IT, Admin & Ops: Hidden Opportunities to Fast & Long-lasting Change

Improving your business health by increasing your margins and raising your employee satisfaction score doesn't require a complete overhaul of all processes or a reinvention of the wheel. 

By invoking the power of these 4 simple opportunities, you can QUICKLY BOOST your performance to better align with long-term company goals. 

1. Bolster your digital security immediately

According to CNBC, companies are reporting an increase in phishing and a rise in other cyber scams by 40% since the start of COVID-19. How can you make sure you don’t become a victim? 

Transportation providers can protect their business by having a basic understanding of internal monitoring and threat prevention that provide tactical solutions to shortcomings in freight information architecture and flows.  

Companies should ask themselves the following questions to help gauge their security risks:

• Do I know where all my data is being stored? Does it live in multiple locations?
• Is private customer data being shared externally? If so, is it being done safely? 
• How secure is our network? Do employees know how to identify a phishing email? 
• If not: Use DDC' free anti-phishing email health check produced by our data analyst team. It's intelligent, automated, and quick. To use it for free, simply forward the email in question to phishingcheck@ddc.solutions. 

   

2. Assign a project manager to assess your disaster recovery plan

This year has taught us to expect the unexpected and to have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place. Planning for the unknown can be difficult, but not planning altogether will be disastrous. Having an assigned team member to detail your blueprint and serve as your resident disaster recovery expert will help you pivot more quickly when a crisis occurs. 

Our friends at RenovoData have outlined the following guidelines to implement a successful plan: 

• Calculate your total survivable downtime: The cost of disruption can be measured by the amount of downtime a trucking company incurs, and knowing your limit is critical. 
• Include every employee and vendor in the plan: Everyone should be aware of potential dangers and have ownership of their actions. 
• Tell the truth: Most transportation providers rely on their integrity and strong reputations, and how a company responds to a disaster puts its core values in the limelight. 
• Be ready to move operations: Setting up a separate and safe location (or home office) is a crucial part of your success. Be sure to include workspaces, amenities, systems, equipment, and communications needed to maintain functionality.  
• Test your plan: The best defense against any weak points in the plan is periodic testing. 

3. Upgrade your OCR to make data entry easier 

Implementing the right technology can improve not only your accuracy and efficiency but also help keep your most valuable employees from jumping ship. Software that facilitates automation may be the secret ingredient to realigning your business priorities and focusing on what truly matters. 

Your team works hard for you, and in turn, they expect you to invest in their success. By providing new tools to help them perform duties more effectively, they can spend their time and effort on more meaningful tasks. According to the Work Institute, 30% of employees voluntarily leave their jobs every year, and three out of four say that their employer could have done something to retain them. Supporting your people with automation can thwart turnover and help boost productivity.  

Examples of scalable freight-focused solutions that can help reduce reliance on manual activities include Auto-Extraction & Structuring, Convoy, and Haven. 

4. Activate the value of the data that's at your fingertips right now 

Transportation providers collect data along with every point of the customer journey, and unfortunately, most unintentionally store it in a way so that it can never be fully utilized.  

Luckily, data-centric innovations have changed the rules of how we interpret and store pieces of information, and advanced operating systems have helped companies enhance the speed and quality of analytics processes. This allows for more time to reap the benefits; the faster you can put solid insights to use, the more accurately you can pivot, plan, and get ahead of the competition. 

According to Forbes, here are some common opportunities to tap from your data: 

• Customer acquisition and retention - Identify exactly what customers are looking for and implement strategies to help strengthen your relationship. 
• Focused and targeted products/services - Use big data to deliver tailored products to targeted markets and exceed customer expectations. 
• Better risk management- Improve the effectiveness of risk management models and create smarter strategies. 

The first step is to identify what problem you’re trying to solve. You can then pinpoint your focus and work towards cleaning up your data (putting it in a structured format) so that you can start using it to your advantage. 

These four hidden opportunities are fairly quick to implement and can help boost your profitability despite what external factors are at play around you. To learn what other key initiatives and opportunities are taking priority in transportation and logistics, download Adapting to a Pandemic: Freight Market Budget and Priority Shifts In 2020.