Saving 90% in IT costs with an ecosystem-first strategy for creating a Document Return Service
How an Ecosystem-First IT Strategy Saved a Global Carrier 90% in Development Costs — and Launched a New Service in Just 3 Months
Year
2024
Client
Large Express Logistics
Problem statement: Our client is one of the largest express and freight shipping companies in the world. They needed to launch a new line of service to retain existing and attract new large B2B customers in the healthcare space. As the service did not exist, they proposed to build it from ground-up with an estimated budget of $300k involving an end-top-end capability from setting up a new product, surcharges, shipment label to tracking, to collection and digital delivery of shipment documentation.
Approach and Solution: Our business architecture analysis of the end-to-end process revealed multiple levels of duplication in IT capabilities if such a system were to be built. Not to mention atleast one year or more of development time. Instead, we proposed to the client a different route that harnessed the business capabilities of six existing systems. The only additional capabilities to be built were enhancements in six enterprise systems - a custom tracking page, a digital document storage and delivery page and the interfaces needed for these systems to exchange data.
Benefit: Using this ecosystem approach, the first version of the service was ready for launch in 3 months and cost only 1% of the initial budgeted amount (Yes, just 1%). The users were happy as it involved minimum change management effort. Most importantly, this strategy provided the service with all the InfoSec security it needed as those protections were already existing in the ecosystem.
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