A leading food company, with manufacturing and distribution operations in more than six countries, engaged Leopard Systems to modernise their Australian delivery capabilities for a core perishable product line.
In short, the major food manufacturer and distribution company needed a better mobility solution to manage and oversee its more than 600+ daily delivery runs of freshly baked goods, outsourced to subcontracted drivers and vehicles.
The Challenge
The company’s ageing mobility fleet of legacy Windows Mobile devices had deteriorating functionality. They were generating unreliable business information which was an escalating concern and cost to the business. Proof of delivery data batched in intervals or sent at the day’s end provided no real-time information or visibility to head office about product pick-ups, routes taken and deliveries made during the day.
Also, by exceeding the ‘end of life’ support and recommended life span for Windows Mobile equipment, the company’s expenses to stabilise and maintain the failing system were increasing. Operating the old devices and ‘delivery docket’ printers was becoming more and more difficult. Product support and service repairs were no longer available.
Furthermore, to overcome inefficiencies with the legacy mobility solution, error-prone interventions were starting to infiltrate the company’s delivery operations. Such ‘band-aid’ measures e.g. delivery drivers manually writing paper dockets and customer service agents handling exceptions after the fact – were amplifying inefficiencies and hurting the company’s productivity, not to mention their reputation. Also, the increasing overheads to run and maintain on-premise servers for the aging mobility solution needed to be addressed.
Lastly, the final straw for the company’s failing mobility fleet was the impending network shutdown by their telecommunications carrier in Australia, rendering their old devices inoperable.
The Solution
Suffering losses due to inefficient delivery workflows impacting customer service and business intelligence, the company needed to promptly implement a better mobility solution.
At first, the company had earmarked a sizable investment to build their own solution from scratch. However, after speaking to Leopard Systems’ software specialists about the lengthy timeframe, high costs and operational risks to develop a mobility solution in-house, as well as realising what other options were on the market, the company decided to partner with Leopard for a credible and stable ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) mobility solution deployment.
Leopard Systems also guaranteed to complete the deployment before the impending network shutdown; successfully delivering the project within a tight time frame.
Importantly, the company recognised immediate savings by taking advantage of driver-owned equipment and requiring subcontract drivers to ‘bring their own device’ to work. In partnership with Leopard Systems, the company harnessed the cost-efficient, fully managed, cloud capabilities of the Leopard Delivery Cloud mobility solution on a scalable ‘per user, per month’ opex model. With continuous updates and improvements, Leopard Delivery Cloud immediately provided access to cutting-edge workflows and practises in mobility solution technology.
“Many of our clients initially consider either updating their own current system or developing a new mobility solution in-house, because they’ve previously been burnt by external software vendors; they were promised a lot but were delivered little.
Understandably, they want the right solution for the future of their business. If they do their due diligence i.e. check for reputable referral customers who can validate their experience, and verify a credible track record for delivering what these customers wanted, then they’ll be in a better position to choose a suitable mobility software partner.”
Alex Koumaras, Managing Director
Leopard Systems
Better yet, Leopard Delivery Cloud united delivery and retail workflows with the power of configuration. Hence, Leopard Systems could easily configure user workflows to exactly what the company wanted. For example, some delivery drivers were required to perform real-time merchandising tasks at the delivery site, e.g., adjusting tomorrow’s product order relative to today’s product deliveries and stock on-hand, instantly notifying the manufacturing facility to produce enough items to meet the current demand in that market location.
Deployed as an identical application on iOS and Android operating systems, a company-branded version of Leopard Delivery Cloud was available for subcontracted drivers via a direct download from their relevant app store.
Additionally, Leopard Delivery Cloud provided a 24/7 software-as-a-service (SaaS) managed offering and secure cloud mobility solution. This meant no on-premise computing infrastructure investment and the company didn’t need to up-skill staff to administer and manage the new mobility solution.
Leopard quickly re-purposed the company’s SAP business system software integrations, previously set to exchange data with the old Windows Mobile devices, to integrate seamlessly with their new Leopard Delivery Cloud solution and BYOD device fleet. The flexible messaging architecture of Leopard Delivery Cloud streamlined this transfer of data components, saving the company the hassle of starting over.
The Results
Immediately, the company’s head office received real-time delivery information as each driver executed a successful delivery. This data synced with the company’s SAP system and could be viewed via Leopard Delivery Cloud’s Control Centre dashboard. Such accurate and instantaneous visibility of deliveries alongside specific map locations previously did not exist within the company’s previous mobility solution.
Plus, greater visibility of delivery processes, with real-time stock tracking and accountability now integrated into the company’s delivery and merchandising activities, dramatically reducing annual stock wastage and associated financial losses.
Notably, the most valuable result was the total reduction in operating costs for the company. With reliable fleet performance data to analyse, informed decisions could be made to lower costs and boost productivity.
By increasing data quality and business intelligence, the company could make faster improvements to generate greater business and customer benefits. For example, an issue with a particular product delivery to a specific store could be rapidly reported and immediately addressed by customer service agents; efficiently solving the problem in real time, rather than insufficient information delaying a resolution.
As subcontracted drivers were required to download the company’s delivery app onto their own smart phones, the company did not need to invest in purchasing 600-800 next-generation rugged devices. Nor did the company incur long-term fees to manage this large fleet of devices in the field; resulting in a considerable savings to the balance sheet.
Likewise, starting the work day early, the company needed a dependable solution at 2am in the morning. Leopard Delivery Cloud provided a steadfast 24/7 mobility solution for a key part of their business that didn’t break the bank.
Ceasing mobile printing and paper dockets, and automatically sending SMS or email receipts electronically via Leopard Delivery Cloud, achieved additional cost savings for the central business.
Since the initial deployment of Leopard Delivery Cloud, the company has deployed other useful capabilities within the technology, including Chain of Responsibility (CoR) functions such as vehicle checks, ‘fit for work’ checks, real-time GPS mapping of vehicle locations and more.
The flexibility of the new mobility solution allows the company to ‘pick and choose’ various delivery workflows, enabling easy changes to their digital processes in the future.
Leopard Delivery Cloud can be used with subcontractors (as the company currently does), but could easily be adapted to a next-generation rugged hardware fleet, or a mixed delivery and merchandising fleet operation, or in collaboration with a third-party logistics provider, if the company moves in any of these directions.
“This company accelerated business operations to take advantage of more capabilities within Leopard Delivery Cloud. Now, some time down the track, they’re evaluating their future, working with Leopard to add new digital capabilities to their mobility solution. Fortunately, we can accommodate their emerging requirements with ease. We gather their requests and consult on the best strategy to meet their needs, then we put the development tasks into our R&D Roadmap to deliver Leopard Delivery Cloud updates in a suitable time frame.”
Alex Koumaras, Managing Director
Leopard Systems
In short, the company’s business model and future growth will be enhanced by Leopard Delivery Cloud.
Are you planning a mobility refresh of your company’s software and/ or hardware to a next-generation solution? Do you have all the information you need to decide on a cost effective, fully featured mobility solution?
If not, contact Leopard Systems today to arrange a proof-of-concept demonstration so you can compare your existing capabilities to the latest delivery cloud mobility solution. We can configure the demo to your specific workflows, and answer any questions with you, face to face.
Further, we can arrange a pilot partnership to help you see exactly how Leopard Delivery Cloud can be customised to your operational tasks; to help you make a truly informed decision about your mobility refresh options.
