The Top 5 Logistics Software Integration Challenges

Lots of things that sound good in theory don’t work so well in practice—like New Year’s resolutions or big budget film sequels. New software solutions can also fall into that category for any number of reasons: the product you saw in the demo might not really reflect what’s in the platform, or what looked user-friendly at first turns out to be unworkable for your team, or it could turn out that your new solution simply doesn’t play nicely with the rest of your tech stack.

This last issue is one of the most common. That’s precisely why integration is top of mind for so many businesses that deal with last mile deliveries. The potential issues that can crop up from a failed integration can eat into the ROI of the new software deployment—and in some cases can even mean switching to a new provider before you’ve gotten off the ground with the software you intended to integrate.?

What Are the Top Pitfalls in Last Mile Logistics Software Integration?

There’s a lot that you’re looking out for when you select new last mile technology. You probably want something that can improve your routing performance, streamline your workflows, improve customer satisfaction, and ideally reduce delivery costs.?

Once you’ve chosen the right solution, the key to actually reaping those benefits is to avoid any of the potential pitfalls that can crop up along the way. Here’s how to spot them and avoid them.

SaaS vs. On-Prem?

Okay, first things first: the era of on-premise technology stacks is over. It’s over for most functional areas and businesses, anyway, and that certainly includes the last mile and related logistics processes. Cloud technology has proven itself over the past two decades or so as the more secure, flexible, and cost-effective choice for most businesses.?

Obviously, many of the businesses that rely on route optimization software to get their deliveries routed will have deployed their current software solutions before SaaS becomes a viable option. If you’re in that camp, it’s probably time to upgrade—and it’s definitely time to upgrade to the cloud. Why? Because SaaS software deployments help you future-proof your technology and ensure that future integrations won’t become unworkable.

Because the onus is on the provider to ensure software updates and ongoing compatibility, you can rest assured that data connections that work today will continue to work going forward. This positions you for future success and smoother integrations all around.?

Planning for Scale

For many businesses that deal with last mile delivery, ensuring software integrations that can deal with the required scale can be a challenge. Your software initiatives may be undertaken at the leadership level, but delivery execution is fundamentally local. That means that successful integration—including successful deployment and acceptance across multiple locations—depends on your ability to find the right solution for your entire operation.?

When you miss the mark on this, there’s a chance that you’ll wind up with different branches running shadow IT deployments to fill in gaps in their needs. If this happens, it can have serious consequences for your ability to carry out last mile delivery improvements.?

The way to avoid this is to make sure you’re leveraging technology that’s built to scale easily and designed for straightforward deployments across branches. This can be tough to ascertain from a demo, so the provider’s track record when it comes to scaling is going to be a helpful data point.?

Learn more by reading the full article here: https://www.dispatchtrack.com/blog/last-mile-technology-integration