Jarosław Bukowski, Sales & Marketing Director in Consafe Logistics in Poland : We finished the last year with very satisfactory results. We have significantly increased the share of hardware services. For example, the sales of maintenance packages increased by 30% year to year, which gave us a honourable mention by the hardware manufacturer Motorola. The sales of licenses and software services increased by more than 10%. This year’s budget also assumes a growth, although the results may be less spectacular. In the current, more difficult market situation, we see that the customers tend to temporarily freeze IT budgets rather than to reduce them.
Sławomir Sobczyński, Sales Team Manager Mobile Solutions & Services in Consafe Logistics in Poland: On the other hand, in this hard time we try to demonstrate that companies can earn savings and profits if they deploy certain solutions. After all, a lot of customers recognize the need to invest in new solutions to improve profitability and performance. However, this often requires deep changes in the business processes. We draw the customers’ attention to such parameters as return on investment and total cost of ownership. The awareness of this aspect is only emerging and many customers just start to think and act in a longer perspective. The success comes only from long-term planning and this is the message we try to deliver.
The market is continuously changing. IT providers more and more often go from simple products towards end-to-end solutions. What is the situation in your company?
Mr Sobczyński : Our strategy for the next years is to develop mainly sales of software products and a wide range of software-related services, increasing their share compared to the sales of hardware and accessories. We put emphasis on comprehensiveness of our solutions by offering consulting services from the first phase of the sales cycle. Our consultants and pre-sales specialists help to recognize, from the technical perspective, the customer’s needs and expectations and map them to the features of our solutions. At the later phases of implementation and operation of our solutions, we offer many additional services, such as full support, system maintenance, and warranty and post-warranty services.
What is the scope of products and services covered by Mobile Solutions?
Mr Sobczyński: Our solutions are offered to a wide range of customers who expect immediate access to information in the field. The advantage of a mobile solution is that all operations related to data collection, integration, and management are performed on-line, within documented and systematic processes.
It means that every employee using the mobile device has access to up-to-date data. To increase the benefits and better address the customer needs, our offer is divided into a number of vertical segments depending on the application.
The MobileSale solution supports direct sales in the field
With MobileSales a salesperson has access to the product quantities available in the vehicle, and in the warehouse, which means that he/she may order the products in real time during the customer visit.
DynamicStore – a solution designed for retail shops.
The salesperson may check, in real time, stock levels in the shop, external warehouses, and order products if necessary.
FieldService - a solution supporting maintenance services.
The service technician may check during the visit at the customer’s site, what spare parts are available in the warehouse, or when they will be available. Mobile terminals is used to send data from the user to the central system. For example, the technician may obtain from the customer a signature on the terminal to confirm service completion. Such confirmation is sent in real time to the system which automatically assign the next task to the technician. Such solution may be widely used for managing resources. Thanks to the information being transmitted on-line, the manager knows how many employees are available, what they are doing, and what is their status at any moment.
ControlTransport, supports the transport and logistics industry.
The solution enables managing the transport operations with full information visibility about the vehicle, product locations and delivery status. If an external printer is attached to the terminal, the driver or courier may immediately print and deliver the invoice or shipment receipt. All our solutions, with their diverse functionalities, aim to improve information flow and reduce the time between individual tasks. By using mobile solutions with systematic processes and reduced flow of paper documentation, it is possible to significantly decrease the number of errors.
An opinion is heard occasionally that IT solution customers sometimes don’t know how their WMS or Mobile Solution works. How can you help?
Mr Bukowski: One of the first phases of IT solution implementation by our company is preparing the so-called functional design. Our consultants create a description of the customer’s business processes, with a detailed analysis of every step of every operation related to the system. Such document often becomes an integral part of the contract, because it protects the interests of the customer who knows what is the subject matter of the price estimate, and what will be actually delivered. For us, such a document specifies the scope and schedule of works.
Mr Sobczyński: We describe the processes and try to see and describe the manner of executing the given task, analyzing at the same time what could be done better with our warehouse or mobile applications. We try to give to the customer clear clues as to which processes could be improved, and at which points, to increase efficiency or obtain additional savings.
So you provide support and consulting already in the preliminary phases of the cooperation. Does it happen that you advise the customer to not deploy a certain solution? Reportedly, some customers request from IT more than they actually need.
Mr Bukowski: Sometimes, at an initial phase of talks or at the RFP procedure, the customer image a lot of additional features, often developed specially for them. During the talks and after creating the functional design, we can often demonstrate to the customer that in fact it will be more beneficial to streamline the processes rather than to complicate them.
Customers often forget that regardless of the system provider, any customization results in additional costs, prolonged implementation, and increased risk of failure at some stage. Therefore, from the customer’s point of view, it may be much more beneficial to adjust the processes to the offered solution, which has been proven true by other customers. We are also interested in providing the customer with an application which actually fulfills the tasks as efficiently as possible, i.e. with minimal costs and in the shortest implementation time.
In the case of mobile solutions, do the customers request a standard solution or tailor-made solutions developed to address their needs?
Mr Bukowski: The standard functionality of our mobile solutions cover the needs of most users. Also, we make efforts to continuously expand the functionality to address the current needs and market trends. Of course, if it is necessary, we can provide the customer with a tailor-made solution. In the case of more sophisticated needs, we can also offer solutions based on cooperation with external partners, e.g. to the extent of digital maps or GPS positioning.
Mr Sobczyński: Our solutions are flexible also after the implementation, though we deliver new functionality also at a later stage. Such new functionality may be developed specially for the specific needs of a given customer, or based on functionality developed for other customers. Our wide customer base and international nature of our operations significantly increase the likelihood that an already proven solution can be used, which is our another strong point.
What should the customers pay attention to while implementing mobile solutions?
Mr Sobczyński: To ensure effective implementation, the customer must first of all understand the processes and tasks performed in its company. Also, the customer should know what is to be achieved as a result of the implementation.
Mr Bukowski: An important issue in the entire process of deploying a mobile solution is selecting appropriate hardware, because the cost of terminals constitutes a large part of the total cost. We select devices whose parameters and features match the customer’s needs. The customers are very price-sensitive and therefore we have selected a few device types from our cooperating suppliers, where we are able to offer better prices
Nevertheless, we cooperate with many hardware manufacturers, and the customer may decide on the type and brand of the devices. Sometimes the availability of such choice is very important, e.g. if the customer is an international company with established standards of hardware brand and type. Consafe Logistics Group have long-term partnerships with manufacturers worldwide. We performs internal tests and certifications of the hardware in our laboratory.
…but the sales cycle of a mobile solution do not end when the hardware and software is delivered.
Mr Sobczyński: One of the important elements of a mobile implementations is integrating the software with central systems, such as ERP. We offer assistance in integrating the existing system with our solutions to improve the operations. At a later phase, we deliver solutions which help the customer to manage the terminals, e.g. changing settings or to remotely install updates and upgrades.
For customers without their own IT departments, we offer end-to-end terminal management services. We serve our customers according to the “single point of contact” principle, and provide maintenance solutions not only for devices purchased from us, but also for previously purchased and operated hardware or systems.
Mr Bukowski: On customer’s request, we also offer training for administrators, power users, and end users — all according to the customer’s expectations and needs.
Interview by Mirosław Ganiec,
Editor-in-Chief,
the Spedycja Transport Logistyka monthly
www.stl.pl