Opinion Piece: Digital Disruption in Australia and the Global Logistics Industry

With more and more organisations and business leaders talking about ‘Digital Transformation’, ‘Digital Disruption’ and ‘Digital Density’, it’s important to know that while these three phrases all mean something different, in a business sense all three matter to the future and growth of a business and the economy.

A study by Accenture Strategy contends that ‘If the Australian economy were to improve its digital density, the study estimates Australia could enjoy a boost to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.4% beyond current forecasts – pumping an additional $46 billion into the national economy by 2020.’

Digital Transformation must start from the top. Executives and board members need to push and promote the change and to reassure all employees that digital disruption is a way forward for themselves and the organisation.

Investing in digital technology is critical to businesses to ensure they are keeping up with the modern day and this is no different in the importing and exporting industry.

I recently reported that the rate of innovation and adoption is accelerating and will likely continue to do so. Decision-makers need technologies and solutions to support this rapid and accelerating change to help them make good decisions.

Regardless of where a business is today, in my opinion, the evolution of decision making relies on three key factors:

1. Business Process Automation (BPA): any operator that uses technology to tap into the benefits of business process automation is immediately improving their planning processes
2. Operational Engagement (OE): in ports and terminals there is a clear advantage that arises for terminals that invest in a port wide vehicle booking system e.g. Vehicle Booking System (VBS)
3. Port Community Insights (PCI): use data and insights to improve and optimise business.

These key factors fit into the three factors mentioned in Accenture’s study and when they all are incorporated into a terminal’s approach to planning, managing, and optimising for continuous improvement, the benefits can be realised.

1-Stop has shown the global logistic industry the benefits of implementing technology solutions, that while it may have been disruptive at first, all users benefit from efficiency gains. So many opportunities now exist to collaborate, improve efficiency and reduce administration hours, which in turn also helps the economy by boosting productivity, saves money, integrates all port operators (sea, port and land operations).

The results are clear. Port communities in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines using 1-Stop’s solutions report:

• Importers, exporters, freight forwarders, transport operators and terminals have gained more certainty in how they operate and can rely on consistent and efficient truck turnaround times and service levels
• Truck turnaround times reduced from 91 minutes to 37 minutes
• Terminals moved to auto gates with complete validation that includes container, truck rego, drier and time zone booking
• Terminals in South East Asia experienced a 20% increase in truck servicing and a 30% decrease in dwell times in the first 2 weeks of operations. Terminals are seeing benefits in terms of efficiency, transparency and flow, and the ripple effect of these is reaching into industry and congestion benefits for Manila.
• The import and export community is able to clear cargo more quickly through a community payments platform that links to shipping line and terminal systems for the immediate release of cargo

We are actively ensuring ‘Digital Transformation’, ‘Digital Disruption’ and ‘Digital Density’ keeps us moving forward.  We ensure that our technology and the products we are providing to our customers will always be innovative and world class that sees not only us grow, but makes our clients grow and expand.