Airclic in The News
Mobile intelligence
The organizations that have a complete view of mobile activities and respond quickly and efficiently to challenges in the action field, possess a competitive advantage: mobile intelligence, the new way to achieve efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The founding partners of GSMexpress , a speedy nationwide and international courier messenger & package service Mexican company, clearly understood from the beginning that one of the required elements to enter, position themselves and remain in the market, is technology. In their niche, without a systems that allows absolute control of all shipments to customers during collection, classification, transportation and delivery processes, would have been very difficult – if not impossible – to successfully compete with the major companies in this business sector, which additionally had the advantage on years of service and investments of thousands of dollars, in research, development and implementation of this type of technology.
Thus, instead of thinking that the playing field was only reserved for the major players or dedicate themselves to looking for an IT company and acquiring something already developed, the founding members,
Miguel Ángel Rivera and Yolanda Ortiz, who now act respectively as Chief Executive Officer and Marketing Manager, took on the task of bringing together a multidisciplinary team made up of technological experts, as well as professionals with an ample courier, messenger and package, logistics and transportation business.
Although, since 1996 customer information began to be furnished through the Internet, it wasn’t until after many years of work and not few difficulties, that in 2002, GSMexpress launched the first version of the Viator system (messenger in Latin), that today allows the company to not only control all shipments it handles, but additionally offer an internet-based tracking system, providing to its customers all types of reports directed either to invoicing or statistical analysis, quality of service control or evaluation. GSMexpress was a pioneer in this field, being the first Mexican courier messenger and package company to develop a system of this nature in house with its own resources and means”, says Rivera.
Since 2001 the firm developed a franchising model that allows company expansion and the conquering of new markets, without having to carry out large investments or capital spending. Nowadays, the company’s coverage extends to Mexico’s and the World’s major destinations, through 23 franchises distributed nationwide.
Thus, when the Viator System was ready and tested, a very complete base of developments was available, as the GSMexpress executive states “Its conjunction allowed us to successfully franchise.” These are the brand, the operation procedures and systems, technical assistance and training, the corporate identity and the national and international network of business correspondents.
More than on-line information
The avant-garde IT systems in combination with the business formats suitable to the organizations’ size and structure, explains in a good measure the good performance of GSMexpress’s business. Of course, one must not overlook the implementation of customer attention mechanisms based on the deep understanding of their needs and the adaptation of the services rendered to satisfy such necessities. “That’s where we distinguish ourselves from others- says Rivera- and it has allowed us to tap important customers, from both the private and public sectors.”
From the above, an important conclusion is derived: technology is a fundamental tool to position small businesses beside large businesses. Even more, in many occasions it allows to obtain competitive advantages that might position them better in the market. However, to achieve this, four additional ingredients are required: an adequate business concept, product and service differentiation, total satisfaction of customer needs and a permanent capacity to adapt to change.
Thanks to its innovative spirit, the company decided to adopt, after exploring other alternatives, the technology of mobile information capture in real time technology by AirClic. “The solution was chosen because its platform does not depend of any mobile telephone operator in particular, nor does it require investment in infrastructure other than mobile telephones with the capacity of data transmission and bar code scanners that connect to them. Not a lot of training is needed and the implementation is fast, as well as the fact that it is taking advantage of the infrastructure and transmission capacity developed by companies operating mobile telephones .” GSMexpress Chief Executive Officer points out.
As AirClic provides host infrastructure, the customer only pays for the services it needs, while availability, security and flexibility to manage its mobile resources at all times is guaranteed. AirClic’s architecture easily supports hundreds of thousands simultaneous users, because the firm continuously invests in infrastructure to guarantee quick access without interruption 365 days of the year.
Before adopting this mobile technology, GSMexpress’ messengers and collectors had to transmit in the best of cases, through the telephone (voice) the information corresponding to the shipments that customers delivered or received to enter into the Viator System. For Rivera, “this was very complicated due to volume and the nature of the information sent to the company’s operative center, but also because of the amount of shipments handled, this translated into a sluggish operation and generated many errors in capture. In the worst of cases, it was necessary to wait until the end of the day to deliver and enter such information. In one word, this process was not carried out in real time, but five or more hours had to go by, before the customer service department or customers themselves could carry out a follow up of their shipments.”
Real time information
A really effective tracking system is only possible when harvesting information is carried out in real time, and this is exactly what was achieved. Through a relatively simple process information capture carried out by GSMexpress’ messengers and collectors and their immediate transmission through a mobile telephone data network, it is possible for a customer to know who received one of its shipments and the hour this operation was carried out, with a few minutes’ difference. The same happens with collections: the customer himself and GSMexpress’ operation center, know with a slight difference of time, the exact moment they were carried out.
With this type of tools, a substantial customer service improvement is achieved by furnishing the possibility to obtain shipment information in real time; delivery times also improve and collections are optimized.
Data harvesting and transmission in real time and its visualization on a map (using GPS), which is another aspect offered by this mobile technology, has allowed GSMexpress to fine tune its procedures to plan its collection and delivery routes, reducing messenger and collector’s idle time, lowering route dispersion and improving run times, evaluate personnel behavior, design awards and incentives for personnel policies, and achieve significant savings in fuel, lubricants and vehicle wear.
At the same time, the company has reduced customer claims and unsatisfied clients, which simultaneously, has no other result than the compliance with the basic mission of any business, which is the achievement of completely satisfied customers.
Accurate information captured faster is only the first step to reach the added value of mobile intelligence. In time the efficiency of mobile and field operations – as well as its impact on profits – will be judged by metrics such as channel optimization, timely performance, and inventory turnover and customer satisfaction. And once inefficiencies have been left behind, those responsible for the business’ mobile operations can reach beyond process improvements: with the harvested data what they have before them is a wealth of information that allows to understand the what, who, where, when and why of field activities, enough material to visualize short and long term trends, establish realistic performance comparisons and count with warnings when problems are presented.
www.infoweek.com.mx
Facing the future
GSMexpress was established in 1994 by a group of visionaries –with not a lot of capital but with lots of experience in the sector and a desire for risk – that considered entering a market widely dominated by the major multinationals, and additionally, carrying this out in competitive conditions that ensured a place in it.
The timing could not have been worse, because that year, one of the worst crisis in the Mexican economy started, sadly triggered by the “December error”, that translated into a number of difficulties for nearly all the national production apparatus, and of course, bankruptcy to many businesses.
GSMexpress did not escape the consequences of the crisis, it was a footstep from disappearing, even before finishing being born. Without a doubt, the mobile intelligence would inject into it a new life and would be one of the elements that would allow its consolidation in the market.
