Milton Keynes, UK, August 9, 2013 — CargoWise®, a global leader in technology solutions for logistics service providers announced global freight management company Geodis Wilson has transitioned over 3,600 users across 22 countries onto the ediEnterprise platform.
The ambitious rollout plan, which has seen the ediEnterprise database adopted at the rate of one country per month every month since December 2010, was built around a series of production pilots which enabled the Geodis Wilson staff to gain a strong understanding of how the system would function in real life situations. As a result, the project has been able to maintain an extraordinary pace with a minimum of challenges.
“This rollout has required an extraordinary amount of hard work, and we have yet to face any serious issues in terms of business continuity or customer dissatisfaction, and we are already seeing the first signs of the benefits we expect from the investment,” says Geodis Wilson CIO Håkan Nilsson. “The larger part of our Asia Pacific structure is now fully onboard, enabling us to cover the bulk of our export platform with ediEnterprise software. We have been reaping the benefits of a single file concept from day one, especially in the importing countries, because we only enter customer data once and it can be shared across our entire network.”
Announced in December 2010, the €20 million project is gradually replacing separate software applications and databases with a single, centralized corporate database. The project is already well on track toward very ambitious productivity targets. Full global deployment is expected by April next year and the company is looking at an industry first for fast ROI for a project of this massive size and scale.
According to Nilsson, the major challenges of the implementation have been operational, and based on the transition from country-based processes to a single global system supported by common processes. However, he says, the tireless work of Project Leader Henri Parisse and Project Director and Chief Operations Officer Eric Martin Neuville have enabled the rollout to maintain momentum over a sustained period.
Having been closely involved with the project since the beginning, CargoWise CEO Richard White says the Geodis Wilson project is an excellent example of the benefits of a Production Pilot to software assessment and acquisition.
“The Production Pilot is an agile approach that enables logistics companies to accelerate the evaluation process because it provides realistic insight into how the software will function in a real life environment,” says White. “In our experience, being live on ediEnterprise in a controlled way, is the most effective and cost efficient way to learn about the software and its implementation.”
Media Contact: Lisa Tree, lisa.tree@wisetechglobal.com