Logistics industry awards are essential to encourage excellence and for people to take pride in what they do. That’s according to SmartTrans GM Finance and Strategy Tim Herring.
“Our view is that everyone can do better and improve themselves,” he tells Logistics Magazine. “Peer recognition is very powerful.”
“Difficult times are the best times to change what you’re doing and improve processes, as long as the budget is there,” he adds. “Good companies take advantage of this and invest.”
While Herring maintains the Mercury Awards are good value; associating companies with quality and distinction, the proof is in the pudding.
”Last year's article on the Olympics in Logistics Magazine got us three leads, one of which led to a major order. We hope for more this year!” Herring laughs.
SmartTrans is currently taking its tracking, mobile data and delivery optimisation systems to consumer markets in China to enhance the 'social networking' experience.
“While we are usually tracking packages, assets or vehicles, the same technology and software provides the functionality to track people,” Herring explains.
“Last year at the Beijing Olympics our company launched SmartTrans EventTrack®, a handheld device combining automatic location (GPS), a guidebook and a phone,” Herring says.
“It was a great success among the visitors to the Olympics that used it with an innovative feature called ‘friend finder’, which enabled delegates to find each other on a map and communicate with them at a button push.
“We were lucky enough to have Kevin Rudd launch the system for us during his visit to Beijing in April last year, which really helped secure the take-up among major sponsors of the Games, such as BHP Billiton.”
SmartTrans is discussing the use of EventTrack with the organisers of the Shanghai World Expo and the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 and other major events.
“As an extension of EventTrack, SmartTrans has developed a new product based around social networking,” Herring says.
Social networking occurs when like-minded people share information about what they are doing and where they are going.
“There’s an online community called ‘P1’ in China, much like ‘Facebook’ in Australia,” Herring says. “It’s used by ‘smart young people’ with a certain level of earnings.
"These young people enjoy designating others as ‘friends’, which gives them a special status and allows everyone in their network to communicate and find out what’s going on.”
SmartTrans is providing young people in this market with the ability to do this on their mobile phones.
“Using functionality developed for EventTrack, SmartTrans enables P1 members to see their friends on a map displayed on the mobile in real time,” Herring explains.
“Extending P1 use from the web to mobile phones also adds the ability for friends to call or message each other and follow what’s going on as it happens; invaluable for a teenager on a busy Saturday night in Beijing or Shanghai!”
Each of the mobiles has a GPS chip and, using the GPS satellites directly, the phone ‘knows’ where it is. It reports that position to the system, which matches this data and feeds information back to the user’s mobile.
“We also provide data on ‘points of interest’ (POIs), which can be restaurants, bars, nightclubs or user-designated POIs, such as private parties,” Herring says. “The possibilities are endless!”
At the Olympic Games, SmartTrans technology created communities of colleagues and guests from companies visiting the Games, who used a similar functionality to enhance their experience, enjoy Beijing and network with each other.
“In social networking, we are very much allowing the users to select and drive their own agenda, but within rules imposed by the community as a whole,” Herring adds. “In all cases, there is a ‘hide-me’ option, for those times you don’t want to be tracked.”
In the Australian and Chinese Logistics markets, SmartTrans supplies products based around this know-how. SmartTrans provides a range of products for the Logistics Market, from simple tracking using GPS in trucks, to handheld devices which take the place of paperwork in capturing information in the field and provide proof-of-delivery and sign-on-glass to improve customer service and get the invoices to clients quicker with fewer disputes.
“We also specialise in Routing Optimisation, which takes over a job usually done by people (job allocation) by allocating delivery jobs to a fleet of vehicles in the most efficient and optimal manner,” Herring says. “This enables companies to meet customer requirements while still using the least possible to do a job.
"The special algorithms which we have developed in this area can improve efficiency by 30 or even 40 per cent, improving productivity and reducing the carbon footprint.”
“Any modern, efficient delivery operation should be using these tools, Herring says. “Not only can they improve your social life, but also your competitive advantage and therefore, the bottom line.”
Are you a leading edge company with expertise in supply chain management and Logistics? Enter the Mercury Awards now.
Download the entry kit or contact Anna Game-Lopata 02 9422 2645 or anna.game-lopata@reedbusiness.com.au
Deadline July 31
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