As digital transformation continues to pick up steam, organizations are increasingly turning into digital platforms and channels for their operations so they can focus on their business.
As has been noted in a recent Gartner survey, nearly 9 out of 10 organizations (87%) plan to increase spending on digital initiatives over the next 18 months. Further, 74% of these companies plan to do this by adding new websites and web applications to their current site architecture, while 52% will also increase their mobile website and application development efforts. What does this mean? Simply put, if you don’t start digitizing your operations your competitors will digitize before you do! And when it comes to digital, speed is of the essence.
It takes a lot of effort to start on such an initiative but it doesn’t have to be this way. The SaaS industry has several solutions for every business process for every industry.. While this pandemic has challenged logistics, communications, accounting, marketing and sales, operations seems to have been overlooked. While working remotely through company-provided laptops and wifi allowance seem to be a solution, BPO’s in the Philippine countryside have wifi and environmental challenges. We’re certain that some companies do not want to hear of wifi loss and lags as an excuse to cease work or hearing the occasional dog or chicken in the background. There are also some services that require their employees to return to work for a variety of reasons, particularly in the areas of data security. One such company is VBP (Virtual Business Partners) an Aussie BPO that provides financial planning services for the Australian market.
Given this pandemic situation, getting employees to the office was going to be a challenge so VBP hired shuttles to ferry their employees to and from work. The vans were initially sought out as an an employee benefit to keep their staff in a transport bubble given the circumstances of the pandemic, but their general manager, Nath Moyes, saw that they needed a shuttle service that was sustainable and efficient because addressing those two issues would be able to help the VBP management team scale their business.
What seemed like an easy employee benefit, comes out to be more complex because of the volume of data it would require and process in order to make it efficient. Worse of all, it was not their core business. It wouldn’t be smart to focus on route planning, fuel consumption monitoring and wrangling employees and drivers to communicate with each other. They signed up with Hagibis Venture’s (HVI) Mobility transport service to take out the complexity..
While other companies enlisted private vehicles, the Mobility transport service helped reduce the VBP carbon footprint through the merits of ride-sharing in large vehicles. But the real treat comes with the numbers, as route planning for buses and vans are daunting operational nightmares.
With the help of the app, VBP was able to reduce their fleet size by as much as 20% and increased up to 90% of allowable vehicle capacity from day 1. Alternately, this reduction in fleet translated to a proportionate increase in savings while keeping employees on time for work 99% of the time.
HVI uses the SWATBiz app to create the Mobility transport service that provides local companies with a reliable, affordable, and efficient means to transport their employees in the way they expect it – cost-effective, efficient, safe, and on-time. HVI is well aware of the importance of big data and smart technologies in making a positive impact for the transportation sector. The gathered data is then used for analysis meant to identify patterns that can help the HVI predict some future events. One of the advantages of big data to the transportation industry is an increased operational efficiency and flexibility, reduction in fuel consumption which help create a better overall experience for the passengers. Big data also helps with improving safety in transportation while standing in as an alternative platform for contact tracing.
In spite of our current challenges (this pandemic), tech geeks would agree that we are living in an amazing time. Never before has humanity been so connected. And this unprecedented level of connectivity has created a wealth of information that is literally bursting out all over the globe. This worldwide information flood has created a goldmine of data for those savvy enough to tap into it. Smart companies are now able to access this wealth of data almost instantly and make better business decisions than ever before. The best part is that SaaS companies, such as SWAT and Hagibis Ventures, already have it and there is no need to start from scratch.
No matter what business you are in, if you don’t automate some part of your processes you will quickly become stagnant and unable to grow. If you think your business can’t use technology, try growing a business without it for a while and then ask yourself if you still think that way. Technology is not an optional extra. It is an essential ingredient for growth.
Automate now! Your business depends on it.
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