Over the past few months, you probably experienced major upheavals in your work habits due to the pandemic.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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MICROSOFT TEAMS
SLACK - An Internal Collaboration Platform
TRELLO - A Platform for Collaborative Projects
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.
GOOGLE DRIVE - A Cloud Platform for Storage, Sharing, and Collaboration
DROPBOX - A Digitized Workspace for Any Type of File / Content
WETRANSFER- A Platform for Transferring Large Files
WeTransfer also offers a file sharing service up to 2GB for free.
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.
ADOBE SIGN - A Platform for Electronic Signatures
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
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 $12 per user per month.
Wooboard is a platform that aims to facilitate the recognition of small or large accomplishments of any team member. It opens up the possibility to improve company culture by valuing the work of their employees. Prices start at 3€ per user per month (up to 200 employees).
Chimp or Champ is an application that allows you to measure the state of well-being of your employees over a given amount of time. The application can thus improve the well-being of your company, which can lead to better results. The application is available for free with basic features, or you can buy a premium version at 2$ per user per month.
The BuyCo 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.
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 :