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From Paper to Platform: Industry Challenges Panel

ZUUM Transportation hosted the webinar, From Paper to Platform: Adopting Logistics Technology Through Collaboration & Partnerships on March 11th, 2021 where they invited industry experts, venture capitalists, executives, and founders to share their insight. Watch the full recording on-demand here.

During the Industry Challenges Panel, ZUUM’s Vice President of Business Development, Chris Lee led a discussion with Pat Martin, Vice President of Corporate Sales & Strategic Planning at Estes Express Lines; Dan White, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Coca-Cola; Robert Sutton, Executive Vice President of Innovation at BNSF Logistics; and Michael Ahmed, Chief Operating Officer of The Gorilla Glue Company. The industry leaders examined the barriers to tech adoption and explored opportunities for collaboration.

First they each shared their primary considerations for rolling out new technologies within their respective organizations. Ahmed expressed his focus on available resources, expected ROI, and anticipated adoption through his organization; the other panellists resounded in agreement. Sutton mentioned he also places an emphasis on measuring the ease implementation and the amount of time it takes to begin seeing ROI. Martin chimed in to acknowledge while there are a number of factors that go into evaluating such initiatives, it’s most important that the piece of technology addresses your core pain point.

During the second half of the discussion, the panellists reflected on the benefits and drawbacks of working from home. One panellist noted they had become much more productive since their team reduced the number of meetings their organization had, therefore giving him more time to focus on individual tasks. However, they all admitted they missed the daily interactions of an office environment.

In conclusion, while each organization will continue to pursue their strategic goals, it is difficult to ignore the interconnectedness between their operations and supply chains.  To break down the information silos that legacy processes have created, corporations and industry leaders need to come together to develop solutions that are beneficial to all stakeholders.

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