Flexible growth: breaking through the biggest bottleneck of China's Logistics informatization development

2010/1/5

 

China's Logistics informatization is still in its infancy, and Logistics informatization has great potential and long-term development prospects in China, however, "Small and Medium-sized Logistics Enterprises have low informatization level, lack of logistics information systems with independent intellectual property rights, difficulty in making profits for logistics software developers, slow development of basic information and Public Services platforms, and lack of logistics information development strategy is still the five major bottlenecks restricting the development of Logistics informatization. How to break through these bottlenecks is an urgent issue for IT manufacturers and logistics companies to think about.

Problem: Logistics informatization bottlenecks

The biggest bottleneck is the dislocation of information supply and demand of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises. The cost of most logistics information systems is high, while the starting point of SMEs is very low. There is a lack of information systems suitable for SMEs in the market. At the same time, most logistics information system developers believe that, the logistics information system market has no development value at the low end.

The second bottleneck is the lack of information systems with proprietary intellectual property rights. At present, there is a gap between the R & D capabilities of domestic enterprises and their international counterparts. The standards of the logistics information system are chaotic and fail to be systematic, making it difficult to achieve interconnection and information sharing.

The third major bottleneck is the difficulty for software developers to make profits. Logistics software is an enterprise-level management software. It is difficult to unify the personalization of requirements and batch production. The result is a high development cost. The key to solving this problem is to standardize the information technology and development model, and strengthen consulting services to meet enterprises' personalized needs.

The fourth bottleneck is the slow development of platforms that provide basic information and public services. The application of GPS and GIS technology in large enterprises is 23%, while that in large logistics enterprises is only 12.5%, which is basically blank in small and medium-sized enterprises. The proportion of basic technical service applications is too small, and the integration of the entire industry at the information platform level is relatively difficult.

The fifth bottleneck is that the development strategy of Logistics informatization is currently blank. China's Logistics informatization development also requires a process of training talents, training needs, and training management technologies. However, most logistics software system developers lack a strategic vision, we did not propose a strategic goal for the long-term development of Logistics informatization in China.

Primary: Supply and Demand dislocation

Dai dingyi, vice president of the China Federation of logistics and procurement, told reporters that among the five bottlenecks restricting the development of Logistics informatization, the low degree of informatization of Small and Medium-sized Logistics enterprises is the primary bottleneck.

Manager Zhang of a freight service company in Beijing told reporters that the company has 15 large and small vans, mainly engaged in multiple leased line transportation routes from Beijing to Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Xi'an, goods are mainly made up of IT products and books. Currently, there are hundreds of large and small customers. On the other hand, the management pressure caused by business growth is constantly increasing. At present, the accounts for monthly transactions are complicated, and errors are often reported and settled. In the worst case, even the bill is lost, I am not sure which customers have settled their accounts yet. The direct consequence of this situation is that a large amount of freight cannot be recovered. At the same time, the chaotic management status further affects the company's image in the hearts of customers, especially the dissatisfaction and distrust of major customers, and the loss of customers. In addition, the company has a large number of goods in and out of Beijing every day. It often needs to provide cargo owners with information about the goods in and out of the warehouse and the vehicle in transit. It relies on human resources to communicate by phone or fax, A lot of manpower and material resources are wasted, and there are many mistakes.

Manager Zhang decided to use advanced information technology to change the situation. However, after reading some well-functional software from some large and medium-sized logistics software providers, they found that they were not suitable for their company's specific needs. Taking this example as a clue, the reporter connected industry experts and entrepreneurial representatives to verify the dislocation of supply and demand in the logistics information field.

Exploration: flexible growth Software

Huang gang, executive director of Hansen century Supply Chain Management Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd., pointed out that there is a serious dislocation between the information needs of a large number of small and medium logistics enterprises and the comprehensive logistics information system, most of these software can implement a lot of complex management functions and handle various relationships, but they are expensive. From the perspective of cost effectiveness, it is not the expectation of Small and Medium-sized Logistics Enterprises that account for the largest proportion of the total number of logistics enterprises in China.

As manager Zhang told reporters, for a small freight company like this, there are only a dozen vehicles running fixed lines, but there are many customers and a good settlement system is established, the first requirement is to provide a cargo query path."

Many freight enterprise operators have told reporters that there are too few low-price, easy-to-use, and software suitable for small enterprises on the market, which is also one of the important reasons why small enterprises cannot implement informatization.

As the leader of logistics information developers in China, Dr. Shen Guokang, Chairman and President of brocade news, pointed out that logistics software vendors have paid too much attention to the high-end market and ignored the huge market opportunity of small and medium-sized enterprises, often it is to guard a lot of functional software products, can not find the buyer.

For this reason, brocade news attempted to launch the Standard Edition of the Transport Management Software TMS, which emphasizes the specific logistics business and advanced information technology while taking into account the detailed business operations that logistics enterprises are concerned about in the early stages of development, and business operation management specifications and concepts that are of concern during growth and growth. "Focusing on product differentiation, enhancing the interaction in solution construction, and providing medium and low-end software suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises with simple operation requirements must be the key for IT vendors to seize the market in the future ." Shen Guokang is confident in this regard.

In other words, foreign logistics enterprises have high business strength, high labor costs, and good management. It is necessary and easy to improve the logistics information system, at the same time, it can ensure that the management philosophy is well integrated into the system. However, this is not applicable in China. In fact, a scheduling system that allows each dispatcher to process 700 to 800 million documents a day may not be available in the traditional Chinese operating mode. In fact, China's logistics enterprises need some "short, flat, and fast" flexible products. They need to solve simple operations in some links and then upgrade their information management needs.