Over the past few months, you probably experienced major upheavals in your work habits due to the pandemic.
This could have been a harsh change. You had no choice but to migrate your workstation from your office to your home. No more coffee machines, no more meeting room reservations, no more spontaneous conversations in the lunchroom...
You've probably wondered how to run your logistics operations from home, what tools to rely on and how to organize your work day without losing coordination, collaboration, and productivity.
You had to find solutions to get information about your day-to-day operations and organization since you could no longer pass by your colleague’s desk. These quick but dense in-person exchanges are surprisingly very important to ensure the fluidity of exchanges, contributing to the coordination of a department or across several company teams.
However, all these in-person communication exchanges were suddenly swept away, and you had to search for solutions to stay connected with your team and external partners.
Thus, you have probably started relying on digital tools to help you communicate and coordinate as though you were in the office.
Cloud solutions have saved countless companies during the lockdown. Today, the majority of conversations and information exchanged between supply chain players are done via collaborative cloud platforms.
Two Post-Covid Trends: Teleworking and Monitoring Tools
The current pandemic has been a major challenge for many companies, but it has also provided an opportunity to discover new organizational models.
Two post-covid trends are already emerging, namely the desire of more employees to continue working remotely at least for part-time. A Gartner study shows that 48% of employees will opt for remote work even after the crisis is over, compared to the 38% that were working remotely before the pandemic.
Technologies to Track Work Progress
Another trend is to use digital tools to track the progress of work progress. In the near future, the "when" and "where" work is done will be less important than “productivity” and “commitment”.
The Current Debate: Productivity or Commitment
Already today, 16% of employers are using technology to track productivity, through virtual badge systems, computer usage measurements, email counts, or participation in in-house chats. Other companies prefer to measure engagement and wellness to better understand their employees' experience.
What Cloud Solutions Ensures Business Continuity?
To ensure business continuity, companies have turned to new solutions that are often available in the cloud.
We have learned from customer testimonials how the BuyCo cloud platform, a solution for maritime logistics, has brought crucial benefits to logistics teams working remotely.
Among the benefits, the solution has enabled logistics professionals to access transportation records and documents, all while enabling cross-functional collaboration with their partners from any location.
Another major advantage is that the solution provides the same level of information to all parties. In this respect, the instant and contextualized messaging service, coupled with high-performance tracking, offers all members of the supply chain the opportunity to be "on the same page".
We're not alone in offering cloud capabilities for working/collaborating remotely. That's all the more reason to present you with a selection of applications and tools that we or our customers are adopting internally to facilitate remote work.
Here is the list of our favorite applications that provide more organizational flexibility for your maritime logistics teams and make remote work even easier.
VIDEO CONFERENCING
ZOOM
Zoom is a platform that allows you to make video calls using a simple web connection. The platform is creative because users can customize their desktop/home backgrounds when participating in video calls. Nevertheless, supply chain leaders should be warned about its security flaws. This is an important point to consider when discussing strategic supply chain data. Prices range from free (for small companies for meetings with up to 100 participants and a maximum duration of 40 minutes), to €19.99 per user for a solution with no time limit.
MICROSOFT TEAMS
Microsoft also offers a video conferencing platform. While Zoom seems to be a tool for external collaborations with suppliers and/or customers, Microsoft Teams is more geared toward internal collaboration. The advantage of Teams, compared to Zoom, is that it is free of charge and above all, its security level seems more solid.
GENERAL COLLABORATION PLATFORMS
SLACK - An Internal Collaboration Platform
Slack is an internal enterprise collaboration platform that enables instant messaging to members of an organization in groups or one-to-one. The platform also enables real-time sharing of news, video, or images. It can also be integrated with other business tools, such as your CRM, calendar, google drive, bot etc... The platform thus contributes to better coordination and agility. Prices range from free (up to 10 integrations, 1:1 video and voice calls) to flexible prices depending on the number of integrations and the size of the company.
TRELLO - A Platform for Collaborative Projects
This project collaboration platform has quickly become a global standard thanks to its simple and intuitive architecture. It allows you to collaborate and track the progress of projects by assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and work schedules. Trello offers 3 packages: a free package that limits the number of "team boards" to 10, a Business Class package at €9.99 per month, and a Corporate package at €17.50 with more features for teams.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
ASANA - A Platform for Collaborative Projects
The platform is designed to facilitate the collaboration of several professionals on large-scale projects. It has the same advantages as Trello and, in addition, it integrates GANT, the progress bar to monitor the progress of projects. Asana offers a free basic service and a premium version at 24.99 € per user per month.
FILE SHARING & COLLABORATION
GOOGLE DRIVE - A Cloud Platform for Storage, Sharing, and Collaboration
Google offers a cloud platform for files in text, slide, video, image, etc... The platform allows you to work simultaneously on a document and track its evolution with the history of changes done by each participant. The use of Drive has a cost related to the volume of storage used.
DROPBOX - A Digitized Workspace for Any Type of File / Content
Dropbox is a digital workspace for uploading, sharing, and collaborating on files and content. The solution is particularly useful for sharing large files, such as videos. It offers two versions: a free version up to 2GB of space, and a paid version of $15.99 per user (up to 5 TB) or $25 per user per month with unlimited storage.
WETRANSFER- A Platform for Transferring Large Files
WeTransfer also offers a file sharing service up to 2GB for free.
COLLABORATION PLATFORM FOR MARITIME LOGISTICS
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BUYCO - The Collaborative Cloud for the Maritime Supply Chain
BuyCo has created a collaborative cloud platform for managing container shipping. The platform allows you to invite all members participating on a transport file to collaborate, edit, and share documents and shipping information. The platform is based on automation that simplifies shipping and its main operations: requirements, booking, shipping instructions, verified gross mass. The cloud-based solution offers a wide range of reports based on the data collected to guide supply chain leaders in their decision-making processes.
DOCUMENT SIGNING
ADOBE SIGN - A Platform for Electronic Signatures
Adobe Sign is a cloud application that provides an e-signature service. It enables organizations to ensure business continuity and sign documents for suppliers and customers. Adobe offers three rates: Individual at $9.99 per month, Team at $24.99 per person per month, and Business at $24.99 per person per month.
TAKING NOTES
KEEP GOOGLE - A Solution for Taking and Archiving Notes
Google's note-taking solution is very simple and intuitive. It allows you to tag notes to better classify and find them. Keep also allows note sharing with other users who can in turn edit them simultaneously, just like Google Docs. Google Keep is free.
EVERNOTE - A Solution for Taking and Archiving Notes
Evernote is an application that allows you to take notes, organize, and archive them. It also presents functionalities for the organization of work. Evernote offers a free version, a Premium version at $6.99, and a Business version at $13.99 per month. The Premium and Business versions offer more features for teams to collaborate better.
TIME MANAGEMENT
This solution allows you to manage your time easily. The tool has a very simple and intuitive interface where you can follow the time spent on different tasks, so you can have an overview of your own productivity. The app is available for free or at $9.99 per month for premium features.
HourStack helps you manage and track the use of your time in a visual calendar. You can view, plan and measure the time allocated to each activity. The app is available for $12 per user per month.
EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING
Wooboard is a platform that aims to facilitate the recognition of small or large accomplishments of any team member. It opens up the possibility to improve company culture by valuing the work of their employees. Prices start at 3€ per user per month (up to 200 employees).
Chimp or Champ is an application that allows you to measure the state of well-being of your employees over a given amount of time. The application can thus improve the well-being of your company, which can lead to better results. The application is available for free with basic features, or you can buy a premium version at 2$ per user per month.
The BuyCo Leverage Solution for More Flexibility, Agility and Performance
The BuyCo platform represents a solution that adapts well to these new supply chain operating modes.
BuyCo, available in the cloud, allows supply chain professionals to free themselves from physical and geographical constraints. It is accessible from any location and allows professionals to manage their transport files from the office or at home.
BuyCo also provides a space for documents to be stored and accessed in the cloud. This is an undeniable advantage when employees are on the road or need to travel. Everything is available at all times, and finding documents is easy with a search engine. No need to carry heavy files with you, look through your computer's memory, or search through your own emails to find a document.
First and foremost, BuyCo allows companies to measure the productivity of their team and external partners, and increase engagement. It also allows you to know when employees login to the platform. Then, it measures the speed at which transport files are completed, and the total number of files processed.
To conclude, the solution puts an end to disrupted or unorganized information. The solution fuels collaboration and productive exchanges internally to optimize operations and easily solve problems that could appear on transport files.
Discover the BuyCo Cloud Solution
Want to discover how BuyCo works? We offer a demo personalized to your business. You will be able to determine the possible gains in productivity, visibility, and your budget.
Book a meeting slot with our team here :
