CHALLENGE

The client was unable to provide real-time delivery updates and tracking mechanisms for their in-transit goods that their current reporting legacy system couldn’t provide. This legacy data system required a lengthy manual effort to create reports which were historic, static, and did not answer their customers’ questions. As a result, customer support was inundated with daily operational questions about where these goods were located in real-time that their reporting system could not answer. The client’s quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with their executive customers were inadequate as they only provided outdated lookback data and they routinely devolved into tactical, not strategic, sessions. This increased customer service overhead costs and decreased customer satisfaction. They needed a reporting method where their ‘in-transit goods’ had more accurate delivery schedules revealing present and future actionable needs in real-time and that also would permit the client’s business to scale.

The client turned to Bardess, their consultative data analytics partner, to re-imagine their reporting solution.

THE BARDESS SOLUTION

Bardess developed a comprehensive innovative solution that revolutionized the way the client served its customers and how the industry did reporting. Using Qlik, Bardess created an automated reporting process accessible through a user-friendly dashboard that both the client and the customer could view on demand. The new reporting system provided both the client and their customers with an ability to drill into detailed shipment and route information when needed.

VALUE & BENEFITS

With the new system, the client was the first firm in its industry to provide detailed, real-time, on demand insights to their customers, a revolutionary data analytics capability which significantly differentiated their services in the market with game changing real-time transparency into the supply chain metrics through the data analytics solution.

This created a collaborative and strategic partnership between the client and their customers, improving the customer experience. It also enabled the customers to collaborate with the client to resolve any operational issues on a timely basis, which alleviated the client’s significant resource overhead. The customers gained transparency from the client that other vendors in the industry did not share, which fostered trust and made way for QBRs that were focused on strategic growth and capacity planning.

The new innovative reporting system solution resulted in time and overhead cost savings for the customer support team and enabled the client to scale without adding headcount.

As testimony to the added value of the new system, one of the clients’ largest distributors used the platform to manage its business during a natural disaster. The customer’s network was taken off-line, and they used the Client’s dashboards to manage their logistics, providing an unforeseen business continuity benefit.