| | August 20189strategies. The study further went on to elaborate that globally, the average supply chain has a digitization of just 43 percent, the lowest among most business areas.The lack of digitization is a big handicap for customers of the supply chain sector. Here are three ways in which it affects themand impacts the profitability of the supply chain sec-tor.What we've also included in this post are measures to overcome these challenges and bring in efficiency in the freight forwarding and supply chain space.1. Customer Decision-MakingThe supply-chain process can typical-ly be separated into the pre-shipment phase, the shipping phase and the post-shipment phase.The first phase comprises of finding and engaging with the freight forward-ers, comparing costs and identifying solutions that are time- and cost-effec-tive. Digitization, or the lack thereof, means customers spend precious time on tedious tasks like comparing and calculating rates and turnaround time, which could end up being inaccurate and expose them to risk.Digitization, like an online logis-tics marketplace to begin with, can help customers make faster and more accurate decisions at each stage. They enable customers to comparerates real time and bring in transparency in pric-es, cost effectiveness and efficiency. Such decisions will eventually impact customers' efficiency, responses to leg-islation and mitigation of overall risks2. Meeting End Customers ExpectationsWe live in an era which demands more and more customized goods, and manufacturers are responding to these demands. This spells good news for end customers and manufacturers, but it means a lot of hard work for the logistics sector.The lack of digitization in the sup-ply chain sector means manufacturers have low (or no) rea-time information or analytics for the second phase i.e. their end-to-end supply chain. A survey by i-Scoophighlights that 89 percent manufacturers prioritize a single view of supply chain. However, a whopping 70 percent of them have no end-to-end visibility. This means delivering upon customer promises and responding to their real-time demands ­ which has become mandatory in today's com-plex business landscape ­ poses a huge challenge for them.Digitization can assist inbridging this gap efficiently through better vis-ibility technologies like Blockchain. This not only provides stakeholders with real-time updates on the status of their shipments, but also with mean-ingful intelligence to helps supply chain managers deal with specific situ-ations like changing material planning and schedules according to customer needs, better.3. Customer EngagementLast-mile delivery is a relatively recent phenomenon in the supply chain sector. Until a decade or two ago, consignees had to handle this part of the supply chain by themselves. However, the in-ternet has changed things. Consignees now expect last-mile delivery to be handled by shippers too. This is why manufactures now prefer working with freight forwarders who deliver on this requirement with minimum fuss (and cost).Digitization empowers supply chain managers with real-time visi-bility on shipments. Also, it provides them with meaningful intelligence to take better decisions in the third phase ­ post shipment. They can choose warehouses to stock goods, and trans-porters to deliver goods, based on factors like turnaround time and cost. They can also store this data and use it to make quicker and better decisions in the future, to benefit their custom-ers. This increases efficiency and di-rectly affects the profitability of sup-ply chain companies.Summing UpDigitization can turn the supply chain sector from a reactive industry into a proactive one, and accelerate trade across the globe. According to re-search by McKinsey, "companies that aggressively digitize their sup-ply chains can expect to boost annu-al growth of earnings before interest and taxes by 3.2 percent--the largest increase from digitizing any business area--and annual revenue growth by 2.3 percent."Transparency is the need of the hour in the supply chain sector today. It can increase speed and accuracy of shipments while enabling businesses to make sharper and faster decisions. All this will help businesses ­ small, large and medium ­ become more ef-ficient, flexible and competitive since they'll be able to cater to customers' ever changing demands faster. Samir Lambay
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