An article by open innovation Not talking about big names wouldn't be a good article. Like any science, citing your references is an obligation. We could talk about Henry Chesbrough, Erik Ries or Xavier Marcet, to name a few examples. But today we will not talk about theories and beautiful books. Today I want to talk about reality. The one that is hard to see in the midst of so much editor review. Why reality, sometimes, is not as beautiful as it is presented in books. Sometimes, some insignificantly important details are avoided, but in this blog we try to be faithful to our thinking and we like to share them.

How would I say Javier G. Recuenco speaking of complex problems:

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong”
H. L. Mencken

Not everything can be theorized, nor is every theory applicable in practice, much less to your particular case. The simple thing seems beautiful, leaves our mind calm and allows us to breathe coherence, perfection. Far from reality, innovation is harshness, irregularity, is full of failures and, above all, it is difficult to predict.

I would like to talk about innovation in the corporate world from the point of view of a startup. Our biased view of reality, although we already have some experience behind us after having worked with several corporations.

To make it easy to understand, I will use the beach as a metaphor (because of our proximity to the Mediterranean and my passion for the sea) accompanied by brushstrokes of our own experience and a pinch of personal opinion.

I hope it will not leave anyone indifferent, it may even inspire someone. Who knows, they say that stories are the most powerful weapon in our world...

Every good story begins in an idyllic place on the Costa Brava. Coarse-sand beaches and crystal clear water. You can get inspired here Link.

Every good story needs a Caballero, the startup. This time, turned into a sad building brick. Made from clay. Perfectly straight out of the mold of any business school, startup incubator and/or MBA. You already understand me, serial entrepreneurs. (Greetings to the entire industry 😄

I think we're the fastest startup in history so we'll have seen something good in signing up so much... 😉

). Perhaps it is that we too are part of a series, although the experience makes us look at the world from a different point of view.

There is no story without a Princess. Ours will be called Corporate. With great scores of results that our gentleman aspires to be able to scratch and perhaps one day he will conquer. In this story we will turn it into beach sand. Millions of small grains perfectly united to form a great and wonderful beach. Just like its thousands of workers paddling in one direction.

You can sense an epic story full of adventures. All that remains is to introduce our evil and dreaded dragon. The perverse MARKET. We will give it the shape of the sea, storms and waves. In the memory of all, we will remember great market victories over Kodak or Blockbuster, as undisputed leaders, they ended up on the seabed and utterly forgotten.

The story begins at the beginning of this century. Traditional innovation seems exhausted, lagging behind the incremental development of a regular business without much expectation of major improvements. Quiet days of sun and beach, some would say. Nothing to worry about. But suddenly, a great stranger appeared. Climate change.

Unexpected storms, of extreme force that make entire beaches engulfed by a market ruthless by new business models disappear in just a few years, even months, without time to maneuver.

Our beloved corporation is trying to face the challenges of the market and decides to open its beach and embrace new ways to combat climate change. This is where open innovation is born.

Collaboration between startups and corporations with a common goal. Give an innovative market exit, with external help, new ideas, easy and fast to execute (and on top of that very cheap). What more can the princess ask for?

Just one thing. Decision. It is essential that the corporation be created and committed to innovation as the model that will maintain the company's survival. For this reason, it is essential that top management truly bets on this process. Dedicate resources to make the needle move. Budget and human resources dedicated to making plans work. As Team A would say.

The word Greenwashing sounds a lot lately. Companies that use the environment to provide a more committed vision of the company. (Read Apple removing chargers from its iPhones on the grounds that they are doing it for the environment). We associate innovawashing with large press conferences, large PR agencies and little pilot project. The next storm may be ahead of you... remember that!

Can you imagine a super press conference, with a big project to build a supermega-construction, with infographics, cameras and not a gram of cement on the beach? Well, just as we often see politicians with great ideas and little execution, there are also corporations with a lot of marketing and little execution.

Either your business is to be in the media all the time, or rather look for some other princess that you can really learn from. At the other extreme, we find the pharaonic projects, with only 20 years of delays and 3 Gigatrons of steel and cement. In which the sea takes her ahead at the inauguration. Surely one comes to mind...

What situations have allowed us to move the needle as a startup?

Fight for a pilot project. I remember the first one we did with Aigues de Barcelona (Water Utility of the city of Barcelona) within the defunct Sity accelerator (Yes, innovation fails, it's normal, but you learn). Aigües de Barcelona is a public-private company, with a vision for innovation that is out of the ordinary in our country. (Hopefully this will encourage more companies to follow in their footsteps!)

Our negotiation was clear, if there is no pilot we are not interested. I think I remember that we were the only ones fighting for a pilot. Obviously we didn't win the contest, but we won something more important. To have demonstrated the value of our project and to be able to fight for a second pilot: Put our technology into production and see the real impact. We were touching the sky, seeing the million-euro contract (😂 we were young and inexperienced I would say now...).

In reality, we had to go through 3 pilots and 4 years to achieve full integration into production. A very hard journey, full of uncertainty and demand but above all full of learning.

Thanks to these pilots, we were able to enter an incredible level of depth into the analysis. We even demonstrated that the drivers who paid the most attention to the optimized routes we suggested were 10% more productive than those who didn't follow them as much! It's no coincidence that the drivers were happy that two guys with a geeky face could solve a daily, costly problem that had a direct impact on their goals 💰).

If you want to know More details in this video (with 2 other startups talking about their experience).

The last success story I would like to talk about is Prio Energy. Energy company with an innovation program Prio Jump Start very well organized. They just chose the 3 startups selected to pilot their solutions and SmartMonkey was one of them.

What have we learned in this case? Get your product to work as soon as possible. Even before your company is elected. I want to think that part of the reason for our choice was how easy and fast it is to put our tool into production. They were able to start optimizing production routes with literally 1 meeting and a 20-minute demonstration. Even we couldn't believe our eyes. We have overcome the main obstacle, now it is time to demonstrate real value in order to grow within the corporation.

My recommendation to others is that one should always be humble, say NO and stick to a strategy. Open innovation is a path that is done hand in hand. The princess and the gentleman. The corporate and the startup. If both work together, make an effort, success is guaranteed. A beach that is well reinforced with bricks is much more resistant to any type of storm.

If your employees, like those at Prio, are open to trying new things that make their daily lives easier, faster and more efficient. What is to be expected is that wonderful things will happen. Time and storms will put everyone in their place.

Main factors for the success of the start-up-corporate collaboration

After going through several collaborations, Aigües de Barcelona, Heineken and Prio Energy, my personal recommendations can be summarized as follows:

1. Top-bottom support: Without clear management support, it's impossible to succeed. There will always be other priorities. Innovation for corporations must be a priority. Failure is guaranteed, but if you don't innovate, the corporation is sure to fail.
2. Continuity to the project: If the projects are successful, giving them continuity not only helps the startup, but it also encourages intra-entrepreneurship. You don't want those experts you've been training for years to decide to leave their golden cage to sell you the same much more expensive thing, right? The security of a large company and the resources to innovate as an outsider can be wonderful.
3. Requirement to the startup: Put the startup in a difficult but real situation. If you can demonstrate courage in the worst case scenario, the rest will be a piece of cake. However, remember to continue the project if it goes well, or you will generate frustration in the startup and the internal team.
4. Free pilots, no thanks: Top-bottom support is essential and must be accompanied by resources. Startups have a healthy habit of wanting to eat (little and cheaply, but to eat something, yes). If the CFO doesn't scratch his pocket, real innovation is unlikely to exist. Without a budget, it's also difficult to demand anything from anyone. Neither startups nor corporate teams. In addition, startups tend to have a short lifespan, supporting them allows them to generate metrics that encourage other investors and have more resources to invest in your company's innovation.
5. Deal flow: The main problem for investors (Venture Capital) is to get enough quality deal flow. As a corporate, getting enough startups to innovate with will not be an easy task. Having a good brand, good references, a good collaboration proposal and having other startups speak highly of your program is a great cover letter that will make it easier for you to work in future editions. Obviously, more and better companies will want to work with you.

I just want to end this story with a film ending: The brick ends up molten in the corporation as just another piece of its complicated beach of sand, stones and waves. Who knows, they may one day become part of the same company, but until then, they will work together in the face of storms and climate change.

Who would have said that optimizing routes was so beautiful and with such a noble mission: To generate less emissions to save our beaches.

In general terms, it could be said that logistics is the set of all those processes necessary for a product or service to reach the end user; it mainly covers transport, storage and distribution operations.

In turn, and due to the constant change in processes and ways of doing things, largely due to technological advances, different modalities in processes coexist, such as reverse logistics.

La reverse logistics It is a very broad concept that can encompass a myriad of activities since, for example, some of them have ecological purposes (with the objective of avoiding harm to the environment) or others for commercial or productive purposes only, since their actions are interconnected to market supply.

So... What is Reverse Logistics?

With the rise of the already known ecommerce, logistics processes have been forced to adapt and update themselves to new trends and market processes in order to maintain competitiveness vis-a-vis other companies. One of the aspects in which logistics has had to adapt the most due to these b2c stores is, precisely, in the logistics of returns or returns (those users who have purchased an item online and want to return it directly).

In this way, reverse logistics can be defined as the set of practices and processes responsible for managing the returns and returns of those products purchased by users. These returns or returns are managed from the points of sale of the products to the manufacturer itself (to carry out the repair, recycling or disposal of the product at the lowest possible cost).

In addition, logistics is already another process and of vital importance when planning the supply chain for the satisfaction of the end customer.

What are the differences between regular logistics and reverse logistics?

The infrastructure required to manage reverse logistics processes is, as a general rule, the same as for any other logistics process in use. However, we can find differences both in its planning and in its monitoring: the operation is different, since now the customer is the one who can act as a “warehouse” and wait for the collection of their product for subsequent evaluation and economic compensation. In this way, new adapted processes must be considered and taken into account, such as the user's pickup or the treatment of the return product.

Types of Reverse Logistics

According to the article on Reverse Logistics From the company Imatica, specialized in IT services and management software, two types of reverse logistics can be differentiated due to the difference in their approach or objectives.

Business: consists of managing the returns that customers make to inventories or manufacturers.

Eco-friendly: one of the priorities of reverse logistics is precisely the reduction of the environmental impact caused by business activities. For this reason, its use for waste treatment, such as recycling, is also very popular (discarded objects are grouped together for their subsequent recovery process to promote their use).

Benefits of Reverse Logistics

The benefits of reverse logistics are diverse, since they can have both an impact on a better corporate image of the company as well as contributing to a cost reduction. In addition, it is also necessary to highlight the enormous environmental benefit in ecological reverse logistics thanks to practices such as recycling.

Economically, this type of logistics can be significantly beneficial since it is reduced both in time and in costs because there is no need to invest in new materials in the production chain.

Also, and taking into account the typology, “ecological inverted logistics” promotes environmental protection as long as practices such as recycling are carried out (raw materials are created from waste, thus generating a second life cycle for products). All of this also contributes to the improvement of the company's corporate image, since all actions that take advantage of sustainability are increasingly recognized and better valued.

For all these reasons, reverse logistics must be increasingly optimal and efficient, since the management capacity that any company has to manage services such as product returns or customer returns will determine its business success.

As with traditional logistics and last-mile delivery services, reverse logistics also requires tailored planning and optimization, since the user's requirements will be the same: a satisfactory experience both in terms of quality and economy with timely collections and quick returns.

In order to plan reverse logistics that meets the needs of users, it is essential to adopt a last mile management software that allows the efficiency and optimization of all the resources available in your company.

With Routal Planner you will get specialized software that can carry out the different operations that involve reverse logistics, such as the collection and return of products, thanks to optimal planning of the process and with real-time monitoring of its development. Below, we show you a short video in which we show you how to carry out this type of operation in a simple and, above all, efficient way thanks to the use of Planner.

Optimizing the use of resources, especially those that have an environmental benefit, is, to an increasing extent, an extended challenge for society, especially in the logistics sector.

Due to the complexity of logistics operations, many companies face the challenge of reducing costs while being forced to optimize the use and management of resources, as in the case of energy. All of this combines not only environmental awareness and concern, but also a concern to remain competitive with other companies.

In this article, we analyze the importance of implementing actions to ensure the good use of energy resources to achieve a more sustainable future within your company.

Current Situation

The service sector, also known as the tertiary sector, is one whose economic activities are based on the distribution and consumption of goods in order to meet user demand. In turn, this sector encompasses logistics and transport as a subsector, key industries for the development and good functioning of those more developed economies.

However, the logistics industry is a sector in which there is a lot of competition and, given the increasingly specific requirements of users, the improvement of energy efficiency within the logistics process itself has become a key factor for logistics companies to continue with a tight price offer without detracting from the quality of their service.

For this reason, it is essential to implement solutions capable of integrating energy saving mechanisms into their logistics processes in order to achieve resource optimization in addition to remaining at a demanding competitive level such as logistics.

In line with this, according to statements made by Fernando López Zamora, Head of Development at EDF Fenice Ibérica, at the conference”Energy efficiency in logistics facilities” energy efficiency is “a tool for competitiveness and sustainability for companies”.

Emphasizing the fact that “today's industry must prepare to compete tomorrow. And energy and the environment are at the center of this transformation. Therefore, this preparation implies that there is a digitalization of the logistics industry with digital technologies that improve the efficiency of facilities and processes; that are committed to sustainability with efficient uses and consumption of resources; and that they invest in competitiveness to be able to produce the same thing while consuming less”.

Measures

Fleet Management System: the incorporation of specialized software for fleet management will allow the planning of shorter and more efficient routes, in addition to also achieving greater and better use of resources, since it will be possible to take into account the capacities of the vehicles, among others.

Warehouses: The incorporation of automated warehouses has established itself as an efficient solution for energy optimization because it ensures greater use of resources, both spatial and operational (intelligent warehouse management systems).

Electric vehicles: The electrification of vehicles is becoming increasingly popular thanks to a significant improvement in technology, the reduction of the final cost for users together with a lower cost of use and the absence of limitations on use (large city governments have implemented what are known as Low Emission Zones in order to restrict access to cities to all those vehicles that are the most polluting). Initiatives such as that of the company Avia, who have recently developed the EV12 model, a vehicle specifically developed for the city with 100% electric propulsion, making it an environmentally friendly vehicle.

Benefits of saving energy

With the implementation of more sustainable measures that help to save energy in the normal operations of any company, great advantages will be obtained for your company as a result:

1. Lower costs: The change in perspective on logistics operations, making it a much more sustainable sector, also bring economic benefits, since planning efficient routes will increase productivity while reducing fuel costs, among others.
2. Decrease in the carbon footprint: Thanks to new ways of proceeding in logistics, such as the use of electric vehicles or the optimization of routes, the impact of logistics operations on the environment is reduced, thus minimizing the known carbon footprint and improving the quality of life in cities.
3. Improving the corporate image: Today, organizations understand sustainability as a priority issue, and this is reflected in their value proposition. For this reason, more and more companies are taking sustainability into account in their activities and, also, as a value proposition in their marketing and communication strategies.

How can you add to energy savings in logistics? With an effective use of resources and logistics processes, such as planning more efficient and shorter routes or the use of less polluting vehicles. All of this will not only contribute to environmental efficiency but also to greater economic profitability for companies. If you want to know more about logistics and sustainability, don't miss our article about Green Logistics.

Get on board with energy efficiency with Routal Planner for 30% more efficient and sustainable route planning.

On November 26th, that is, in exactly 50 days, a new edition of Black Friday will be held. A commercial event of American origin that has managed to establish itself with great force around the world in recent years.

Even with the Covid-19 pandemic very present and its inevitable commercial consequences, especially the disproportionate rise in sea freight prices (with a notable impact on trade between China and Europe), the traditional Black Friday will go ahead, despite the “metamorphosis” of the situation.

In this article, we offer you the keys and key aspects of the last edition of the most commercial Black Friday so that you can learn first-hand about the expectations and forecasts of D-Day logistics.

Collapse and rise in prices in maritime freight: How does it affect Black Friday 2021?

Over the past year and a half, electronic commerce has been faced squarely with different problems affecting its good development. One of the first setbacks for the ecommerce it has undoubtedly been a consequence of Covid-19: during the lockdown, many online stores were unable to meet the huge demand, thus causing various logistical problems and even the collapse. In addition, the now popular stranding of the Evergreen vessel and the consequent blockage of the Suez Canal, whose consequences were serious delays for many companies worldwide.

In the same way, in recent weeks, the well-known container crisis has spread, whose impact has shaken the world economy in addition to causing the closure of some ports, such as China. For the Asian country, the closure of a terminal of what is currently the largest port in terms of container traffic on a global scale has caused delays, difficulties as well as an uncertain future for all ecommerce, especially for the next edition of Black Friday 2021 and the Christmas season, the two periods with the highest number of sales in the entire year.

It should be emphasized that all of these problems in the logistics network have consequences not only in terms of delivery times, but also in terms of the final price for users (with a longer transport time, the higher the cost of transport).

And what's the alternative? Companies such as Alibaba have found air transport as a temporary alternative to be able to maintain their logistics operations, an interim solution that has allowed them to maintain the delivery times of their customers in the European market.

Forecasts for Black Friday 2021

Thanks to the article Black Friday 2021 statistics: 10 numbers you should know with the help of the company Oberlo, we offer you below a summary of some of the most significant statistics for the logistics sector ahead of the next edition of Black Friday.

Sales forecasts

Many users choose Black Friday as a special date to advance Christmas shopping with great discounts given the proximity between the two dates.

In fact, in the 2020 edition of Black Friday, sales were so high that they even represented 30% of annual revenue.

Despite not yet having forecasts for the Black Friday 2021 edition, from companies such as In Markerter estimate that in the United States alone, the increase in online sales by that date will be approximately 11.3%.

A third of Spanish adults plan to shop on Black Friday 2021

For this next edition of Black Friday, approximately 13 million Spaniards are expected to shop on the famous “Black Friday”. Of all of them, it is estimated that 78.41% will make their purchases in person while 21.59% will make them through e-commerce. With regard to age groups, it is estimated that it is precisely the generation that expects to spend the most throughout the day.

Average spending on Black Friday 2021

According to the company Deloitte, the average expenditure among Spaniards will be 127 euros during the Black Friday weekend, also including the well-known Cyber Monday. Thus, this average expenditure per person would mean that Spaniards will already spend 23% of the budget reserved for Christmas on Black Friday.

It should be noted that in other countries, such as Mexico, the average expenditure per citizen is 279 American dollars, a significantly higher outlay.

The best-selling products

The products most acclaimed by users for Black Friday are, first of all, technological products, with a total of 39.2% of total sales. Secondly, another big star of this important date are fashion products and accessories, with a total of 33.74% of sales. And finally, leisure and entertainment plans, which win the bronze medal in terms of sales, since they account for around 7.55% of the total.

Do you want Black Friday to be a success for your company? We have the solution! Visit our article Ecommerce: 5 essential tools to survive in 2021 to learn about the most interesting applications for your company.

Logistics trends in ecommerce

It is well known that parcel delivery companies have a lot of difficulty offering a good service during these dates. Neither infrastructures nor personnel are adapted to such a sharp increase in operations. For this and other reasons, a trend is starting to appear in large e-commerce. The internalization of delivery processes in areas with the highest order density.

Currently, only companies with a large number of warehouses (stores) and requirements such as the cold are betting on this change, such as Mercadona, which already distribute their own fleet of gas-powered vehicles. We will see this trend in big brands that are increasingly considering e-commerce. The objectives are clear, better services, lower costs, but also to achieve visibility in the offline world by being able to conspicuously label your vehicles that are constantly moving around the cities.

In these cases, we are looking at route planning tools such as Planner, are very useful for simulating different scenarios and finding optimal logistics performance and determining the return on investment in this type of project. Stay tuned, in future articles we will go into the details of this type of analysis.

Find out how to improve logistics productivity in 4 simple steps

La productivity It is an essential indicator for analyzing the state and quality of logistics management of your company. Here are some of the recommendations that will help you increase logistic productivity of your company

Use of metrics and KPIs

To evaluate logistic productivity and process performance, the use of KPIs is essential (Key Performance Indicator). These indicators will help you measure and quantify your company's performance and compliance with established objectives. According to the article Logistics KPI: discover how to increase the productivity of your company from the technology consultancy Enzyme Advising Group, the incorporation of these parameters is an essential component in the success of any company.

It is recommended that when defining the logistics KPIs, they are developed based on the S.M.A.R.T. (Smart, Mmeasurable, Achivable, Realistic and Time-Bound) model:

• Specific: in line with your company's mission, vision and strategy.
• Measurable: Quantifying results will be key to strategy planning and subsequent decision-making.
• Achievable: define objectives as long as they are acceptable and real
• Realistic: objectives should be defined according to the capabilities and particularities of the strategy
• Time-limited: objectives with a limited period of time.

Within the KPIs, it must be taken into account which ones can be useful within each of the phases of the logistics process. This will make it easier for you to extract performance data from each department. Here are some of the most important in the different phases of the logistics process:

• Purchase and inventory: it is essential to measure the service offered by our suppliers and carry out an inventory in order to have a good organization (know the content, avoid possible errors and even reduce costs)
• Distribution: Quantifying the orders to be placed and evaluating the productivity of your employees will increase the efficiency of your warehouse
• Transportation: automating tasks related to transportation, thanks to the use of software specialized in route planning and optimization, will make the last mile an efficient and optimal process for your customers
• Order and delivery management: It is necessary to know times and quantities when carrying out a delivery service, since it will depend on increasing management and operational performance

Increase customer satisfaction

Prioritizing a stable relationship focused on customer satisfaction is the first step and an essential step to achieve success and thus increase logistics productivity.

To establish a good relationship with your customers, you must offer optimal communication throughout the process: it offers direct access, real-time monitoring of information, includes alerts, etc. It is also essential to guarantee adequate technical support: the resolution of incidents or questions that may arise quickly and effectively is essential for the satisfaction of your users. All of this will make them have all the information they may require and will help them build a much stronger relationship with your company, which will also have an impact on logistics productivity.

Optimizing resources: transport and logistics productivity

The optimization of resources when it comes to transportation is essential for the benefit and efficiency of your company, since it will help to control the traceability, trajectory and tracking of shipments. In addition, planning delivery routes efficiently and optimally will result in significant economic and time savings. Therefore, the use of specialized route planning software such as Planner, from SmartMonkey, will be a key element in increasing the logistics productivity of your company.

Design of planning systems, logistics scenarios and efficient warehouses

It is essential to have a good warehouse design, since it will have a direct impact on the supply chain and its effectiveness because this will help to manage one's own supplies properly and to greater logistic productivity.

The design or redesign of the warehouse should take into account key aspects, such as the prior analysis of the warehouse's space needs and associated areas, together with a previous study also of the expected inflow and outflow.

Do you want to know more aspects of the logistics market? We recommend that you read the article Digital transformation in the logistics sector: the 5 keys to achieving digital success to learn about the latest trends in the sector.

If you want to increase the logistics productivity of your business, join Planner and reinforce the scalability of your company.

If you're still one of the few laggards resisting digital transformation, you need to read this article. Learn about the path to logistical success

The profile of new users in the growing digital era stimulates the fact that companies are being pushed towards digital transformation (also known as logistics 4.0), in order to adapt their businesses to the new social, business and technological reality. In this way, users have adopted digital culture in their environment thanks to the incorporation of new tools, which often allow greater speed, efficiency and even user autonomy.

For all these reasons, most companies in practically any sector have already begun to adapt to this new era. This transformation triggers new business opportunities, revenues and even increased efficiency. In this way, all those companies that are successfully participating in the digital transformation process will be better positioned in the market given the competitive advantages compared to other non-digitized companies.

How to apply digital transformation strategies in logistics

Below we show you what are the most important aspects for proper business digitalization in logistics. All initiatives must take into account the particular situation of each company considering the difficulties it faces, the opportunities it has in its sector and the objectives it sets itself. Therefore, it is advisable to go step by step:

Strategy: it is very important that the company's strategy is aligned with the challenges of digitalization. Digitalization can be a very important lever in the strategy because if you only invest in technology without clear guidance, the result is usually not as expected.

Starting point and objectives: it is necessary to carry out a prior analysis to assess the current state of the areas most affected in the company due to the imminent digitalization.

Partida Budgetary for digitalization: the company's internal procedures or bureaucratisms should not be an impediment to making the investments in technology necessary for digital transformation. One of the pillars of digitalization lies in the simplification and automation of many processes, which is why it is often welcome.

Talent 4.0: it is essential to bet and invest in those employees who have specialized training in supply chain management, in addition to also having advanced skills in software and digitalization.

Metrics and KPIs: it is essential to analyze each stage and measure its results (KPI) in order to make the best decisions that increase the efficiency of our company.

LEAN method: Prototype, measure, and iterate. It is necessary not to approach the project in a very ambitious way if the company does not have the human capital with sufficient experience in this type of project. It is preferable to start with small projects that give confidence in the execution and management of change in the company itself.

Technological tools: key factors of logistics 4.0

Once analyzed what are the strategies to be implemented towards logistics 4.0, it is now necessary to know those technological tools and key factors in order to carry it out.

Cloud Computing: Cloud computing technology is a pillar of digital transformation since it allows you to store data online, thus allowing different sectors or departments to share information without the need for a software or storage system.

Management software and systems: The implementation of new technological solutions (software) that help to systematize management will promote the automation of some processes that until now were mostly manual, such as planning delivery routes. Thanks to the use of our tool SmartMonkey Planner efficient route planning is already a reality for many small and large companies, such as the case of Alfil Logistics or Pink Basket, among others. Do you want to know more about the benefits of intelligent route planning? Read the following article and discover the success in Success Story: Alfil Logistics — Alfilxpress.

Big Data: With the incorporation of Big Data, companies have the possibility of being able to work with a large volume of data in a much more strategic and analytical way, thus allowing them to more easily forecast market demands and trends or transport weaknesses and needs, among others.

Internet of Things: It allows the interconnection between the different items in the same system in order to act collaboratively and intelligently. This, within the logistics chain, represents a great benefit already implemented in a large part of the process chain.

Advantages of digital transformation logistics

Automation in logistics processes: Especially in inventory, warehousing and route planning, among other processes.

Extensive data collection across the supply chain: measurable and analyzable

Predictive maintenance based on collected data

Advanced control in all processes and digitized quality system

Management system for digital performance

Bigger and better user experience — end customer

In short, the adaptation of the logistics industry to this new digitalization is crucial for the evolution of the sector, not only because of the threats to those companies that are unable to adapt, but also because of all the competitive advantages that will be obtained by all those companies that know how to take advantage of existing opportunities.

Do you want to know more trends in the logistics market? We recommend that you read the article Green Logistics: discover what it is and how to join the current market trend to learn about the industry's latest complaint.

If you want to be part of the digital transformation and technological advances in logistics, join Planner and reinforce the scalability of your business.

E-commerce, or ecommerce it has only grown in recent years. And in 2020, it broke all records, largely because of the onset of COVID-19.

This trend, far from being one-off, is something that is here to stay. Forecasts suggest that in 2025 one out of every four purchases in the sector Retail will be online.

This change in consumer mentality has caused many traditional sales companies to switch to e-commerce.

This leap may be a bit dizzying, but there are many software companies that are doing their best to break down all barriers and make online sales available to everyone.

Therefore, if you want to sell online, and not die trying, here is a list of tools that will save you hours and hours of work:

1. Online trading platform

The most important thing to be able to sell online is (how could it be otherwise), a platform that allows you to display items and connect with potential buyers and make sales. An online showcase where you can include all your stock in an attractive way.

To do this, there are dozens of tools that will allow you to update your inventory, provide you with a secure payment gateway so you can carry out transactions and where you can find templates to create a personalized experience for your customers.

Here are some of the most interesting options:

1. Shopify
2. Woocommerce
3. Prestashop

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRP)

Customers are the core of your business. That's why it's essential to have tools that allow you to connect with them in an organic way and offer them channels where they can connect with you.

Having a CRP is an economic way to centralize all those communications, and also to obtain valuable insights with which to improve.

Here is a selection:

1. Intercom
2. Froged
3. Zendesk
4. Crisp

3. Shipping planning and management

One of the most important points of eCommerce is the delivery of products. A bad delivery experience can ruin the entire shopping experience. That's why it's important to make a good investment in logistics.

Depending on the type of eCommerce, we can talk about own logistics, outsourced logistics or a mixed profile.

In the case of outsourced and last-mile logistics, localized providers have emerged in recent years that offer quality services at reasonable prices.

1. Envioclick
2. iVoy
3. Stuart
4. MOX

In the case of having logistics within the company itself, it is important to have a service that performs route planning and optimization and that allows delivery people to capture evidence of delivery and track the route.

1. SmartMonkey Planner

4. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Sooner or later, every growing company needs one of these. Enterprise resource planning software allows you to manage every aspect of everyday life. Consolidation of expenses, management of packing slips, personnel management.

In this regard, large companies opt for corporate solutions such as SAP, Sage... among others.

But there are also cloud solutions that, for a much more affordable price and with a simple configuration, will satisfy all your business requirements.

1. Holded
2. Odoo
3. Microsoft Business Center

5. Warehouse Management Platforms (WMS)

If you have already gone through all the previous screens and your eCommerce has ceased to be a modest garage store and now you have your own warehouse, you probably need a warehouse management platform to have control of all your stock.

This type of software gives you a detailed view of all the available resources and a complete traceability of everything that enters and leaves your warehouse.

In some cases, this type of software comes as a module of the ERP itself. But there are also dedicated tools that will simplify the management and monitoring of your warehouses:

1. Oracle Warehouse Management
2. Mecalux
3. Stockpile

If you want to know more about logistics or ecommerce you can contact us through Of the chat and our team will be happy to answer all your questions.

Don't be left behind and join the latest trend in the sector with Green Logistics

In the last year, especially marked by the pandemic resulting from COVID-19, a new trend has become popular in the logistics industry characterized by greater environmental responsibility in terms of resource use and process management. This trend is what we now know as Green Logistics.

In a global context in which climate change is already one of the main concerns for citizens, sustainability plays a leading role in the priorities of many companies. This concern also applies to many industries, such as logistics, due to the constant CO2 emissions produced while traveling. For all these reasons, sustainability is already a key element in logistics processes, which have been forced to generate while developing new models that integrate environmental vision into their processes.

Below, we explain what it is and how you can join the Green Logistics:

La Green Logistics refers to all those efforts and actions aimed at measuring and minimizing the impact of logistics on the environment. In short, a set of initiatives to reduce the environmental impact derived from logistics activity.

According to the article What is Green Logistics and what benefits does it provide of ESIC, various solutions are proposed in the logistics industry to make it more sustainable and, in short, it can become what we already know as Green Logistics:

Delivery in bicycles, electric motorcycles, tricycles, quadricycles, as well as in electric vans and cars: The use of these vehicles would significantly reduce the emission of CO2 to the environment and would reduce current levels of pollution within large cities.

Autonomous vehicles: Mobile autonomous driving lockers that carry the package to the place of delivery, where the vehicle stops, waits for the customer to pick up their package from the assigned locker with a pin code and follow their route until the next delivery (...). In this way, CO2 emissions would be significantly reduced and the delivery of packages would be expedited.

Urban minihubs: To reduce pollution in cities and traffic jams caused by the increasing number of vehicles that enter and leave them every day, it is proposed to place minihubs within cities that avoid such journeys (...). This reduces CO2 emissions and offers a distribution solution that is closer and more convenient to the customer.

Mobile fleet management: These are computer systems that allow us to adapt the route to customer demand on a daily basis, through the use of mobile minihubs that travel to the required delivery area.

Delivery robots: The robots, made up of a wheeled table where packages can be loaded, would follow the delivery people, helping them to carry the heaviest shipments (...). This system can be very useful in places in the center of cities where road traffic is prohibited.

Benefits of Green Logistics in your company

Optimization of resources: use strategies to make effective use of resources, such as shorter and more efficient delivery routes, making better use of vehicle capacities and keeping them in good condition, among others. An example of this is the success story of the company Alfil Logistics, since with an efficient use of their resources, they managed to improve their productivity by 15% for the urban distribution of goods in the city of Barcelona.

Reduces the harmful impact on the environment: Thanks to the use of new ways of proceeding in logistics (the Minihubs urban, electric vehicles or route optimization), the impact of logistics operations on the environment is reduced, thus minimizing the known carbon footprint and improving life in cities.

Economic savings: The new ways of doing things in the logistics industry, making it a much more sustainable sector, also bring economic benefits, since the use of electric vehicles, together with efficient route planning, can reduce and increase productivity while reducing fuel consumption, among others.

Improving your company's corporate social image and brand value: Nowadays, organizations understand sustainability as a priority issue, and this is reflected in their value proposition. For this reason, more and more companies are taking sustainability into account in their activities and, also, as a value proposition in their marketing and communication strategies, as is the case of Savinco

How to join Green Logistics?

With an effective use of resources and logistics processes, such as planning more efficient and shorter routes or the use of less polluting vehicles. All of this will not only contribute to environmental efficiency but also to greater economic profitability for companies.

Join Green Logistics with Routal Planner for efficient and sustainable route planning.

If you're still managing the last-mile routes of your ecommerce with Excel or Google Spreadsheet, don't worry, you're not the only one, but you probably need some help

Our goal is to make life in the last mile a little bit easier and more efficient. But before I go into detail, let me tell you the story of Eduard at Farmily.

Farmily It is a small business that distributes fruit and vegetables at home, direct from the farmer. I am a customer myself and I can say that I have eaten the best strawberries of my life. Even better than those in my small urban garden, which hurt my little pride as an amateur farmer.

As a good entrepreneur, Eduard decided to set up his own online store and manage the entire process: generating demand, preparing shipments and delivering to the customer. I was clear that if I wanted to provide a good service, I needed to control the entire chain. You can imagine that before Routal, management was completely manual. Several Excels, papers everywhere, the odd shipment lost, nothing that didn't happen to you.

For him, just organizing the routes could take several hours a day, sometimes it was hell when one of the delivery people failed him. One day that this work was unsustainable, delaying preparation in the warehouse and impacting the quality of the service and preventing customers from repeating. For Eduard, continuing to work in that way made it difficult for him to grow and did not allow him to live in peace.

The daily problems of managing an ecommerce manually last mile

• I spent many hours planning routes.
• The preparation in the warehouse was delayed
• The performance of the routes could be clearly improved (but I didn't have much more time)
• I didn't sleep well at night

Eduard wondered if there was another way to do things. You can imagine that living in the countryside (as a family of farmers) rethinking what was established was not very common in their environment but I was clear that I needed to change something. Fast.

I agreed with Eduard speaking through the Chat, (I recommend that you use it, we have experts in last mile logistics who can help you improve your processes) and he told me that he controlled Excel and that he managed the entire company with this tool but he didn't use any other application other than email and Whatsapp to communicate with the delivery people. Every day at Routal, we see hundreds of small businesses that operate that way and suffer with the manual management of their operations. There is life beyond the spreadsheet and it's a better life.

I encouraged him to Watch a video of less than 5 minutes upon how we could help you save time in your daily life. In addition, you could try the tool at no cost..

In less than 30 minutes I had understood how the tool worked and I had my next day's schedule ready and saved a vehicle. I'll let you imagine what happened the next day.

He came back, every day. Routal Planner became an indispensable tool for their daily lives. But Eduard wanted to save himself one more step. The step of having to download files and copying cells from one file to another. From the product team, we thought about how we could help so many users who use Google's online Excel and have to carry out that process every day. At that time (and a few hours of development later) the add-on was born that integrate Google Spreadsheet with Routal Planner for all licensed customers Gorilla 🐒

And Kong 👑

completely free of charge.

This integration allows Eduard and any Google Sheets user to easily and quickly import all stops/deliveries in a schedule with just one click. What used to be 10-15 minutes of downloading, adjusting and uploading is now literally 2 clicks (open the plugin, upload to the plan you need).

In this video you can see the entire process. Sit down, get ready, because 30 seconds are very intense (of which the upload time is no more than 10s).

Try it for free!

This is the story of a traditional small business that didn't want to settle and decided to improve its daily lives. I encourage you to follow in his footsteps and not stop growing like Eduard. I leave you with the most repeated questions that our users ask themselves and that we like to help them answer.

Don't I have time?

I understand it, I share it and I am convinced of it. You've come this far and others have done it. You know you need to do something different like Eduard did. As a teacher I had when “I didn't have time to do my homework” said: Time is relative, use it properly and invest it; it will give you back much more time than it will take away.

Will it be complicated?

If you are managing your business with Excel and are able to remember each of the pages, files and how they are organized, I assure you that Routal Planner will seem like child's play to you. If we can explain the operation in just 4 minutes, it won't take you more than 20 to get everything working (and if you have any questions you can consult our documentation or let us help you in our chat).

I'm too small for all this

That's one of the reasons why many users don't dare. They always expect to be bigger, better, better-looking. In my opinion, you manage to get bigger, offer a better service and get customers to repeat when you do things right. Excel is fine when you start, but not forever. Adding specialized tools that help reduce process times, increase performance and improve delivery convenience makes companies better, bigger and more beautiful.

We have customers who started with just 3 or 4 deliveries a day but wanted to improve the service. They wanted to save time, to let the customer know where the delivery person is, to have information at all times, and much more. All of this has allowed their customers to repeat. Improving has allowed them to grow and what used to be a vehicle is now more than 10 in just one year. You can do it, too, and it's easier than you think.

What does this integration allow?

With the Routal Planner route optimizer integrated with Google Spreadsheet, we allow any company that manages its daily lives using spreadsheets/Excel to continue operating in the same way while obtaining the performance improvements of a route optimizer. Savings of more than 30% of last mile operating costs, reduce planning times by more than 80% and improve the service delivered.

Facilitating data migration further helps reduce management and planning times, making it an almost automatic process. The goal is for you to spend time on tasks that really add value to your business. Technology must be on the side of users and that data flow without any friction.

How much does this plugin cost?

Free, nothing, Free. It is part of the license Gorilla 🐒

And Kong 🦍

, so you can try it with your trial account (🤫 you only have 10 days, make the most of them).

Contact us for more details and any questions or suggestions you may have!