Logistics is one of the most important contributors to economic growth in the Philippines, outpacing other economic sectors. It includes a diverse range of services such as transportation, warehousing, cargo distribution, and many others. Logistics is essential in the Philippines because it allows for the movement of goods and products. Without it, the economy would implode. As a result, it is critical to shaping logistics management in the Philippines in order for this sector to serve the country.
In this case, most logistics companies in the Philippines intended to digitise their operations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but implementation was slow. The coronavirus crisis exposed the vulnerability of existing supply chain systems. Fortunately, the pandemic is doing an excellent job of hastening the industry’s digitisation.
“The COVID-19 sped up the rollout of the digitisation plans,” said the chief operating officer at one of the Philippines’ logistic companies. She added the company had spent the previous year under strict lockdown conditions reinventing itself and adopting digital technologies to change its business model and provide new revenue and value-generating opportunities.
In recent months, the company has enlisted the help of a software firm to gain access to a plethora of modern solutions for its digital transformation. The software firm is currently the creator of one of the Philippines’ shipping and logistics digital platforms, an end-to-end solution for industry players all over the world.
The logistics company is currently rebranding, and digital push had an immediate positive impact on the company, with significant improvement in data collection, which was previously done manually and was prone to human error and delays and is now fully automated. The digitisation also expedited the company’s logistics processes, strategies, and systems. Technology opened up new opportunities for the company while also saving money on operating systems, accurate order fulfilment, and lost productivity. Since implementing the digital systems, the chief operating officer’s efficiency has increased as well.
“Our customer satisfaction has never been this great! The software had greatly enhanced our performance, not only with our customers but even with our suppliers,” she added.
The logistic company had also mentioned, “We envisioned the shipping and logistics digital platform to provide the digitisation solutions for the logistics industry, which is very slow in coming because of the amount of investment required.” Conservative estimates to digitise a logistics firm at P5 million, excluding the software maintenance. The platform aims to solve all logistics challenges by simplifying processes, improving tracking and security, and easing transaction documentation.
Anchor financing
Recently, a Philippine shipping and logistics digital platform signed a blockchain-enabled anchor financing deal with the Union Bank of the Philippines, extending credit terms to truckers and forwarders. According to the Union Bank, there are many things that could be improved when it comes to the prices of service providers’ charges. Given the state of the country, and even outside the country, if the prices of shipping lines and trucking companies rise, so will the prices of goods sold to consumers.
Best way to manage supply chain
Many businesses are rapidly shifting their customer interactions to online channels. All of this and more has a positive impact on the shipping and logistics industries in a variety of ways. By better integrating digital processes to support large daily volumes of data, logistics and supply chain companies will be able to optimise their procedures in areas such as resource management, inventory control, and customer experience.
By transforming digitally, the country, on the other hand, may be able to seize more opportunities presented by the Philippines’ growing commercial activity, particularly in e-commerce. Download our report to learn more about the prospects for digitalisation in the Philippine logistics industry.
