“Digitization” was the word of the year in 2017. The word of the year for 2018 will be “digital execution.” In 2018, actions will speak louder than words, and digitization will be the focus of billions of dollars of investment in logistics and the resulting innovation in our industry.
Logistics has both been shaped by and driven global macro-economic performance. The great expansion is enabled, among other factors, by the ability to ship and move goods anywhere in the world efficiently. Now these logistics processes themselves are being enabled and transformed by a profound shift in technology capacity.
The increased productivity from the high-power/low-cost matrix of cloud computing; the potential of blockchain and digital currencies to leap current generation of technologies; results of artificial intelligence and machine learning; and the Internet of Things all will accelerate in 2018 and become mainstream strategies in our industry, not just a novelty.
Longer term, this secular trend will massively improve our ability to deliver goods and services. These tools will be applied to all aspects of shipping from landside to terminals to ocean. The technology will ultimately connect buyers and sellers digitally, automate paper trails of bill of lading, invoicing, and improve working capital via centralized settlements. The opportunity to tie the physical operating process to the digital financial operating process will accelerate in 2018.
It’s an exciting time to be a technology platform in logistics, and in 2018, it all comes down to ... execution.