A modern transport management system serves as an information exchange platform for many enterprises: suppliers or manufacturers, as well as the transport and forwarding companies cooperating with them. The Polish carrier market is highly fragmented, consisting of companies with low capital equipment and weak infrastructure. When implementing a new system, one must account for the difficulties associated with this situation.
An implementation barrier, encountered especially in the case of international enterprises, is their structure and internal procedures. Only a small portion of domestic senior managers perform managerial rather than administrative functions. Only the foreign headquarters of the company is authorized to make strategic decisions. The initiative for change is passed down from the top, rather than from the bottom, as a response to local, specific market demand. This is a significant phenomenon from the point of view of the entire implementation, as not all solutions can be directly “transplanted” to local conditions.
– A significant factor is resistance within the company, resulting from employees’ reluctance to new solutions and the changes they bring. This poses a particular threat given the widespread low level of IT awareness among senior and middle management levels. For this reason, phenomena such as using a spreadsheet to record goods traffic or transmitting order information via instant messengers are accepted – stated Marek Poznański from Transporeon.
A Polish specificity is the great importance of informal connections between enterprises. The transmission of transport orders is direct, and the main factor deciding the choice of a given offer is personal contacts. In many cases, this model does not allow for achieving a good financial result, because the offers are often not favorable for the shipper. This limits market competitiveness and causes new enterprises to be unable to “break through,” despite offering very good terms. It also does not motivate them to seek new solutions that would enable the fulfillment of a larger number of orders from independent contractors.
The goal of implementing a logistics platform is a thorough reorganization of processes within the enterprise. For this reason, the implementation should be strategic in nature and take into account potential threats related to the adaptation of employees and business partners to the new management model in the company. Managing the change process is a difficult art, but knowing the basic threats will allow them to be overcome. Skillfully involving employees in the implementation process will enable them to learn about the benefits of the new solution – not only for the company but also for themselves.