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Supply chain & logistics
Overview
Xchanging’s previous review of the supply chain and logistics sector depicted an industry reeling from the impact of the global economic crisis.
Then, in the period between December 2007 and December 2008, global international cargo traffic had plummeted by 22.6%. International passenger traffic had taken a 4.6% drop.1
Today, figures from the same source reveal a picture of continuing challenges:
“Passenger Demand Grew as Air Cargo Declined in 2012: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced full-year traffic data for 2012 showing a 5.3% year-on-year increase in passenger demand and a 1.5% fall for cargo.”2
Offsetting the overall decline in cargo traffic was the development of trade between Asia and Africa which supported strong growth for airlines based in the Middle East (14.7%) and Africa (7.1%) – a reflection of the contribution emerging economies are making to recovery.
In the developed economies, meanwhile, organisations continue to look at strategies for optimising their supply chains.
According to the 2013 Third-Party Logistics Study, outsourcing is widely seen as an important part of the way forward:
“Despite challenging business conditions, aggregate global revenues for the 3PL sector continue to rise, and far more shippers (65%) are increasing their use of 3PL services than returning to insourcing (22%) some 3PL services. Nearly three in five (58%) shippers are reducing or consolidating the number of 3PLs they use. Shippers report spending an average 12% of revenues on logistics, and an average 39% of that figure is spent on outsourced logistics services.”3
The critical question for these organisations is precisely which aspects of their supply chain should be outsourced.
PwC suggest that for the most successful the answer is often to outsource support functions such as warehousing, manufacturing and assembly whilst continuing to insource core strategic functions such as sales and operations planning, or research and development.4
This certainly mirrors the experience at Xchanging where we work with one of the biggest names in this sector.
For this customer, we provide Application Management Services and manage their data and transactions to support their international express, overland transport and air freight services across more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.
This removes complexity and simplifies business processes so that the customer can concentrate on their core business activity.
1 http://bit.ly/rgiDWC
2 http://bit.ly/bo8pKP
3 http://bit.ly/12ffeUm
4 http://bit.ly/11GKuvv
To discover more about the ways in which we can help our customers, please click the links below:
We offer supply chain and logistics enterprises the opportunity to remove complexity across a full range of business processes – including payroll, learning and development, recruitment, HR administration. We can also offer offshoring services delivering advantages including speed to market, back office transformation, on-demand business, improved customer service and cost optimisation. The result is more flexibility and greater efficiency in the face of formidable challenges.
Customers include: DHL
We offer extensive technology capabilities across a variety of industry sectors. In the supply chain and logistics industry specifically, we have developed business processing software for one of the world’s largest courier companies and provide an array of technology service for a global leader in petroleum shipping - including Oracle financial support and legacy server migration tasks. On the wider stage, our infrastructure team supports customers’ growth with cost effective, scalable and rapidly-deployed solutions. We can also provide customers with Total IT Outsourcing (ITO) solutions – a single point of supply for an end-to-end managed service.
Customers include: DHL, American Eagle Tankers
We are experts in supporting procurement professionals with services including sourcing, spend management, procure to pay (P2P), system management and software solutions. In this industry, we already provide sourcing and category management for an international leader in pallet and container pooling.
Customers include: CHEP
