Interaction - Vaibhav Khandelwal, Co-founder & CTO, Shadowfax

Vaibhav Khandelwal, Co-founder & CTO, Shadowfax Technologies talks to us about the challenges and future trends in logistics software segment, which can help both the manufacturers and distributors.

How do you see technology integration helping the logistics industry to grow?

Vaibhav - Technology integration is aiding streamlined processes between all parties in the supply chain, thereby enabling faster order fulfillment. New age technologies like AI and Cloud enable companies to manage, monitor, and track shipping information remotely. This minimises the possibility of errors and improves quality of service, thereby enhancing the overall experience for all stakeholders.

The primary need for technology integration in Supply Chain Management is to optimise the competence in supply chain allocation activities. The handshake movement between various touch points from source to destination, is largely supported by technology integration. Furthermore, technologies like blockchain enable companies to improve efficiency, transparency and traceability, while also contributing towards a secure supply chain.

Technology integration also enables logistics companies to ensure customer delight. With growing customer expectations, the traditional logistics players are moving towards adopting technology for cost-effective, transparent, and faster delivery solutions. Tech savvy consumers respect transparency and expect to have a clarity on delivery status of their purchases from the very moment they place an order. Moreover, the right use of technology enables us to advance security measures without compromising the speed and accuracy of delivery. For instance, when there is a spike in demand for delivery during the festive season or a sale, we have the opportunity to scale up and provide the same customer experience. This is all possible with strategic integration of the right technologies.

We believe that companies that are investing into deeper integration of technology are going to be long-term players in the logistics industry.

How is efficiency and innovation in last mile delivery creating value for customers?

Vaibhav - The last-mile delivery has become crucial for a lot of businesses willing to enhance experience among their consumer base, creating greater scope for logi-tech to improve the delivery speed and experience. Companies have identified last-mile services as a key differentiator in customer satisfaction. Along with ensuring a happy customer, logi-tech is also helping increase speed across different delivery modes, iteratively, thereby creating a better and organised ecosystem to operate.

Wwe are able to analyse every order with details like the time required to deliver the order, whether there are enough delivery partners available at a particular area and possibility of delivery partners in other areas moving into the required service area. We can also accurately analyse the number of delivery partners we can mobilise at a particular location within a specific time. We share real time information with our customers which helps them set the delivery expectations to their end-consumers accordingly.

The range of delivery options and the perceived quality of the delivery service are major decision-making criteria for online customers to go back to the same company. Hence a seamless last-mile delivery is one of the most important factors in the supply chain and can directly affect a brand’s success in the marketplace. Logi-tech, owing to its nature of evolution, is helping brands stay close to their customers and sustain trust.

How do Cloud and AI help in remote monitoring of services/operations? What will be the future outlook to this?

Vaibhav - Digital technology has catalysed the development in the global logistics industries. From last-mile delivery and sustainability solutions to automated pickup at warehouses and predictive optimization software, technology is making a huge difference in the logistics sector. AI plays a crucial role in saving time, reducing costs, increasing productivity, and helping companies in locating addresses accurately and providing near to precise delivery time. The industry is using AI solutions in transportation, route planning, and demand planning in its operations. Through digital technologies, the logistics industry can leverage data platforms and create datasets to regulate inconsistencies in delivery.

With cloud technologies, we can provide more efficient fleet management, order management, and delivery. Also, predictive analysis can be leveraged to gain insights into identifying the existing gaps and coming up with sustainable solutions. Moreover, cloud technologies are known for their properties like scalability, cost effectiveness, and security, and have an advantage  over  traditional server based technologies. Also, integrated technologies like IoT (Internet of things) aid better visibility for the customers throughout the supply chain and help navigate through the process remotely.

We believe that the future of logistics will be driven by interconnected smart devices which would be able to auto track details of the shipments and be ready to mitigate the impact of any risk that may come in the process.

What are the challenges in this segment? How do you resolve those challenges?

Vaibhav - In the last one year, the world has undergone major changes where safety and hygiene emerged to be the top priority for businesses. Specifically in logistics, contactless and safe delivery became crucial and the logistics players had to come up with a strategy to implement best global practices in ensuring safety at every touch point. The industry moved on to explore technologies which could help the logistic players minimise the touch points and simultaneously create value for the brands.

Furthermore, reducing the cost of transportation remains the biggest challenge for the industry. For instance, we compile the shipments that need to be delivered and try to streamline fuel costs. In this process, we leverage technology to optimise our operations and improve business outcomes.

Another challenge is having a strong network of delivery partners for the last mile deliveries. To manage this, we map the availability of riders in a particular geography and accordingly process the orders to save time and enhance the experience of customers. Our tech platform has been made convenient for riders to use and stay abreast of the requirements. Our APIs make our logistics offerings unique, fully integrated, and smart enabling customers across segments to schedule and deliver goods to end consumers without incurring the overhead cost of hiring, maintaining, and retaining a logistics chain and resources.

Additionally, the availability of skilled manpower to manage facilities is an area that needs to be emphasised on. We need to focus on reskilling people to help us drive better business outcomes for the deployed technologies and in the process, enhance their skills to be future ready. At Shadowfax, along with training our facilities management staff, we also invest in training our ground staff with operations management skills and on handling our technology portals, which helps them in their day to day roles and to ensure customer delight.