The eCommerce industry has expanded considerably in the past few years and experts estimate the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated that development by as much as ten years’ worth of growth. Accompanying this growth spike, largely due to customer demand for instantaneous shipping, is port congestion and supply chain delays. As a result, logistics and transportation companies are under pressure to meet demand using new technologies. This is where IBM i modernization plays a key role.
Over the years, the IBM i platform has been a strategic investment for most logistics and transportation companies. This is due to its reliability, low total cost of ownership, and rich portfolio of transportation and logistics applications. Today, however, IBM i-based transport-logistics companies face two main digital transformation challenges:
Is Your Company Unable to Incorporate the Latest Technology?
With automation, IoT, artificial intelligence, and machine learning simplifying and speeding up business processes, logistics companies want to integrate new technologies to keep up with customer expectations. Most IBM i applications, however, are monoliths. They create data silos that make integration with new technologies difficult. Those with platforms written in CA 2E Synon, are finding it especially difficult to leverage new technology due to language or cloud incompatibilities.
Learn more about the compelling reasons why your business needs IBM i modernization.
Does Your Organization Lack IBM i Development Skills?
According to a survey by Softlanding Systems, a large percentage of IBM i professionals mentioned a “lack of IBM i skills” as their number one barrier to implementing business development projects. In fact, the number of available IBM i developers has been steadily declining for the past decade. The talent that developed and maintained IBM i applications in the past are either retired or close to it.
What’s more, young talent is focusing on languages like Java, C++, and C#. This makes it increasingly difficult for enterprises to find quality replacements from a dwindling talent pool. In other words, you can’t throw more developers at the problem.
Fortunately, strategic IBM i modernization is a proven, working solution to these challenges. The main problem with this approach is that most CFOs believe modernizing logistics and supply chains costs a fortune. They think that it would take years of effort and would require massive investment in technologies like the cloud, product-wide RFID tags and readers, and 3D printing. While some of this tech may be useful, there’s a less expensive and equally effective alternative.
That solution is Visual LANSA modernization solutions. Based on the experience of numerous companies, it is a very cost-effective way to save money on logistics and transportation modernization.
This article discusses how LANSA can help you save money on logistics and transportation IBM i modernization.
How Can You Save Money with Our low-code platform?
LANSA’s robust platform and solutions allow you to quickly and efficiently build end-to-end applications using Low Code. This enables supply chain stakeholders to integrate with various systems of record. They can also leverage LANSA’s own modern ERPs for Supply Chain or other applications. Most importantly, they can achieve all the Digital Transformation objectives of a Master Data for Supply Chain (or other) hub without adding unnecessarily complex platforms or tools.
The LANSA platform also incorporates intelligent business rules for data integrity. Furthermore, its Low-Code service-oriented capabilities allow companies to use and even create APIs (such as REST or other) with little coding. With LANSA platforms and tools, everything is model-driven and easy to use.
Here is a case study showing how the transportation and logistics service arm of ITT industries saved money by leveraging LANSA:
How did ITT-TDS Save Money in Their IT Department with LANSA Tools?
ITT-TDS is the transportation and logistics services arm of ITT Industries, a global industrial manufacturing company with a multi-billion dollar annual turnover. With a LANSA extension to its existing Freight Payment system, ITT-TDS now provides better service and achieves significant efficiencies. Rippe and Kingston, a LANSA business partner specializing in eBusiness solutions, assisted ITT-TDS through their AS/400 eBusiness competency centers.
“We used to get many lengthy phone calls a day regarding freight bills. Now customers and carriers can make their own inquiries anytime they want. We expect at least one of our full-time customer service staff can now spend time on other business practices.” says Tom Restaino, Manager of Information Technology and Operations at ITT-TDS. With LANSA systems ITT-TDS recorded a 4.3 million dollar audit reduction in the first year of implementation.
Read the ITT-TDS Case Study for details on the challenges and how LANSA helped solve them.
Are You Ready to Modernize your Logistics and Transportation with LANSA?
Logistics and transportation modernization on IBM i are a challenging process. With LANSA, however, you save money on your IBM i modernization while improving your logistics and transportation process. You can also ensure efficient supply chain support and meet customer expectations by providing web access to freight payment data. LANSA’s aXes, a powerful web-enabling, and integration solution, make this possible.
When you consider investing
in a technology solution, you need to ensure it meets all your business requirements. You need to see your business requirements implemented with a Proof of Concept (POC), not a static demo controlled by the vendor or superficial evaluation. At LANSA, we:
- Work with you to scope/scale business requirements through a discovery call
- Spend up to 3 days developing a free POC
- Check-in during the process to make sure we’re in alignment with your expectations
- Deliver and demonstrate the POC and leave it with you for a 14-day test drive.
If you are interested in seeing LANSA in action using your data, simply fill in the form to get your free POC. For more information on how you can modernize with LANSA, contact us.
