with new gestures and undergo various business scenarios in a fun way. For example, they can drive a remote-controlled forklift truck while avoiding obstacles or try to find the fastest way to a product reference. They can even simulate inventory management in a virtual warehouse. This type of immersive experience allows the employee to be an actor in his training and to learn from his mistakes. Customized to the company’s needs or available off-the-shelf from training program publishers, these devices can integrate collective simulation experiences, aimed at training multidisciplinary teams.

This VR-based approach is still relevant in the post-Covid era, where more and more tasks are destined to be performed remotely.

Thanks to virtual reality, Danone and Generix Group have developed, in Russia, a methodology allowing the production of remote warehouse management systems (WMS) in several sites in a synchronous way. Discover our dedicated content.

-Data Science: new jobs in the Supply Chain

-Warehouse storage: when algorithms facilitate optimization

-Digitalization of the supply chain: what impact on the skills required?

Generix Group North America provides a series of solutions within our Supply Chain Hub product suite to create efficiencies across an entire supply chain. From Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and more, software platforms can deliver a wide range of benefits that ultimately flow to the warehouse operator’s bottom line. Our solutions are in use around the world and our experience is second-to-none. We invite you to contact us to learn more.

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3pls, Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

TMS – The Digital Disruption Enabler for 3PLs

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It’s clear that digital transformation is rapidly upon us in transportation and is changing the way managed transportation 3PLs and truckload brokerages are doing business. Advances in technology, adoption of APIs, and huge disruptor companies are evolving the market faster than most can keep up. This transformation is only accelerating.

Disruptive Companies Are Changing Customer Expectations

Uber Freight, Convoy, and Amazon Freight are examples of the new digital freight marketplaces (DFM). A DFM is designed to allow shippers to book truckloads in the spot market electronically – usually over an app or an API. It’s a service that gives real-time truckload quotes, electronic tendering, and real-time tracking. If your business is primarily a classic brokerage, then this affects you.

The DFMs are already changing the way many shippers do business. These marketplaces are not going to erase classic brokerage, but there is no doubt they will change it and the way that many are doing brokerage. Not that classic brokerage is going away anytime soon, but we are seeing a rapid evolution of customer expectations. Customers’ digital expectations for visibility, automation, tracking, quoting, and payment are now growing and will soon evolve into general requirements.

To be clear, only very few companies with deep pockets can set up a DFM. A mid-sized brokerage firm trying to compete with what Uber Freight is doing is unrealistic. Instead, companies can look at their own strengths and carve their own path. LSPs (3PLs and Brokers) have the opportunity to write their own digital transformation story or run the risk of remaining complacent in a changing world of digital technology.

What Is Your Digital Transformation Strategy?

Every LSP company should be asking themselves how they are dealing with digital transformation. As an LSP, the details of digital disruption are unique to your business model, and it’s important to have a plan. Yet many companies overthink the issue or feel it’s too large of a task to do anything about. History shows us that most winning strategies come from simple core ideas, not just massive disruptors.

Innovative companies know that disruption creates opportunity. And it’s clear that the digital transformation going on in transportation will create opportunities. Every LSP needs to look at their own business model, figure out what makes them unique, and carve a path. It’s ineffective to try to duplicate what the high-profile companies are doing. It would be like trying to replicate what Amazon did for retail. Competing against Amazon in retail is reserved for the very few, yet many have learned how to profit off Amazon by creating their own specialized fulfillment model. The same is true of the digital disruption going on in transportation.

Very few companies should be looking to compete directly against Uber Freight or Convoy. Yet all should be looking at their own model and chart their own digital transformation path. This is where transportation management software like 3Gtms is uniquely positioned to help. It is not the system that will turn an LSP into the next Uber Freight, but it will serve as the central platform – the intelligent system of record that allows flexibility in how an LSP executes its own unique business model. A TMS is the central point of an LSP’s transformation – it’s the digital disruption “enabler.”

Putting a Digital Transformation System in Place

When it comes to system structure, the key to designing a good environment starts at the core. And a successful core includes functionality and automation that supports business objects, workflow, intelligence, and integrations. For an LSP, that system is their TMS, as the TMS runs their transportation operations. Call it their “central rally point” for information or their “single source of truth.” A technology that connects customers, vendors, and carriers while serving as the platform to leverage digital disruption opportunities. A Fully Connected Transportation Management System goes beyond simple RESTful API integrations because it connects natively to other business systems and operates as an enabler for different technologies.

Leveraging a cloud-based TMS as a rallying point combines information from integrations with business intelligence for a total technology package. Turning data into business intelligence, workflows, and automation is more complicated than mapping fields. Most systems can use an API to map fields but lack functionality to determine rates/margin, find a distance, calculated drive times, chose equipment type, and most importantly, identify missing data and create this data when necessary. Technology has to be smart to execute on digital transformation opportunities. Exception-based management is a basic requirement as next-level systems look to manage as many exceptions as possible so users can focus on true issues and generate more business.

A solution like 3Gtms delivers the different integrations and technology required to build a successful digital transformation strategy. For example, the solution includes connections to load boards for TL capacity, mileage engines, tariff services for rates, OCR for paperwork and document management, ELD and visibility mapping services, carrier insurance onboarding, rate index data, informational portals, and many other features. It’s the robustness of the software in combination with the software’s integrations to create an actionable platform for LSPs to get ahead. The technology’s ability to scale is also essential, especially when maximizing opportunities created by larger DFMs.

This is where LSPs look at the technology puzzle they wish to solve. Identify customer needs, capture a larger target market, and expand business lines. What digital components do you need to meet these goals and grow your business? Is it time to explore outside of traditional silos? For example, brokers and distributors are doing more managed transportation while TL fleets are offering more 3PL services. Understand what your company does best and what your customers need, then write your own digital disruption story.

Embracing Opportunities to Digitally Disrupt

This brings us back to the digital disruption going on in the transportation industry. The opportunistic LSPs will carve their own path and realize that the key to growth lies in their core technologies. Leveraging a TMS to rally around will centralize their information and enable transportation execution regardless of their planned strategies. It’s here that 3Gtms is differentiated in the marketplace as a single platform that marries technical abilities and integrations in the LSP space. Because of this, 3G customers quickly realize the importance of having a central TMS and how this technology helps obtain their vision.

It’s an exciting point in the history of logistics as digital changes emphasize supply chain technology and the need to utilize digital strategies for success. As more LSPs upgrade their technology stack, they will be better positioned to leverage new digitally-driven opportunities. And by using a scalable platform like 3Gtms, they get advanced TMS functionality for today and all the tomorrows to come.

Are you an LSP trying to decide if you should leverage a TMS to meet your digital transformation goals? Use this checklist to see if any of your objectives can be solved by 3Gtms.

Examples:

-Do you need APIs and portals for customers and carriers to interact with you?

-Do you want to use TL automation to streamline processes?

-Do you need logistics exception reporting and automation?

-Do you need workflow and process automation?

-Do you struggle to connect your ERP, OMS, WMS, carrier, customer, and vendor data?

-Do your customers need simple portals for their CSR’s to quote?

-Do you use standalone load boards, visibility trackers, SMC3 rating, distance calculations, carrier tendering, OCR document management, or other disconnected systems?

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JP Wiggins is the co-founder and Vice President of Logistics for 3G. 3G is a leading provider of cloud-based end-to-end transportation management software (TMS) for omnichannel shippers, e-commerce companies, 3PLs, and freight brokers. Our solutions include 3Gtms, our multi-modal transportation planning, optimization, execution, and settlement system; and Pacejet, our advanced multi-carrier shipping software. For more information, visit 3Gtms.com.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade, Special Reports

A Digital Transformation Driven by Artificial Intelligence

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Digital transformation is one of the most important drivers of how businesses deliver value to their customers in a competitive, fast-changing business environment. The process aims to leverage digital technologies to create or modify user experiences and business processes, thus meeting users’ changing needs and the market.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now recognized as one of the main enablers of digital transformation in multiple industries. AI can help companies become more innovative, flexible and adaptive than ever before. Many think of it as a future or visionary technology, but the opposite is true. AI is already being cost-effectively deployed in numerous companies, accelerating productivity and competitiveness, while helping speed digital transformation.

What is Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is a set of processes, tools, and methodologies used by businesses to optimize their operational activities, such as offering differentiated service, increasing performance and expanding their reach. More than a concept, digital transformation is a dynamic movement; it attracts organizations looking to review processes, innovate and gain competitiveness with the help of technology. Artificial intelligence is a critical strategic factor for businesses to expand their impact.

AI and Digital Transformation

Digital transformation took a big step forward when AI and machine learning became part of business strategy. Aside from boosting productivity, these technologies are essential because they enable better use of the data collected by a company. With useful data, businesses can expand, improve their current products and services, and create innovative strategies.

Here are three examples of how digital transformation coupled with AI can deliver top results:

1. 360-Degree View of Customers

AI helps businesses, especially their marketing sector, understand customer needs and preferences. Every digital transformation success depends on gaining accurate buyer personas and audience discovery. It is crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding of the customer at the beginning of the digital transformation, and AI is ideally suited to this mission.

AI helps reveal consumer behavior trends, purchasing history and digital channel engagement to create a buyer’s detailed view. Today, buyers expect personalized experiences along their journey. AI is essential to quickly unlocking consumer insights to create and reinforce those personalized experiences. This way, companies can gain a competitive advantage through higher customer satisfaction, increased customer loyalty and more effective marketing campaigns.

2. Dynamic Analytics

As already mentioned, collecting useful data is essential to digital transformation strategy. But what powers the success of the strategy is how that data is capitalized. AI processes thousands of data points to gather insights and identify trends in real time. This is how companies can accurately pre-empt consumer needs rather than react to consumer actions. With these insights, companies can create highly personalized experiences for their buyers and make data-driven decisions to develop more effective marketing campaigns. Success is reflected in significant savings across budget allocation and in more cost-effective media and advertising purchases.

3. Growth and Profitability

AI helps businesses profit through their digital transformation by increasing operational efficiency, mitigating risks and accelerating growth and innovation. For business leaders, marketing, sales and customer service are the top three areas where AI can make the most impact. According to Accenture, AI can increase profitability in multiple industries by an average of 38 percent by 2035. By that same year, AI will boost additional revenue by $14 trillion!

AI-Driven Automation for Customer Service 

Digital transformation that incorporates AI is redefining and revolutionizing the end-user experience in countless ways for both B2B and B2C organizations. The new capabilities offered by AI-driven Conversational RPA for Customer Service can auto-resolve 65 percent of user requests and reduce issue resolution time by 90 percent—improving customer satisfaction scores by 80 percent. Sophisticated workflow automation integrates AI and RPA to automate customer workflows across product support, upgrades, troubleshooting, case management and more. The horizon for new revenue streams, cost-savings, and productivity is nearly unlimited.

Redefine your employee and customer experience with the world’s first AI-driven service desk: Visit Aisera to learn more or request a demo.