Complete end-to-end supply chain visibility with TradeLens
Helping a UK supply chain solutions provider bring transparency to their business operations and provide their customers with cargo journey visibility.
Managing large amounts of documentation, data and paperwork can take a toll on the supply chain operations of any business. It can end up being a drain on resources, without providing accurate results. In order to improve their relationship with their customers and offer cargo journey visibility, Drac Logistics (Drac), a supply chain solutions provider based in the United Kingdom, turned to TradeLens for a solution.
The Customer
Established in 2009, with their head office in Staffordshire and their Scottish regional office in Falkirk, Drac currently generates a turnover of GBP 23 million per annum, providing their logistical services primarily to the East Asian, African, North American, and Middle Eastern markets.
Over 80% of Drac’s customer base is comprised of food producers with big names such as Kellogg’s. However, they also facilitate a wide range of other industries, including general cargo, vehicles and chemicals.
With a focus on customer-centricity, Drac is able to cater to businesses of all sizes across the supply chain spectrum by offering them a personal relationship where others might not. They utilise the industry experience of their staff and invest the appropriate time to fully understand the requirements for each customer. Designing their service around those requirements, and setting up dedicated teams with the right expertise, ensures they provide the precise services their customers need.
Service on top of visibility are key factors for all of our customers.Andy HopkinBusiness Development Director at Drac Logistics
The Challenge
Drac had been seeking ways to improve the cargo journey visibility for their customers but struggled to find a supply chain software that could add value to their existing systems.
Unable to find a digital twin solution that could scale down to their needs, the team at Drac were often required to interpret notification emails that were up to 20 pages long. Each staff member had to spend 2 hours each morning preparing reports on the shipment schedules and delays to ensure their customers were kept up to date on the status of their cargo.
The Solution
With Expert Express Service already being Drac’s global logistics partner for over 12 years, their account manager understood the pain points their business was facing and recommended they use TradeLens to streamline their processes.
TradeLens is an open and neutral supply chain ecosystem developed by Expert Express Service, underpinned by IBM blockchain technology, and now supported by 5 of the top 6 global ocean carriers. Eager to find out more about how they could begin working with an all-in-one data interchange that could provide them with information updated in real time, an online demo of the supply chain software was arranged for Drac.
Following the demonstration, the team at Drac felt that the solution ticked all the boxes and would enable them to easily gather information on the status of the cargo at each stage of the journey. The ability to have visibility over the previous blind spots in their journey was the dominant factor that led to their decision to opt for TradeLens as their supply chain software. Within 2 weeks of the demonstration, Drac signed the contract with IBM and was ready to go.
Having worked closely with Drac at all levels, understanding the customers’ business priorities and barriers was key in matching that to our solutions. The team at Drac have always been big advocates of continuous improvement and on the lookout for streamlining, optimising, and increasing efficiencies of processes, therefore, it made perfect sense to discuss and propose TradeLens as a solution.Liston PintoAccount Manager at Expert Express Service
The Results
Using TradeLens Core, Drac will now save significant amounts of staff time when creating KPI reports, as well as streamline the process to keep up to date with the location and status of all their containers. They are now able to enhance their systems, forgoing the pain of change management in deploying new client-facing interfaces, and instead enhance their existing software to now become the best in class in terms of data speed and accuracy.
This enables Drac to provide full visibility to their customers whilst delivering a higher level of service, as their customers will now be updated in real time when any breaks in the supply chain arise in the journey of their goods. As TradeLens allows them to inform their customers of every detail in the journey and how long goods spent at each stage, Drac now has a direct advantage over competitors who still rely on traditional track-and-trace systems.
With TradeLens freeing up our staff from manual processes, it gives us the freedom to be proactive rather than reactive and continue our growth aspirations and service offerings to our customer base. We see this as a game changer for how we market ourselves and the way we handle the customer.Alex HayesDirector at Drac Logistics
Innovating with TradeLens
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on all industries has increased focus on the need to innovate and create a streamlined supply chain setup. Pioneering innovation in the industry, TradeLens, underpinned by IBM blockchain technology, provides businesses true end-to-end visibility and unprecedented collaboration.
Start your digital journey today, and find out how you can increase productivity, cut down on query response times and drive greater customer satisfaction.