Episode 48:
Being left behind? Why change is easier than firefighting with legacy systems

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Freight to the Point, a podcast by Zencargo. This week we have a special episode as we’ve featured a session from one of our navigator events. This session is on being left behind, why change is easier than firefighting with legacy systems, where Caroline Wainwright, head of strategic accounts at Zencargo is joined by Taylor Burge-Paxon, senior customer success manager at Zencargo and Priscilla Parrish head of logistics at Velocity Commerce and Majority Audio.

In this episode, they explore how successful change management process should look like and how a digital freight forwarder should be collaborating with their customers to achieve success in the supply chain. We hope you enjoy this episode.

My name is Caroline Wainwright and I’m the head of strategic accounts here at Zencargo and the lucky person who gets to host this session today. So we’re talking about legacy systems being left behind and why change is easier than firefighting. So just by way of sort of setting the scene, I think we’ve seen that the challenges of the past few years have revealed weaknesses in legacy systems, particularly when it comes to dealing with disruptions in supply chain, issues around lack of visibility, not being able to make decisions, bad data or a lack of live tracking leave us unable to be agile. So in a changing market, modern supply chains really require real-time data, visibility and collaboration to keep up. But it’s often the case that businesses lack the time that they need to implement these changes. And in the current economic downturn, a lot of businesses face a choice to either keep things as they are or to evolve ready to return with systems that are fit for purpose.

And today we are very grateful to be joined by somebody who has done just that and who has taken the challenge to evolve and take on new systems. And we’re going to explore some of the drivers for that change and the risks of staying still and how to evolve on your own terms for the long-term benefit of your business. So joining me today, I’m very pleased to welcome Priscilla Parrish, who’s head of logistics at Velocity Commerce and Majority Audio welcome along Priscilla and also our very own Taylor Burge-Paxon, who is senior customer success manager here at Zencargo. So welcome to you both and thanks again for joining today. And could I just ask before we get into our discussion for you both to give a little introduction? Priscilla, ladies first.

I’m Priscilla Parrish. I am Head of Logistics here at Velocity Commerce and Majority Audio. I’ve been in the role now for two years. I have a strong background in operations, but my primary focus has always been driving solutions and improvements and I’m happy to be here.

And my name’s Taylor Burge-Paxon. I am a senior account manager here at Zencargo. I’ve been here for over a year and a half now. And over that time I’ve been able to work with a wide range of businesses on things like day-to-day process improvements, but then also driving some more transformational trains within my customer supply chains. Prior to joining Zen, I’ve been working in the industry in various supply chain logistics, straight forwarding roles after graduating from a top supply chain program back in 2017. So that’s me.

Fantastic, thank you both. Priscilla, if you don’t mind, can I start with a question for you? Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about what your business looked like prior to the work that you started with Zencargo?

So I joined the company in the middle of the pandemic, so that was the first complication. It was actually two years ago this month. And so I was inheriting a legacy system, but I was also inheriting the integration to a new system as well. So I was in the middle of that. Also container prices were through the roof, they were at an all time high. There was just a general lack of information and uncertainty across the board and it was difficult, but I knew what I wanted, I just needed the right person to help guide me to get there.

Yeah, I think the pain points that Priscilla mentioned are very common when customers are working with more traditional paper-based forwarders. Some businesses have grown quite accustomed to the old ways of working and because of that, businesses don’t really know what good looks like and what kind of efficiency gains can be achieved when operating under best practice with a digital freight forwarder like Zencargo.

I’ve noticed that customers can get quite used to a more transactional relationship with their forwarders, where they may not have had a dedicated project manager or senior account manager like myself, that was more involved in driving continuous improvement throughout the relationship like we do here at Zencargo. In Velocity’s case, Priscilla was looking for a more strategic partnership to help guide her through the challenging marketplace at the time, address concerns around reporting and visibility and because of this we were able to really hit the ground running, drive a lot of positive change right out of the gate and overcome some of those typical hurdles that change management represents.

That’s really useful. Thank you both. Just picking up on that point then, Taylor, it would be great if you could expand a little bit on how Zencargo onboards customers and how we take that partnership approach to achieve success. So perhaps a little bit about how Zencargo and Velocity have worked together to sort of achieve some of these goals?

Yeah, absolutely. I think Velocity’s implementation really checked all the boxes of what a successful onboarding looks like. A successful implementation is all about change management and hinges on strong project management principles and collaboration between all the parties in the supply chain. With every onboarding at Zencargo, a dedicated implementation project manager and a customer success manager like myself is assigned to the account. The project managers are more of a temporary resource, they are to ensure that a very thorough SOP is developed and to ensure that best in class operational process flows are in place, that’ll be there for the entire day of the relationship.

Customer success managers on the other hand are very much the through line of the relationship with oversight of the implementation process, but also ownership of the relationship as it moves into BAU. So as a customer success manager, I work hand in hand with my customers to understand their supply chains, understand those strategic business objectives that are driving them, and then also leverage resources internally at Zencargo working hand in hand with our solutions design team and procurement teams to help drive those strategic outcomes for customers.

So I suppose the other thing then, and a question again for Priscilla this time. So obviously you made the decision to make that change. What was the response in your business when you decided to switch to Zencargo?

I mean overall it was very positive because I displayed the benefits that we were going to gain from doing this, but there was some reluctance within the company. As I stated before, we were in the middle of the pandemic. Everyone was just, this is working now, so why change it? Well because it’s not good enough and everything was still uncertain. Change is always going to be difficult, but my thinking is good planning makes change management really easy. And if you’re the one implementing the change, you have to be the champion of it. You have to be the one who’s ultimately responsible for all of the processes that are laid out. It is just really important to work closely with the people who are helping you step into the future. And the biggest pushback we had was from the suppliers because again, the pandemic, it always worked this way anyway and change for them, is it going to hinder them or is it going to help them? And so for me it was important to get everyone on board.

Yeah, absolutely. So how did you approach that sort of change management process?

Well, again, I’m a woman who knows what I want and I know what good looks like and I knew what we could achieve. It was just sort of relying on that expertise, relying on that vision and creating the processes and being collaborative with Taylor and the team and just working it out. And I’m a big proponent of seeing is believing. So being able to show the major stakeholders the platform, being able to show them the functionality of it and really crucial to demonstrate the practical realtime solutions for current issues that we are facing. The lack of visibility, the lack of dates, and the being really, really accurate. And so that was really crucial in making everyone join and be on team Priscilla and Zencargo.

Yeah, definitely. It’s good to have vision of what you want, I think, isn’t it? Taylor, where did you come into the supporting in that change management process?

Oh yeah. I’ve been in involved since day one. So by setting a weekly cadence of touchpoints with Priscilla and her team and then setting up direct lines of communication on MS Teams and now Slack, we’ve been able to build a very collaborative relationship and get a lot of wins under our belt very early on in the relationship. So there is a lot of upfront work to lay the groundwork to build that successful relationship, but it’s very important to understand what Velocity’s goals are and how to showcase tools to the broader Velocity team and different stakeholders within Velocity. Some of the wins that we were able to get under our belt early on, we were able to audit Velocity’s skew and PO catalogs and improve their data quality on their ERP and then as a result improve a lot of reporting that was available on the backend.

We implemented a PO management workflow and supplier scorecarding to drive accountability down through Velocity supplier base, and then we created a lot of bespoke reporting for Priscilla to show off to senior stakeholders, showcase things to them like container utilisation, optimised modal shift, lead time reductions. And that really helped her validate the hard work that she was doing with Zen. But then as Priscilla mentioned, we also provided some tools to stakeholders in other departments in Velocity and that really showed them how we could make their lives easier. So I think by identifying and actioning these kind of improvements early on in the relationship, it can be a big driver in a change management perspective because if you’re making people’s lives easier, then they are a lot less resistant to any changes that are being proposed.

Yeah, definitely.

That was really integral in getting the turnaround, the quick turnaround. It was probably the most important part of it was being able to rely on Taylor as a true partner in this adventure that we went on and being able to get it done from August to October and have our first shipments go out. So yeah, it was really, really great.

We look back fondly on the whole process.

Sounds like blast. So I mean obviously you’ve made the decision, you’ve gone through the implementation process, you’ve got this huge change management process to go through getting everybody on board. When did you really start to see the results of that Priscilla and sort of think, ah yes, here it is, here’s my vindication.

So it was actually from the very first shipments, we were able to accurately see where the shipment was in the world. We were able to accurately say, oh, this is going to arrive on this date. And we were able to do something that most businesses weren’t able to do in that COVIDy period time. We were able to plan, we were able to plan and forecast out because we had that visibility and that was a huge win for us just right off the bat. And we were placing orders in October and they were actually showing up and arriving in December and November when they were supposed to, but the biggest thing was actually the split. We were heavy in FCLs, but we also had quite a lot of LCL shipments and there was air shipments. I’m opposed to air shipments. And then the change that we had in the last three months, we’ve cut more than half of the LCL shipments and moved almost all to full container loads because the container utilisation was super important for us and it showed that we were maximising our shipping at a better cost and I’m a big proponent of self-service. Being able to provide the access to all of the other departments and being able to allow them to see where things were, which reduced the talking points and the touch points for me, which alleviated some of that pressure in the height of the pandemic.

Yeah, absolutely. If you could provide some in summary recommendations when thinking about people are thinking about what to look for in a freight forwarder, what are the key points that you might seize on?

You always want to find someone, a data provider that understands your information and understands what you want to do with it and the shared vision. Also, you need a platform with complete transparency. You need to be able to understand what it’s doing in the background and understand everything that’s going on. They also have to be super flexible and agile. I mean, we work in a world now where things turn on the drop of a dime and you have to be able to be prepared for that. Also, having dedicated resource that I had with Taylor and the team was, it was amazing. I felt supported the entire time and it really did entrench that true partnership feeling, and I always go back to that, a true partnership with all of my freight forwarders, 3PLs. It has to be a true partnership. It’s someone who cares as much about your shipments as they would their own.

Yeah, absolutely. So final word, anybody that’s sort of thinking about this sort of process or trying to get stakeholders on board in their own business, getting people to buy into it, what’s your key piece of advice, Priscilla, that people can take away?

It’s always follow the money. You follow the money. Where’s your biggest cost center? What is costing you the most money? Plug that gap and the stakeholders they were going to jump on board.

Good advice. Thank you. Taylor, anything that you would add to that?

Yeah, I think overall change is hard, change is scary, but I think as long as you are, you’re making the case as to how you’re making people’s lives easier, then it’s less of an uphill battle to implement those changes across your organisation.

Yeah, absolutely. As you say, it becomes an easier sell when you make people’s lives easier. So listen guys, thank you so much. That’s some really great insights in there and some great stories to hear. I think particularly Priscilla having done this amidst a pandemic is especially impressive. It’s never easy at the best of times. So if you don’t mind we can move into a little bit of Q&A, because I can see we have a few questions. So I think this is one a little bit for Priscilla, but Taylor, you may be able to weigh in here as well.

You mentioned that there was an initial pushback from the business around change management. Obviously we’ve touched on how do you get around that, how do you make people responsive, but what is the response from those various stakeholders now? Is it just simply that they have seen the benefits and seeing as believing?

Absolutely. Being able to show. For me it’s the biggest thing that we did was our container utilisation and being able to show them we’re saving money and shipping more and again, following the money is where, and then now we’re working on consolidation as well. So all of these things, changing the way that we worked and changing what we did has now allowed us to become even leaner, become even more agile and become better at what we do.

Yeah, and I would just add in terms of getting buy-in from the broader organisation, as I mentioned before, there is some work upfront in order to get the tools, the analytics, it’ll make everyone’s lives easier. So once you build those tools and make them available, people become comfortable with them, then it’s very much more a self-serve environment and people get used to the new ways of working, the easier ways of working.

Yeah, absolutely. Another question here around freight spend and cost per unit reporting. Is that something that you’ve been able to move into?

I think Taylor will be a champion of this as well. It was one of the first things that I asked was I want a report to show me the actual cost per unit to ship this SKU all year long. And without even a hesitation, “Yep, we can do that.” And again, it also leads back to having really clean data and making sure all the boxes are ticked. And so yeah, that was another big win for us and being able to present to finance and all the major stakeholders, “Look, this is how much this actually costs to ship.”

Yeah, I think that that landed cost reporting is very important to senior stakeholders across all organisations and really there is a hurdle to get over in terms of data quality. You need to have your cost price for each individual SKU. So as long as you have a base level of good data health, then we are able to provide some pretty in-depth landed cost reporting on the backend, which has gone over very, very well with customers. Everyone seems to be a big fan of it.

Absolutely. A question here, which I think probably is a good one for Taylor, how much does the implementation phase differ depending on the business or vertical?

Yeah. Well, I think we start with a pretty standard based model for implementation, making sure that we have the right amount of resources devoted to it. But obviously we can be pretty agile. As Priscilla said, we can work around specific requirements of our customers, maybe set different timelines for how long the implementation’s going to take. If it’s a more intricate complex implementation, then we’ll devote some more technical resources to it. But again, that’s all scoped out pretty early on in the process. So we can take each implementation on a case by case basis and devote the right level of resources.

Perfect. And what about container planning? Have you seen any gains in container utilisation? Have you been able to improve or change in any way your container planning?

I mean, I’m not going to boast or anything, but my container-

Oh, please do.

… average for last year was something around 95% I believe. It was really high. And I was only able to do that because I identified very early on that we weren’t utilising it. We could fit more units of certain SKUs, our highest selling skews as well into containers. And that in itself already produced results on the backend because we were able to sell more and ship with the same amount of costs and especially when containers were just insanely costly. These are the types of things that were automatic, immediate wins. And being able to identify that almost immediately and not four or five months down the line, it was within the next month, I was able to identify this needs to change, we need to put more in this box. Container utilisation is really high up there on my things.

I think it’s a very tangible metric to use, especially when you can bring it to the broader business and senior stakeholders and show the very significant increases. It’s one of those low hanging fruit that we tend to see a lot of improvements on pretty early on in stages of working with them.

And it was how we were able to reduce our LCL loads as well. I mean, it didn’t make sense to send an LCL when you could marry it up with another shipment or just add a little bit more to it and then send a full container.

As you say, especially at a time when fresh air was very expensive.

Exactly.

Last question here, and this is definitely one for Taylor, and I promise I’m not making this up because you’re going to enjoy this question. There’s a lot of focus on the environment and carbon-neutral solutions. Is there anything on the system that can provide such information?

Why, yes there is.

Yeah. So sustainability, CO2 reporting are front and center for Zencargo. Obviously changing consumer demand and regulatory trends. A lot of companies are looking to get ahead of those things. So when you sign up with Zen, you are automatically signed up for our CO2 reporting. So you’ll get full scope, free emissions tracking for all your sea, air and road shipments. And then with that recording, it really lays the groundwork for any future sustainability initiatives. And then at that point, we’ll give you guys a couple options on how you can action those emissions depending on your company’s philosophy. But we have offsetting options, a wide portfolio of offsetting options where you can get certified emissions reductions on the backend of the emissions, or we have more of a hard sustainability solution where you can inset those emissions using biofuels versus traditional bunker fuels and that eliminates 80% of your emissions at source. So yeah, there’s a full suite of reporting available to you that breaks it down into many different sub metrics, and then there is a number of different options on how you can either offset or inset those emissions.

Great. So all that remains for me to say is big thank you to both of you, Priscilla and Taylor for joining us this afternoon and for sharing the insights. I think this is a really, really quite inspirational stuff and really, really interesting to hear. So thank you for that.

Thank you for listening to another episode of Freight to the Point. We hope you enjoyed it. If you have any feedback on this episode, please get in contact with us and don’t forget to like and subscribe. But until next time, goodbye.