Automate Flow of Goods with Logistics Software: It’ll Keep Customers Coming Back

The ultimate profitability plan for any company is one that produces happy customers who continue to buy from the company again and again. Yes, new customers are nice, but they also require significant resources to secure their business. As much as organic growth can contribute to the company, loyal customers who are also repeat customers offer the most profit potential. You can play your part in making this happen by investing in logistics software that automates the flow of goods to your customers. You not only keep your costs down, you also keep your customers happy.

Logistics Software: Plan and Control the Movement of Goods

Your logistics software is really a subset of supply chain management software, something you likely already have in place to maximize the process of taking orders from creation to delivery. It is essentially that piece of the overall process that allows you to focus on planning and controlling the movement of goods, services, and other related information. The goal of implementing logistics software is to ensure your entire process moves efficiently and meets with your customers’ expectations and your promised service levels. In selecting the logistics software that will help you to automate the movement and monitor the flow between your originating sources and customers, think about how that flow needs to work within your environment.

Should You Customize Logistics Software?

Do you want an out-of-the-box solution that will dictate how you do this, or do you want a customizable solution that allows you to design the flow according to your current processes or customer demands? At the same time, do you want an in-house solution or one that will operate on the cloud? You truly need to know the answers to all of these questions before you are ready to select the right solution for your environment. The good news is that many of the logistics software solutions available today are actually industry specific so you can select the right options that will fit your unique environment. This still may not be enough of a focus to be the best fit in your environment, so it may be time to customize your solution.

Best Ways to Customize Your Logistics Software

There are a number of different ways that you can customize your logistics software and each method will have its own benefits and costs associated. Those costs will either be hard costs or opportunity costs, but you need to consider them before you decide if that is the best method for your environment.

For instance, you can complete hand-coded customization to ensure that the system is perfectly aligned with your environment. The challenge or cost here is that this is a slow process to complete and it may have to be repeated anytime the software is upgraded. You can also make use of the tools the vendor offers for customization, including check-box configuration and even a basic command of SQL. Look at the big picture to determine whether or not these customization methods will make sense for your logistics software implementation.

The main goal with logistics software is to automate your processes so you can create happy and repeat purchase customers. Keep this ultimate goal in mind no matter what method you choose for implementation.

Interested in learning more about supply chain and logistics software? Check out the Business-Software.com Supply Chain and Logistics Software research center for exclusive product reviews, best practice tips and more on supply chain management and logistics.