In 2012, TransTech expects to see more business leaders use technology to achieve process alignment, reduce cost and gain competitive advantage.
For almost 40 years, companies have been developing computer systems for the container shipping industry. Early on, the technology vendors were thought to be at worst unnecessary and at best a luxury. The early systems were basic accounting or inventory management tools. For many years, management trusted the accuracy of their manual operating processes more than the newly emerging systems.
Over time, standardization, lower costs, the Internet and competition made utilization of computers and communications networks a necessity. Business applications have evolved from an environment where information technology organizations had to custom build every application, to a place where teams today typically integrate multiple products to produce a solution.
This is not news. What is new is the changing mindset of transportation executives. The executives of the container shipping industry today are far more information technology savvy. These executives understand that they can and must use their systems to take their business to the next level. They are also more willing to examine technology solutions that can be customized for their requirements, but do not need to be built from the ground up. For instance, the gate systems that combine radio-frequency identification, optical character recognition and Web portals to monitor the age of trucks entering port areas and also pre-advise pickup and delivery.
Technologies such as RFID, GPS and cloud computing will continue to evolve and new technologies arise. The successful executives moving forward will truly understand and embrace technology and make it an integral part of their business strategy. The opportunity to harness greater information in the supply chain and pass that on to the ultimate customer is still relatively wide open.