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The acclaimed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic. And can we ever disagree with this? There was a time when a simple ringtone on mobile phones amazed us and now, as we live our life around numerous innovations, isn’t technology magical? There are so many gadgets, machines, and equipment that are now a part and parcel of our routine that separating technology and mankind is impossible today. We no more live doomed lives and are capable of working and traveling with ease, as per our wish.
One of the most groundbreaking accomplishments that we as the most intelligent species alive have achieved is transportation. Now, you must be wondering that how can this be a significant achievement, think again! Let’s turn back the wheel of time and go back to 3100 BC, when Egyptians started their first voyage on boats to transport goods and travel; or let’s go back to a couple of hundred years back when Silk Route came into operation in 1877, connecting traders and cultures across China, India, Persia, Arabia, Greek, and Rome. It took months to transport goods via these routes but now we have technologies and vehicles that have made transit swift and less time taking.
Without high-tech vehicles and associated technologies, your Amazon package would have taken months to reach you; in fact, online businesses like Amazon that have brought about an evolution in the retail world wouldn’t have existed without it all. Transportation technologies are the lifeblood on which businesses across various verticals depend; without them, the globalization of business ventures and organizations wouldn’t have been possible.
Large-scale manufacturing made goods cheaper but setting up a unit in each and every city and town isn’t possible due to factors like consumer demand and consumption. This is the reason that led to an escalation in the need for more sophisticated transport technologies and vehicles. Empowering the manufacturing industry was crucial, which is the reason why maritime, aeronautical, railways, and roadways transportation technologies developed at a rapid pace.
Ascending To The Cloud
Embracing the vigorously growing innovations of the technology world, transportation and logistics are more efficient than ever. Technologies like cloud computing have reinvented the way various operations related to transit were processed. Annexing more efficiency to logistics and transportation operations, cloud managed services enabled a seamless flow of processes whilst dealing with possible glitches head on.
To understand how cloud computing solutions benefit logistics and transportation, let’s discuss some of the major leverage points.
Narrowing It Down To A Single Point System
Tracking management system (TMS) and warehouse management system (WMS) play an instrumental role in facilitating quick procurement and transmit of goods via various modes of transportation. While these systems are quite efficient in handling the associated tasks, they also lead to a lot of confusion and miscommunication; reason being the fact that the data comes in direct contact with multiple users. It’s just like the game of Chinese Whispers, the information from the source can get altered on its way to the end receiving point.
While contrary to the game, this information isn’t miscommunicated deliberately; it is just that the chances of it happening are still high. This is the reason why cloud-based solutions are revered in the logistics management industry. Offering a single-point system, the cloud-based software efficiently coordinates the task of data management, preventing delays as well as obfuscated information dissemination that is caused due to miscommunication.
Real-Time Inventory Management
With the aid of services rendered by a competent cloud hosting provider, you can manage inventory in real-time; thus minimizing the scope of plausible errors. Whilst controlling risk, cloud-based solutions also aid in optimizing cost and maximizing the capacity to respond to frequent demand fluctuations.
Data flowing through a cloud-based atmosphere offers precise control over the inventory generated in the logistics and transportation business. It can be said that inventory management isn’t just easier with cloud-based solutions, but is also more accurate. Achieving this level of preciseness isn’t possible with most other inventory management systems, which is the reason why most of the businesses in this domain are resorting to cloud-integration.
Real-Time Price Management
Price management is at the core of every business in the logistics and transportation industry. This is an aspect that can decide the profit generated by the business, which is the reason why managing it with finesse is all the more crucial. Pricing in warehousing and transit fluctuates due to reasons like demand, weather, and market conditions.
This is where cloud-hosted business solutions can come to rescue; managing volatility on the fly and making amendments as per requirements, these solutions offer a host of benefits when it comes to pricing. Price or cost of operation in transportation and logistics amasses at a rapid pace, which is why real-time pricing is considered remunerative. It allows businesses to save a good amount of money while staying on point when it comes to price management.
Breaking Geographical Barriers In Logistics Management
Since the data is readily available and accessible from almost any location across different countries, cloud-based services initiate more coordinated operations than ever. You don’t have to worry how your team members, working across different locations will access the data and how will they provide their inputs and information. With the cloud, you can seamlessly share it all in a secure environment.
Logistics management and optimization is a critical task that requires a lot of time and resources. With cloud-based monitoring and sharing, everything can be accomplished within the dedicated deadline whilst making sure that the security aspect isn’t compromised at any stage.
Managing Resource Utilization
Keeping a track on the freight movement, equipment utilization, and the frequency of transits are all crucial tasks. While processing these tasks matters a lot, synchronizing the data and checking its preciseness holds a lot of importance too. With cloud-integration, one can accomplish all this with minimum scope for glitches.
Cloud-integration also allows pattern recognition that is further deployed to enhance capital investment or scale down, as per requirement. Cloud-integration enables better analysis of metrics, rendering results that are dependable and resourceful.
Merging Transit Model Precisely
Transportation and logistics businesses have to coordinate data and components from numerous sellers, sometimes even from foreign lands. This is the reason why synchronizing data attained from various resources is a task of paramount importance.
To accomplish this task without any glitches, cloud-integration turns out to be extremely favorable. This whole process was quite complicated before we started deploying cloud solutions but now it is seamless and accurate; as it offers real-time data online.
These are just a few reasons that make cloud-integration a propitious deal for businesses in the transport and logistics industry. The cloud advantage brings a lot to the table and it is high time that we appreciate and integrate it into business operations of every vertical.
This technology has ushered businesses towards path-breaking success and it sure is promising in the long run, considering the changing dynamics of various business verticals. With the cloud enterprises of all sizes and from all verticals can set-up operations that are cogent, dependable, and remunerative.
