Logistics software development - outsourcing company Boosty Labs
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Logistics software development

We are a custom logistics software development company specializing also in blockchain outsource software development, outstaff development and tech consulting. For over five years we have been offering logistics software development services. Boosty Labs is a world-class fintech and cloud engineering team with several years’ background of practice that combines consulting, strategy, design and engineering at scale. Mainly in logistics industry software development, finance, real estate, distributed ledger and cloud technology.
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The reasons for software development in the logistics industry

01.

The level of inventory often becomes the subject of conflicts arising between such divisions of the company as purchasing, sales, marketing, finance, as well as the warehouse located under the "jurisdiction" of the logistics service.

02.

When managing purchases, cross-functional conflicts are typical, arising in such parameters as the assortment of the purchased consignment, basic terms of delivery, terms of delivery (type of vehicle, as well as transport packaging and goods carrier), and the choice of a supplier.

03.

Lack of control over logistics processes enterprises as an organization of a single business process.

04.

Lack of rational management of supply chains, underdeveloped transport network, lack of a network of terminal and logistics complexes, insufficient level of technical support, lack of knowledge in the field of improving the efficiency of managing warehouses and warehouse complexes.

05.

Lack of understanding by the management of the real problems of their own enterprise (or their reasons) and an attempt to implement a standard "fashionable" information system or copy the organization of another company's warehouse.

06.

Use of outdated, or rather, non-use of modern technologies, such as bar coding, real-time mode, wave processing, specialized automated systems for processing goods.

01.

The level of inventory often becomes the subject of conflicts arising between such divisions of the company as purchasing, sales, marketing, finance, as well as the warehouse located under the "jurisdiction" of the logistics service.

02.

When managing purchases, cross-functional conflicts are typical, arising in such parameters as the assortment of the purchased consignment, basic terms of delivery, terms of delivery (type of vehicle, as well as transport packaging and goods carrier), and the choice of a supplier.

03.

Lack of control over logistics processes enterprises as an organization of a single business process.

04.

Lack of rational management of supply chains, underdeveloped transport network, lack of a network of terminal and logistics complexes, insufficient level of technical support, lack of knowledge in the field of improving the efficiency of managing warehouses and warehouse complexes.

05.

Lack of understanding by the management of the real problems of their own enterprise (or their reasons) and an attempt to implement a standard "fashionable" information system or copy the organization of another company's warehouse.

06.

Use of outdated, or rather, non-use of modern technologies, such as bar coding, real-time mode, wave processing, specialized automated systems for processing goods.

Application of blockchain technologies in the logistics industry

Logistics is one of the key elements in all branches of modern industry. It ensures that the items are delivered to their destination with minimal time and cost. Simply put, it is the implementation and organization of complex operations for the transportation of goods from one place to another (usually from the place of production to the consumer). Today's logistics industry is huge. The logistics industry was valued at a staggering $ 8.1 trillion as of 2017, and that estimate is projected to double by 2023.

The logistics industry includes many parties: manufacturers, customers, suppliers, auditors and others. Blockchain technology offers benefits to all participants in this chain. While operating processes can be profitable, shipping companies and retailers lose a significant portion of their revenue through ineffective methods, unnecessary intermediary costs, theft, cyber attacks and food waste. Mislabeled, mis-shipped or stolen shipments alone generate at least $ 50 billion in losses each year.

The best way blockchain can help logistics is by eliminating inefficiencies. Right now, almost every element of the supply chain has a ton of options to work with. Brokers, shippers, and others should focus on efficiency rather than getting stuck in choosing the best implementation. On top of that, there was always a ton of paperwork that needed to be processed.

Documenting makes the already slow end-to-end transport even more inefficient. In fact, this is the absence of a single source of truth and complex processes that negate the entire logistics process. There is a need for a decentralized organization that can handle all transactions and also act as a hub to validate and improve the entire process.

Blockchain makes logistics more efficient and transparent. The blockchain's ability to act as a ledger makes it an ideal technology to simplify tracking of shipments, global contracts and payment processing in the logistics industry. This allows customers to track the product and its entire production chain. Auditors can easily confirm or verify any transactions.

The information stored on the blockchain cannot be changed by any third party, making this technology more secure than any existing solution. Technology can help program a fragmented and complex process so that both the supply chain and logistics itself are more efficient than ever. For this, the blockchain must act as the backbone of the logistics network. It will handle everything, including providing the means to record transactions, creating an efficient and transparent system, and tracking assets with all the necessary documentation. Since the blockchain is digital in nature, documentation must be kept online, which gives everyone access to data from any location. It can help companies make their supply chain more secure and improve transaction flow. Each product receives a specific tag that allows companies to secure their supply chains with just a few clicks.

The decentralized public registry system, which documents all changes to the record in real time and records the movements of each shipping container, allows information on authenticity, origin, ownership certificates and storage location to be stored. Thus, all the information you need is stored in one easily accessible place, which makes the supply chain completely transparent. Armed with this data, companies can implement faster routes and eliminate unnecessary steps in the shipping process.

At the same time, this technology helps to reduce the number of fraud and theft of goods. With smart contracts, retailers no longer need to rely on brokers, lawyers, or other third parties to complete tasks. Smart contracts allow retailers and logistics companies to enter into binding agreements that are immediately terminated if all agreed terms are not met. Such contracts increase transparency and profitability by reducing delivery times and costly errors.

The logistics industry employs a very large number of people and is constantly growing. Therefore, in order to cope with the growing demand for shipping, it is necessary to introduce innovative solutions. The concept of IoE (Internet of Everything) creates new problems related to connected devices. They require a higher level of security, and blockchain is the best solution today as it is protected by advanced encryption methods, distributed ledgers and smart contracts.These blockchain features enable us to fight against theft, ransomware, corruption, premiums, and tracking issues. With blockchain primarily in logistics, shipping and freight will improve. It can be used to improve the international and local shipping process. It will also force manufacturers and transport companies to improve their production capacity and the efficiency of their production processes. When implemented correctly, blockchain provides better supply chain transparency, which in turn ensures logistics transparency. 

Also, blockchain technology can help solve the problem of tracking stocks by offering companies the ability to manage their products not only at the macro level, but also at the micro level. In addition, disputes can be resolved much faster with immutable data and real-time cargo information. Thanks to automation, many disputes can be resolved in minutes using reliable data. It will also help companies resolve disputes with customers. 

Finally, blockchain can help improve billing and payments through an efficient and secure system. Companies can use smart contracts to automate the entire process, making it error-free and transparent. It will also make billing and payment super efficient. The blockchain-based supply chain will undoubtedly help save millions of dollars, as well as reduce the dependence of the entire system on numerous intermediaries and significantly increase its transparency.

Software development services for the logistics industry

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The level of manual optimization no longer gives an opportunity to develop

Solution: a monitoring and tracking system that allows you to digitize the movement of objects (cargo, forklifts, people) inside the warehouse in real time, compare the ideal mathematical model with real processes and assess how they are implemented within the framework of the compiled model.

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The need to accelerate logistics processes and improve the accuracy of inventory management

Solution: warehouse robotization. No manual labor, robotic trolleys capable of moving pallets around the warehouse, systems that work with the number of storeys of shelves, and so on. Especially relevant for the e-commerce segment.

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Insufficient optimization of fleet operations and delivery

A tailored fleet and delivery solution meets any specific business requirements: continuous connectivity, proactive management, regulatory compliance and superior customer service for flawless order fulfillment.

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Lack of high-quality communication between freight yard and terminal employees

Cargo yards and terminals take up a lot of space, they are very noisy, and employees are rarely in one particular location for long periods of time, let alone at their desk. It is critical to uptime that all employees have access to mobile data and voice functionality. With a solution from Boosty Labs, employees can work more efficiently with a single device that has all the features they need to focus on high throughput.

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Lack of transparency in return processes

Return supply chain management can be challenging for manufacturers or retailers. Boosty Labs solution works in conjunction with the enterprise management systems to provide complete visibility into operations to efficiently handle customer returns, return seasonal and surplus stocks, or identify items for refurbishment or disposal.

Benefits of logistics industry software development solutions

Optimization of processes of interaction of freight forwarding companies with a client

Web services, as well as electronic data exchange systems, significantly optimize the processes of interaction of freight forwarding companies with a client; they allow to significantly reduce the administrative costs of all participants in the logistics process, reduce the labor intensity of logistics processes, speed up the execution of operations and make transport logistics more transparent for all participants.

Reducing costs for owners of their own vehicles

Satellite control and monitoring of vehicles can reduce transport costs, reduce transport downtime, detect and prevent wasteful use of transport resources. Optimization of delivery routes helps to achieve significantly greater utilization of the transport fleet and reduce delivery times.

Increasing transparency and interactivity of the transport process

Mobile technologies can make the transport process more transparent and interactive. For example, it is more efficient to receive information about the delivery status of each specific cargo, to ensure transport document flow, to control the quality of deliveries, to promptly make adjustments to the routes of vehicles, etc.

Improving the quality of routing

The use of a digital platform that introduces the principle of aviation dispatching into logistics, working in real time with geodata, transport assignments, cartography and transport telematics, interpreting these statuses and events into an incident model, makes it possible not only to understand where the transport is traveling, but when it will arrive at the nearest and the next points.

Digitalization trends in the logistics industry

The introduction of IT technologies in logistics processes (digitalization or digitalization) is not a new trend, but the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly activated it.

Logistic processes are becoming more complex, the requirements for the quality of services, first of all, for speed, are constantly growing. Only IT technologies that exclude the human factor from the processes can provide full control over the execution of the supply chain in modern conditions.

The Internet of Things (IoT), gadgets, artificial intelligence (AI) have all made it possible to create fully automated logistics routes, and such routes may appear by 2025.

Digitalization makes it possible to develop in the full sense of the "seamless", flexible supply chain, during the passage of which the goods are not delayed at any of the stages, which maximizes the speed of delivery of goods. This not only allows for just-in-time strategies, but also reduces shipping costs.

Robotization and autonomous delivery

Robotization and autonomous delivery are trends that follow alongside digitalization and are gradually becoming key. The pandemic, with its limitations on social contacts, also served as a powerful stimulus for the development of this direction.

Robotisation can be considered to have taken place in some segments of the logistics of the most advanced participants in the logistics market, in particular, warehouse robots provide work for Amazon and Alibaba.

Autonomous delivery, as a direction of robotization, is still ahead, since the industry of autonomous vehicles itself is practically in its infancy. However, experimental unmanned models of all vehicles have already been created and are being tested, routes are being formed, and control methods are being developed.

The delivery of goods using drones can even be considered an established logistics industry, albeit at the very early stage of development. The problem of the rapid introduction of unmanned delivery vehicles is not only that there are still few serial autonomous vehicles, but also that society, business and states are not yet ready to step to a new level of development: the infrastructure has not been developed, there is no legal support for autonomous delivery, no specialists and so on.

But all these problems can be solved by 2025, at least in the most technologically advanced countries.

Sustainability of supplies

One of the important directions in the development of logistics is attention to the sustainability of supplies. Protecting the environment, reducing the anthropogenic load on the environment has already become a necessary task for all mankind.

The main task in this direction is to reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles of all types and types, down to zero. By 2025, the requirements for the environmental friendliness of the vehicle will only increase.

At least for some time, this will restrict the development of logistics, until an environmentally friendly transport infrastructure is formed, comparable in capacity to a conventional, “carbon” one.

Unified autonomous networks

Based on these trends, it can be argued that in the near future it will be possible to form fully autonomous logistics networks, first at the local level, then at the regional, and then on the global scale.

Unified autonomous logistics networks will be organically integrated into the existing transport infrastructure, taking into account the minimum impact on the environment.

Within the framework of unified autonomous logistics chains, the interaction of all types of unmanned vehicles will be established and the coherence of all logistics operations will be worked out. The elimination of the unpredictable human factor will make the logistics accurate, fast and error-free.

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