Customer
ALPI
Industry
Transport and Logistics
Year
1992
Services
Software Development, Strategy
ALPI
ALPI is a transport and logistics company that is undergoing a major digitization process. The first step has been to map the business and work processes to find possible digitization areas. In the work, ALPI has also reached out to both customers and employees to find the right, digital solutions that provide value. The digitization process at ALPI is on-going, and more of our experts collaborate on the project.
Challenge: ALPI lacked a strategic overview and a structured digitization foundation, which led to inefficient logistical workflows, time wastage and lack of reuse of data across systems. It limited their ability to optimize processes and strengthen competitiveness.
DIGITIZATION IS BEST MANAGED ONE STEP AT A TIME
When the transport and logistics company ALPI decided to board the digitization train, it was with the caveat that digitization should not be done just for the sake of digitization. Each individual initiative should make sense for both the customers and the employees. Moreover, ALPI wanted free choice as regards the choice of supplier of the solutions to be implemented. KOLLAB was selected to be the impartial advisor on the trip.
Under these conditions, we started a thorough analysis work that was supposed to map the company's business processes and systems and thus create an overview of possible digitization areas and the value they would have for customers, employees and the business in general.
IMPORTANT TO INVOLVE EMPLOYEES
In the work to map the business and work processes, it was found, among other things, that it was not very good at reusing data in the various systems. Employees spent a disproportionate amount of time entering the same data in several different places. With a focus on the reuse of data, the IT Cartel developed several software robots that automatically retrieve data from, for example, ALPI's ERP system and transfer it to Excel. From here, data can then subsequently be made available to customers. It was important for ALPI that they should not take hold in all the places where there was a real opportunity for improvement with a digitization strategy, but that they could choose based on what gives the biggest or best result in the shortest time.
A LOT OF TIME SAVING
The digitization process at ALPI is far from over, but it is, on the other hand, very well underway. And the results of digitization at ALPI are palpable. The company is now saving a lot of time on the digital transfer of data between their systems. But it has also become easier to be an employee in the finance department. Where previously everything was checked, the employees now only look for deviations. This means that an employee who previously had to look at approximately 1000 lines now only has to check around 10 lines. It saves up to 40-50 hours per month alone in this department.
For ALPI, digitization was important, not only for time savings, but also for doing things in a smarter way. By removing redundant tasks and work routines, there was better time for the tasks where employees cannot be replaced by machines. This meant that the employees began to look at their daily tasks and come up with suggestions for changes and improvements themselves.
”Once you start looking at your processes and thinking about digitalisation, there is really a sea of opportunities for improvement. You therefore have to choose based on what gives the biggest or best result in the shortest time. It is very easy to get carried away and start too many initiatives at the same time – or vice versa to lose track and not get started at all. It is like with the well-known elephant – that it must be eaten in small pieces, otherwise you will suffocate”
Jens Salling, Project Manager at ALPI