If someone had told me two years ago that businesses would soon be running small “digital organizations” made entirely of AI Agents, I probably would have smiled and said, “Maybe one day… but not now.” And yet… here we are.
Today, agentic networks are quietly becoming part of everyday operations in companies of all sizes. They plan tasks, talk to each other, use tools, check each other’s work, and help humans handle complex workflows with almost unbelievable speed and consistency.
And the most surprising part? This shift is happening much faster than anyone expected.
From One Chatbot to a Digital Team
For years, businesses relied on single “AI assistants” that tried to do everything: answer questions, draft emails, or provide quick information. These systems were useful, but they couldn’t run real business processes. They couldn’t plan, check their own work, escalate exceptions, or coordinate tasks.
The breakthrough came when researchers realized something very simple and very human: one clever assistant is nice. But a coordinated team is powerful.
This idea gave birth to agentic networks: small digital teams where each agent has a role, a set of tools, a memory, and a way to communicate with colleagues. Now, instead of forcing one agent to juggle everything, businesses can build tiny, specialized “departments” of agents that collaborate just like human teams.
What an Agentic Network Looks Like
Picture this:
One agent plans tasks
One retrieves information
One analyzes data
One drafts output
One checks quality
One updates your systems
One escalates edge cases to a human
They don’t guess, they don’t improvise without structure, they follow a workflow, and they talk to each other. It’s a digital organization, running inside your organization.
Why This Adoption Is Accelerating So Fast
Because the business value is immediate.
Companies adopting agentic workflows report:
20–40% faster operations
Significantly fewer errors
Reduced manual workload
24/7 process continuity
No forgotten tasks or lost tickets
Happier teams who can focus on real work
For many, this is the first time they’ve seen automation that feels human-level. It is consistent, flexible, and able to make decisions within safe boundaries.
This is where things get even more interesting. Agentic networks are not a future concept; they’re active in dozens of areas right now.
Customer Service and Support
Companies like IBM and Microsoft now use multi-agent flows for:
Ticket triage
Policy lookups
Drafting responses
Routing urgent cases to humans
A “planner” agent directs the process, while supporting agents gather data, generate responses, and ensure compliance.
IT Operations and DevOps
Teams use agent networks to:
Monitor systems
Analyze logs
Detect anomalies
Suggest fixes
Prepare reports
It feels like having a small, always-awake DevOps team that never gets tired.
Sales, Marketing, and Back-Office Work
Tools like LangGraph, CrewAI, and n8n enable businesses to create entire digital teams:
Prospecting and enrichment agents
Content researchers and writers
CRM update agents
Financial reconciliation agents
Document review and drafting agents
Even small companies can now automate work that previously required multiple employees.
Industry and Manufacturing
In telecom, logistics, and smart factories, multi-agent systems coordinate:
Resource allocation
Quality control
Supply chain timing
Exception routing
These workflows were already complex; AI simply adds a new layer of intelligence.
Knowledge Work
Microsoft’s Agent365 platform allows agents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to collaborate across documents and departments. A document created in Word can trigger an agent in Excel, which then sends data to a presentation agent in PowerPoint.
It’s like having a digital project assistant in every app.
A Few Years Ago This Was “Impossible”. Today It’s Just Normal
What fascinates me most is how quickly the mindset shifted.
In 2022, multi-agent systems felt like science fiction. In 2024, they were a research curiosity. In 2025, early adopters began experimenting. Now, in 2026, agentic networks are simply Option B on the automation menu.
Consulting giants like PwC and Capgemini have already built internal “agent operating systems.” Tech leaders are designing products specifically around multi-agent collaboration. And businesses of all sizes, from language schools to real estate agencies, are adopting their own networks of digital workers.
Why? Because it works. And because no human team wants to spend their lives on repetitive tasks.
The Future: Digital Organizations Beside (or Within) Human Organizations
Here’s the trend I see every day: businesses no longer want a chatbot, they want a system that actually does work. Agentic networks are exactly that. They:
Act
Coordinate
Escalate
Learn
Share information
Improve over time
And importantly, they stay under human supervision. This is collaboration, not replacement. We are entering a world where every business, no matter how small, can have a digital team working next to the human one, quietly, efficiently, and reliably.
Just a few years ago, this was fantasy. Today, it’s practical reality. Tomorrow, it will be the standard. And honestly? We’re still only at the beginning.
I’d heard about the book before but never had a chance to read it. And then, one day, I got it as a present from a colleague, one of those colleagues I always respected and whose relationships I truly treasured. You know how it goes: some gifts just feel like the universe speaking directly to you. Of course, I “swallowed” the book with the hunger of an incurable book-lover. Even though I read it all in one sitting, I remembered it so vividly, as if I had written it myself.
Does this ever happen to you? You read something short and simple, and suddenly it echoes in your head for days, shaping the way you look at your own choices and actions. Well, that’s exactly what happened with this book. And I think I should share it with you, because it can bring a magical shift in how you see your business, your career, and your opportunities.
The book is called Who Moved My Cheese? On the surface, it looks almost like a children’s fable. After all, its main characters are mice. But don’t be fooled. Behind the simple story lies a very smart guide to life in a business community.., and to playing the game of business with more success.
A Maze, a Piece of Cheese, and… Us
The story takes place in a maze where mice run every day in search of cheese. Cheese, of course, is not just cheese. It’s a metaphor for what each of us is chasing: success, recognition, customers, financial stability, even happiness.
The maze? That’s our world of business. A marketplace full of corridors, shortcuts, dead ends, sudden turns, and unexpected opportunities. And like in real life, sometimes the cheese is abundant, sometimes scarce. Sometimes you think you’ve found the perfect spot… until one day you return and realize: the cheese is gone. Someone moved it.
And here lies the big lesson: business is dynamic. Success doesn’t stay in one place.
One of the lines in the book stuck with me: “The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you’ll find new cheese.” It’s simple, almost obvious — and yet, how many of us cling desperately to what used to work, refusing to accept that it no longer does?
Just think of the ways you accept new software, as an example: every time you face an awesome new tool/app/platform that can make your business much more efficient, a tiny voice inside your head keeps saying, “Do I really need it? I’ve lived without it for years, why take the effort of learning, setting it up, and adjusting to using it?” Only few of us are strong enough to overcome our old habits and make a step into something new.
Well, the author’s goal is to shake us awake. Many of us imagine that once we’ve “made it” — signed a big contract, secured a handful of loyal customers, or launched a product that sells well, we can relax. But the truth is: cheese moves.
Customers change preferences. Competitors innovate. New technologies disrupt whole industries. What worked brilliantly yesterday may become obsolete tomorrow.
This is the author’s message in its clearest form: the only way to win in business is to embrace change, not resist it.
Here are the principles I carried away from the story:
Change is Inevitable The cheese will move. Expect it.
Adapt Fast Don’t stand in an empty corner of the maze complaining. Move. Explore.
Comfort is Dangerous Sitting on a pile of cheese feels safe, but it’s the riskiest place of all — because it can disappear overnight.
Pay Attention to Small Signals The cheese supply doesn’t vanish instantly. It gets smaller, the smell changes. These are hints to prepare for change.
Fear is Natural — but Don’t Let It Rule You In the book, one mouse says: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” That question is as relevant to business owners as it is to mice.
There’s Always More Cheese The maze is vast, and opportunities are endless for those willing to keep moving.
Why It Resonates with So Many
It’s no coincidence that Who Moved My Cheese? has been read by millions worldwide. The book has sold over 28 million copies in 37 languages, becoming one of the most influential business parables of our time. And the reason is clear: entrepreneurs, managers, and even students recognize themselves in the story.
It doesn’t matter if you’re running a corner bakery, a tech startup, or a consulting firm — you’ve faced disappearing cheese. That contract you thought would last years? Gone. That product your clients loved? Outdated. That “perfect strategy”? Beaten by someone else’s fresher idea.
The simplicity of the story makes it unforgettable. It doesn’t drown you in business jargon. It whispers truths you already knew deep down, but needed to hear again — clearly, directly, memorably.
So how do we, as beginners — or even as seasoned professionals reinventing ourselves — use these lessons? Here’s what stood out most to me:
Start Before You’re Ready Don’t wait for “the right moment.” It never comes. Get moving, try, learn, adjust.
Define Your Cheese What’s your goal right now? More leads? Stronger branding? A profitable product line? Be clear — but also be ready to revise it.
Keep Watching the Signs Numbers dropping? Customer behavior shifting? These are signals. Act on them early.
Beware the Comfort Zone If you’re thinking, “I’ve got this figured out, I can relax,” stop. That’s the exact moment to push yourself to innovate.
Try New Corridors Partnerships, collaborations, new marketing channels, different audiences — don’t stay stuck in one tunnel of the maze.
Walk With Others Just like the mice often explore together, partnerships and networks can lead you to cheese you wouldn’t find alone.
My Reflections
Reading this book took me back to moments in my own journey when I suddenly lost my “cheese.” A partnership that dissolved, a project canceled overnight, a market that shifted under my feet. At first, I was frustrated, even resentful. But then I realized: the cheese was simply gone. Not stolen, not unfairly taken — just moved.
Every time, when I finally moved on, I discovered new opportunities. Sometimes they were smaller at first, sometimes they required longer paths through the maze. But they always led to growth I would never have found if I had stayed frozen in my old corner.
And that’s the power of the story: it makes you realize that you’re not a victim of someone moving “your” cheese. You’re a player in a bigger maze. And the maze always has more to offer if you’re willing to keep moving.
If you’re launching a business: set clear goals but expect to adapt. Your first idea probably won’t be your final one.
If you’re managing a team: make adaptation part of your culture. Teach your people not to cling but to explore.
If you’re already established: look for early warning signs of shifting cheese. Get ahead of change.
If you’re in a network or community: share the maze. Cross-refer clients, collaborate, and co-create new paths to cheese.
Here’s what we all need to remember:
Success is not about clinging to what you have. It’s about letting go, moving on, and trusting the maze.
When the cheese disappears (and it always will at some point) you have two choices: complain in the empty corner, or run toward new possibilities.
And maybe, just maybe, the next piece of cheese will be bigger, fresher, and more satisfying than the one you lost.
So if you’ve ever found yourself asking, “Who moved my cheese?” , take a deep breath, smile, and keep moving.
Because the maze is vast, the opportunities are many, and the journey itself might be the best part of all.
Artificial Intelligence seems to be everywhere today, especially when you work with it. At times, it feels like the mankind has already been divided into two large groups of those who create/work/use/somehow deal with AI and those who don’t, and therefore are doomed to work with their hands till the end of their lives, because they don’t have enough education to enter the AI-savvy part of the mankind.
The seeming simplicity of dealing with AI is a myth. Just using it to create pictures or videos for your friends’ birthdays won’t let you make a decent living, but anything that can bring you more or less stable income in the world of IT requires knowledge. Deep. Profound. Balanced with long experience. Cemented with continuous, never-ending learning.
Having a strong sales team, along with the ability to retain it, is a major condition of revenue growth for every business. It does not matter if your team is large or only has you and your business partner, the rules of the game are the same: your sales team is the blood system of your business, and your success in sales depends on the professionalism and the dynamics of your sales people’s work.
But how can you build a winning sales team? And how can you keep the desired dynamics of their work? In this article, we will try to answer these questions.
The first thing to do for a manager who is about to build a strong sales team is to make decision about the sellers’ competences that he/she needs for the business.
As a manager you need to know what scope of activities your sales people are going to cover;
Secondly, it is necessary to outline the skills required for every sales person you already have and for everyone you are planning to hire. Creating an outline of each role in your sales team would be a useful thing, and of course, you need to collect and analyze regular updates of the results of your sales team’s work: How many new clients have they attracted in a month? Why that many? How much income have they made for the business? What product/service seemed to sell better (worse) last month? Why so? It might be helpful to create a table of such questions and fill it with results of analysis every month. In a year, you can collect valuable information about the work of your sales department. Keeping track of the sales team’s work and doing regular analysis of the results will let you create a rational plan for the next year’s needs of the business in sales people
Now, when you know where you are going and when you have set up the rhythm of your sales, you have to think about keeping that rhythm stable and retaining your sales people in the team. Here are a few basic and “classical” measures that can help you accomplish this task.
Engage every team member into the life of your business, let them sense its rhythm and dynamics and feel that they are a part of it.
Create specific, measurable goals for each team member and set up regular team meetings to let your sales team see how their individual contributions flow into the “pool” of the whole business.
Make sure that the goals you set are monitored, engineered and broken down into activities that a salesperson can control.
Creating a backlog of engagement activities would be a good idea; it helps keep your team working with the same pace and following the right direction.
Set the dynamics of each salesperson’s work. This means that you need to support the development of each salesperson’s skills to achieve their long-term professional development.
Take steps to create retention and promotion opportunities for your sales people. Every worker will appreciate knowing that your company has a thought-through system and a set of traditions for retaining/promoting sales people.
Organize frequent coaching for all team members, let them exchange experiences; make sure that they obtain trainings from experienced sales people representing other businesses.
Also, certification is a powerful tool to ensure success of your sales people.
The one thing you certainly don’t want to happen is to lose your sales worker after you have invested a lot of time and resources into their professional growth. There is always some risk that a sales person who has left your business may join your competition some day; this means double trouble for you.
So, whenever you take new sales people into your team and make a commitment to train them, make sure to do this well. They will remain with your business and contribute into it for years if they feel satisfaction and see promotion opportunities in proportion to their professional growth.
If you are new to the whole starting-a-business thing, you certainly have a lot on your plate trying to set up everything you need for it, and of course, you are in a hurry to attract your first sales a.s.a.p. In this situation, marketing seems to be some thing of the future, because… well, there have been no sales, so there is nothing to market yet!
Let me save you the time of reading and say from the very start that this approach would be wrong. Marketing a business is born along with its name, and should grow little by little as you are setting the business up. I will gladly discuss pros and cons of the process with you in comments (or on a chat if you like), but here I am going to share a few particular ways to market your new business as you are setting it up.
Build a community. Every successful business needs returning customers. If you have a little candy store on a street corner, you rely on that elderly couple and that woman with three kids, and that guy in a funny hat who have developed a habit of visiting you daily. Nothing is different in online business: if you have a stable community — a group of like-minded people who keep visiting your website or blog — you feel kind-of backed up by their support. Some of them will certainly buy your products or services once in a while; they will spread a word about you to more people, and thus your community will grow and strengthen.
Connect with your customers via social media. Why not connect with your existing customers via Facebook? Why not place pictures of your store, your goods or just yourself doing various things on Instagram? This will show both, your current and potential customers that you are a creative individual, that you are quite accessible in case if they need to connect with you, and that you are.. well, just a nice person.
Hosting virtual meetings, workshops or masterclasses is another good way to attract people to your business. Call them out to meet you in a chat while you show them how you create your product, or explain how you provide your service. Show them the outcome which they may have if they buy from you. People like to socialize, especially when they can take something (a piece of knowledge, for example) away after a meetup. It is more efficient that hosting conferences or providing webinars where you are the only one who speaks all the time. Think about it. You might make your products and services shine in your customers’ eyes by just showing them how your services work in a virtual meeting.
Do not just tell things to people: show them things. You can attract many customers by simply starting an Instagram account and posting photos related to your business there.
Do not forget about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is another cost-effective way to spread information about your business. It won’t work for you right away, but in the long run it will help create stable inflow of visitors to your website (blog). Read about SEO on the Internet (there are thousands of articles) and consider doing it if you have not done this yet.
As soon as you have your first customers, consider doing so-called referral-based marketing. Before buying your product or service, eight people in ten would like to see some reviews, testimonials or case studies, to build up their opinion about buying or not buying from you. So, do not forget to ask your happy customers for a review or a reference, or a simple comment on your website about their impressions of working with you.
Provide discounts, offer free trials and previews. Do something for free. Why? Because people love it. I think this one does not even require an explanation, 🙂
Well, I think I will finish here today, but of course this is just the beginning of a long ToDo list which you will have as you start marketing your new business. Please, share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below. I will very appreciate any feedback.
As a foreword to this article, let me share a request that I seem to receive from our customers with regularity that requires special attention.
“…our operation management system is limited to papers…, so we’ve been thinking about introducing an App integrated into a program/software available to clients on our website…”
In 2020, when half of the world has already gone digital and the other is on the way, many companies — from small outlets to large monsters of business — rethink their management strategies and upgrade their operation management systems.
It is no longer new that in every industry and domain, customers’ digital expectations are becoming higher today. On the one hand, everybody is looking for digital products and services as more innovative and attractive to use; on the other hand, everyone loves the speed, accuracy, productivity, and convenience that digital world offers us.
At the same time, the soaring development of digital products and services raises new questions for the role of operations management, because many businesses have already devoted significant time, resources, and attention to improving management of their operations.
I have heard some company leaders ask about it directly: “If so many of our current operations are going to be automated—what will be left to manage?”
The answer, of course, is evident: “Still a lot.”
The so-called digitizing or digital transformation is new and is happening a bit too fast, indeed. The speed at which digital technologies spread and penetrate into our lives is freaking out. Even balancing between lower investment into traditional operations against greater investment into digital causes questions among leaders of businesses. Because, well, let’s face it: if you do it slowly, you can’t beat the competition, and it is kind of equal to doing nothing. If you do it fast, you can hardly remain the most innovative company for a long time, because while you are implementing your technology, a few others—even more elaborate and efficient—have already appeared on the market.
Then, how should businesses structure their operations management to make it invulnerable to technological change? The only answer that comes to mind is: building people’s capabilities. Today, machines are increasingly capable of complex—even smart—activities, such as developing algorithms for mathematical modeling or even more: the miracles performed by machine learning. So, the people operating machines need to acquire new skills—the ones that enable their work with such savvy machines and programs.
Experts say that in these conditions businesses have to deal with four major shifts.
Firs of all, a business needs to know what combination of digital and analog (or traditional) technologies can be the most desirable in their particular situation. Rather than simply abandon digitization, it would be smart for each company to analyze their processes related to customers and study their employees’ activities, and then determine which reports could be turned into automated products.
A company like the one I am with, CHI Software, can perform such analysis and advise businesses about the best choices to make. A good piece of software that takes care of the ongoing dialogue among customers, employees and some third-party services, can help reduce times, costs and human involvement into those operations in times, which means that the business can quickly develop and test almost any automated report, successfully roll it out in record time and thus, satisfy everyone involved in the process of services.
Secondly, it is important to re-orient many business activities to showcase and sustain digital. This means modifying roles for everyone, from clerks and ordinary workers to investment advisers, by introducing new ways of communication, customer service and general management of operations.
In an example of a project where a portal connecting customers with a company employees was developed, within the first three months of using the new portal, the amount of services increased 70 percent, while the costly manual processing reduces two times, which made bringing new customers on board 60 percent faster!
The next shift lies in rethinking internal roles so that they support the way your business works with its customers. Our client, a European city municipality learned this lesson as it set out on a digital redesign of its complex, manual processes related to providing building permissions to construction companies. The entire process consisted of hundreds of little steps performed by numerous clerks, such as document reviews, compliance checks or paper and payment processing—with no real correlation to what customers wanted to accomplish. The monstrous amount of time and effort was wasted by both parties, the municipal employees and their customers.
The municipal authorities decided to restructure their services so that customers could easily reach their processing clerks and exchange information online; they also allowed to fill out papers online and share information about a client’s package of papers between various municipal departments. The resulting reconfiguration of the whole operations management system reduced handoffs and time loss by two times, effectively doubling total capacity.
The final shift requires managers to develop much stronger day-to-day skills in working with their teams. A top-to-bottom transformation requires time, considerable effort and a good deal of open, progressive thinking. During digital transformation in companies, managers and leaders often report high levels of stress and turnover. But finally, the results are impressive: reduction of operational expenses, increase in general income, success and noticeable growth of business.
Please, do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions regarding digital transformation for your operations management system.
What Use Can Logistics Companies Make of the AI and IoT Technology Today?
#technologyforlogistics
Since the beginning of the new millennium, when technologies have become capable of replacing people in many complex, smart operations, more and more businesses realize the necessity to optimize their daily processes by digitalizing nearly every step in their performance. As I am focusing on logistics, I will give you a few examples of the use that logistics companies can make of the technology innovations today.
Logistics is changing these days. Technology has penetrated into all of its domains and changed the way how freight, sales orders, materials, goods, production, inventory and accounting are managed.
Every logistics company, however, performs its own, unique combination of specific operations that aren’t fully covered by ready-made solutions. This is why owners of logistics companies often have to decide whether to adopt a commercial solution or to invest into creation of software which would be tailored to their specific needs (so-called custom, or customized, solution).
Gartner has predicted that 50% of the large global companies will use advanced analytics, IoT and AI in their supply chain operations in 2020, and it seems they already do. Let us take a look at how the most innovative technologies like AI (artificial intelligence) and the newest IoT (Internet of Things) solutions work to the advantage of logistics companies. First of all, it is necessary to say that Logistics and Transportation Management (TM) system require continuous analysis of all operations and so every business has to attract logistics professionals who focus on the procurement and planning of transportation of people, goods or materials.
There are eight major areas to deal with in Transportation Management System: in each of them, the use of innovative technologies can boost the business and help companies overcome competition.
Dealing with Pickup and Delivery Requests
Here, a customer assigns pickup/delivery requests that go to the carrier. In this business, a great answer to optimizing daily operations would be to develop an interface for customers to send pickup/delivery requests. To handle the operations effectively, there are many logistics software available in the market. NetSuite and McLeod are popular platforms for logistics operations that are capable of doing many operations like forecasting and budgeting, supply chain and inventory, revenue management, customer relationship management and business intelligence. Companies that would like to make sure that all of their unique operations are covered may decide to develop their own software which will be adapted specifically to their needs.
Dealing with Carrier Management
How can carriers identify if the deliveries are done efficiently or not? The best answer to this task in the 21-st century is predictive analytics. Predictive analytics algorithms can ensure so-called on-time and in-full delivery, meaning that that fleets arrive on time, and goods are received and moved on time so that shipments are delivered to customers when they want it.
To make this possible, some IoT devices (sensors) are embedded in trucks, trains or ships; they feed data like engine performance, speed (or weight, temperature, humidity – literally any countable data) and send it to the carriers. Based on the received data, logistics specialists can model and predict the estimated arrival times and engine failures. For example, telematics data captured from a vehicle can reveal its speed, position, condition and time left to reach the destination.
The obtained data is also used to notify people about delays along with the load/unload activities, trucks heading to the same destination and product delivery requirements. As a result, all this ensures minimized delays and fulfilled customer expectations.
Smart logistics that uses AI and IoT can help ports, shipping companies, suppliers and agents optimize resource utilization and their schedules.
Another answer to the tasks of logistics is Demand Forecasting – a technology that works in the basis of inventory and orders data. Using it, companies can predict the demand for shipments and products in their supply chain. Logistics companies need to evaluate capacity demand based on the combination of historical data, including inventory data and order data. They implement forecasting models for better decision making. Companies that use custom demand forecasting models, obtain accurate forecasts that help them decide what additional capacity is required, how to routes and times of transportation, and what to do to improve cargo vehicle capacity and asset utilization.
Thanks to accurate predictions of asset and shipment demands, the logistics companies can increase cargo capacity and high-demand goods can be delivered to customers on-time.
Implementing IoT sensors in logistics makes tracking of goods more accessible. Sensors are used to capture and exchange data. IoT allows handling data remotely across the network infrastructure. Sensors can be embedded, for example, in vehicles carrying goods from one place to another. Data captured by sensors can be converted into valuable insights using AI. AI-enabled analytics facilitate tracking of shipments and send tracking reports during the trip. Real-time monitoring of goods provides information like departure and arrival times; loss of goods during the journey; live location of the shipment; any deviations from the scheduled route, etc. With all this information, logistics companies can considerably improve their operations.
In food transportation logistics, IoT sensors can be used to send useful data about food around the whole supply chain, ensuring that all food safety regulations are met and maintaining complete transparency of every operation.
Carriers are always interested in optimizing transportation routes and communication with warehouses, and here the role of IoT and AI technologies cannot be overestimated. IoT provides real-time insights that can be monitored and reported, therefore it becomes easier to identify and deal with delays due to weather conditions or maintenance issues with trucks, and carriers can be effectively traced throughout the whole supply chain.
Optimized route planning using AI and IoT is becoming a norm, even a necessity, for logistics companies today. Loads can be assigned for pickup to drivers based on their current location: a driver nearby can pick up a load and deliver it to a certain place. Depending on the type of goods to pick up, decisions about transportation can be made right ‘on the go’ due to the information captured by sensors and sent to the service providers.
IoT sensors can provide information on the type of goods, their real time location, changes of the planned route, delivery/pickup from warehouses, temperature, humidity, etc. If AI technologies are also implemented, the providers of logistics services can, for example, estimate delivery times, analyze driver’s behavior, check quality and condition of the transported goods, suggest solutions about the best routes to choose, etc. Thus, warehouses can efficiently plan their operations and do it in advance, which helps optimize the whole chain of the performed operations.
Pickup Optimization
Technologies, including AI and IoT, are used for pickup optimization. As trucks are selected for pickup based on the type of load to be carried, AI learns historical patterns of the previous operations and suggests the most efficient decisions to carriers. An AI-based model can predict which truck should picking up goods at a certain time in a certain place. If a truck is supplied with certain IoT sensors/devices, it is possible to gather information about the temperature under which goods are stored, the real time of the goods location, truck information like speed, fuel expenses, etc.
Warehouse Management
Certain combination of AI and IoT can facilitate carrier and warehouse collaboration. For example, IoT sensors equipped in a truck send the real-time location of the truck and its ETA to warehouse managers. Based on this information, warehouse managers can keep the required space vacant and prepare for the unloading of goods before time. It will help warehouses manage their schedules efficiently and precisely.
If sensors are installed around the warehouse area, they would send the information related to doors near the vacant space to truck drivers based on their GPS data and estimated time of arrival. It will help truck drivers reduce the time of entering the warehouse. And this is only one example of possible ways to facilitate better collaboration between logistics companies and warehouses.
IoT can be used to ensure safety of drivers and goods : specially designed locks facilitate interlocking of the trailer’s air brakes with the dock door. Smart locks ensure that the truck cannot depart until unloading/loading gets completed. Trailers can only leave the warehouse when the dock door is closed. It can keep your equipment and employees safe.
One more way to ensure the security of the warehouse is by using computer vision. IoT cameras can be installed in the warehouse area that captures the status of loading /unloading and load transfer. Edge computing can be applied to the smart cameras that enable the crucial action based on any event fetched during load transfer activity. If any fragile good gets broken up during unloading due to the bad behavior of labor, warehouse managers can get notified about it.
Transit Operations Optimization
IoT-enabled sensors and AI technology in combination with GPS sensors installed in trucks can provide its real-time location based on which AI model evaluates the estimated time of arrival. Based on the real-time data gathered by IoT devices, logistics companies can track transit operations in real-time.
With the help of predictive analytics companies study the difference between predicted time and the actual time the truck takes to reach the destination. Customers and logistics companies can know if the goods are delivered under the right temperature conditions.
Load Exchange Optimization
When a truck gets overloaded or gets into an accident, truck drivers have to wait for a long time to find alternative options. But IoT and AI can help reduce the wait time by capturing real-time data and enabling intelligent actions. AI-based models for load exchange optimization would allow quick exchange of load from one truck to another. IoT sensors would capture the information about the delay of the truck and a new vehicle will be assigned automatically to exchange the load and deliver it to the final destination. GPS devices installed in the truck provide information, including latitude and longitude, real-time location of the vehicle and motion of the vehicle. So, carriers can quickly determine the condition of a vehicle during an accident and react accordingly.
Delivery Process Management
To deliver goods from warehouses to end customers, trucks can be notified about the vacant door for picking up goods and warehouse operators would be informed about the load preparation. Then, the goods will be transferred to the carrier under the complete security using IoT-enabled locks and computer vision-based cameras. Once the loading is done, the carrier can set on the way and deliver the load to the customers.
Business Intelligence and Reporting
Once transportation operations are done, companies often need a comprehensive report that contain the negative and positive trends of performance during the supply of goods. Everyone knows that the demand for business intelligence within the logistics and transportation space is skyrocketing. They want to identify root causes and analyze negative trends in performance and cost to take intelligent actions.
Business Intelligence allows converting data into valuable information. Earlier, reporting was only limited to extracting data, fetching it from a system and bringing it into a spreadsheet or database where a company would try to use it and convert it into useful data.
But nowadays, business intelligence has reached the next level, where companies can generate valuable reports that showcase all the data about logistics providers in a scorecard format. Factors, including on-time pick-up and delivery, capacity commitments and driver behavior are assigned metrics that help users determine the performance of carriers.
Also, managers who require a daily and quick overview of what is happening can use real-time dashboards that provide real-time information and help users solve problems as they occur. Dashboards offer companies the advantage of quick reaction time as users don’t have to wait for someone to create and send reports.
Companies use BI and reporting to display patterns found in historical data that can predict opportunities and future risks in the supply chain or transportation networks.
Let’s understand how shippers can use business intelligence to improve logistics and supply chain operations with an example. Suppose one shipper has a 90-percent on-time delivery rate for load transfer consistently, but he wants to go to the root of the problem dragging down the other ten percent of shipment. Did delays occur because of the broken lanes? Is there any problem with the equipment or carrier?
With business intelligence, it becomes possible to narrow down delay-causing factors. For example, if the shipper reached late due to the congestion in that way, companies can discover the issue with business intelligence and take necessary actions.
With BI data, it becomes easier for logistics companies and their team to make operational decisions more efficiently.
Therefore, implementing BI across the shipments can result in an end-to-end pickup and delivery time improvement.
Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things are disrupting logistics and transportation management by making logistics operations more smarter day by day. It is expected that delays in pickups/deliveries and trucking capacity concerns will become a matter of the past when AI and IoT come into use everywhere.
Making first steps in business may come as a big turn in life for you and of course it may cause quite a lot of stress. Well, it is a universal fact: starting up a business is always painful.
Suppose you have come up with a great business idea, developed a business plan, built up the website and set up a whole business platform for it, spent time and money on advertisement and general arrangements and finally, when you already have your leg in the doorway, you realize that there are thousands of other companies like yours in the market doing the same business as yours!
Quite upsetting, eh? Well, it is always so. Moreover, there will be dozens of real business monsters that are successful simply because they are large and are covering 80% of your potential clientele, and there are smaller units — just next door — which have been in this market for quite a while and are doing successfully.
How can you overcome this period of uncertainty? What should you do to survive and beat the fierce competition? Well, I have developed a few simple rules for myself; keeping to them has always been very helpful, so let me share them with you here.
Know the competition. Find out what they are offering, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This will identify the areas you need to compete in, and give you a platform for differentiating yourself.
Know your customers. Their expectations change all the time, at some moments the change may be quite dramatic. Find out what matters to them at this particular moment – it may be a lower price, a change in a product or service, or deficit of particular products – just take time to analyze the situation in the market.
Use individual approach. This rule is as old as the world, but still, only the smartest business people can use it well and with every client they face. First of all, you need to give your customers good reasons to come to you rather than your next door competitor. To attract customers to your business, you need to know very well what they want at this moment. It should be clear and obvious – no-one should have to ask what makes you different.
Never put marketing aside. Make continuous effort to tell people who you are, what you sell and why they should buy from you. It doesn’t have to be expensive – promotional ideas can range from a poster in your window to photos of your products on Instagram and big social media campaigns.
Create an image for yourself and keep it looking nice. Simple steps such as creating a good header for your blog can make your business look more attractive and inviting. Look at your business cards, social media presence, your website layout, packaging of your goods, clothing and so on. How does your business look in your clients’ eyes?
Continuously improve customer services. Think about your customers and try to be more responsive to their needs and expectations. Consider offering little extras such as discounts or loyalty schemes. It is always easier to keep existing customers than to find new ones.
Target new markets. Expanding your markets can do more than just increasing your customer base: it can spread (and therefore minimize) your risk. You may want to reach a wider audience by selling online, you can expand your advertising to sending emails to potential clients overseas, well there may be many ideas, you only need to start thinking in that direction.
Finally, you need to always look to the future. A business that is planned for growth is more successful than those that remain still. Keep up following consumer trends, invest time and funds in new technology, develop a clear idea of where you want to be in one, two and five years’ time. Even if you cannot be absolutely sure, planning for the future helps.
Putting it short, simply set up your mind on development and success. Love your business and your product/service, and never stop studying it. Also, learn to inspire people to buy your products and services, and success will come soon, I am sure. I have been living with this motto: Share love. Educate, Inspire. It works. It works really well.
Share love. Educate. Inspire. 