This year’s Wincanton Logistics Forum Workshops took place on March 22 at the InterContinental Hotel in Warsaw. The meeting was moderated by Prof. Włodzimierz Rydzkowski, Head of the Department of Transport Policy at the University of Gdańsk. The plenary session featured Tomasz Oczkowski, Development and Logistics Director for Central and Eastern Europe at Wincanton Polska, with a presentation based on case studies titled “Mutual benefits of cooperation with an operator – myth or reality?”.
The thematic sessions were divided into two panels, allowing attendees to choose the topic of interest to them. The first, conducted in an interactive manner, featured Prof. Danuta Kisperska-Moroń and Dr. Artur Świerczek from the Department of Economic Logistics at the Karol Adamiecki University of Economics in Katowice. In their presentation, they discussed “Customer service policy in the strategies of logistics service providers.” They pointed out that customer service strategies are one of the most important factors supporting company competitiveness in modern product and service markets. The concept of gap analysis in customer service points to an inevitable discrepancy between customer expectations and a company’s offer. The art of managing customer service allows for significantly reducing these gaps by outlining appropriate operational goals, using the right tools to control customer service levels, and precisely formulating customer service policy. Workshop participants examined these issues in the context of the realities of the Transport-Forwarding-Logistics industry within the Polish economy. In parallel, Leszek Szelerski, Logistics Director Eastern Europe at Coty Polska, discussed the topic “Keiretsu – an alternative method of cooperation with logistics partners.” This interactively led presentation aimed to introduce participants to the Keiretsu idea and provide information on how this method is implemented at Coty. Subsequent panels featured: Maciej Madejak, First Vice President of ProLogis Central Europe, with a presentation on the developer as a partner in logistics (unusual inquiries and solutions, implementations, analysis of cooperation with logistics operators), and Grzegorz Dobrowolski, Business Development Director at Cisco, who presented a way to apply modern IP communication systems in logistics. Information management and the speed of information transfer, as he noted, are among the most important aspects of a company’s operation in a dynamically changing business environment. IT departments of logistics companies are constantly looking for methods to improve and simplify processes occurring in the organization while maintaining operational flexibility and the lowest communication costs. Modern communication solutions mean not only lower communication costs but, above all, faster and more effective communication both within the organization and with clients and business partners. Cisco Unified Communications is a solution that integrates voice, video, and data exchange. During the session, the functional features and business benefits of the solution were presented, as well as examples of implementations of this solution in logistics companies.
– I am pleased that the Wincanton Logistics Forum Workshops attracted such a large number of participants, and that our initiative meets with increasing interest and recognition among managers year after year. Every year, we strive to make the workshop program more attractive and invite elite lecturers – says Ryszard Warzocha, Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe at Wincanton Polska.