Customers in the first place
ZDEMAR company from Ústí nad Labem has been present in the Czech logistics market for as many as twenty years. Since that time, it has evolved from a small one-man start-up firm into a strong family company with yearly turnover of more than CZK 330 million and with more than 80 employees. Its success has been backed both by a team of professionals and also by early adoption of modern information technologies.
From a small trader to a big business player
When in 1996 Zdeněk Lohniský began, as a trader, to lay down the foundations of future ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem, the only assets available to him were his experience from his previous business activities in logistics, a phone, paper and a calculator. Nevertheless, he managed to establish a successful transport company which in the first five years of its existence secured its own building and premises, acquired a number of important customers and in 2001 purchased its first own truck. The year of 2001 was revolutionary from one more perspective. The company experienced a rapid growth and the customers demanded ever better and swifter services. A decision was made by ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem that it was the right time to replace its old accounting system with a comprehensive ERP solution which could not only make work easier for sales persons and dispatchers but which could also provide detailed information to customers regarding transport parameters and individual transports, including their traceability. The company chose Navision Financial 2.6 (now Microsoft Dynamics NAV) as its ERP system, which was implemented by CDL System company. The new system offered unprecedented logistics functionality and new possibilities to Zdemar, which were provided at a low cost at the same time.
ERP system as a growth tool
The ERP system became a growth tool and a part of everyday work for all ZDEMAR employees. Indirectly, customers and partners, the so called heavy horses, were also involved in its use, as thanks to the system they had easy access to a number of statistics and individual order details. Owing to the new system, not only customer service was improved but the company management and individual cost centre owners also obtained better insight into the current market situation and its trends. The company could thus continue to grow, it was ISO 9001:2001 certified, it penetrated to new markets and it enlarged its product portfolio, including for instance freight forwarding services. ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem thus continued in its dynamic growth, using the new tool and taking advantage of new possibilities in the area of financial management and customer and partner relationship management.
The year 2005 became a milestone. The volume of transported goods exceeded 400 thousand tonnes, the turnover challenged the limit of a quarter of one billion CZK, six new Volvo trucks were added to the company fleet, and first of all, the company decided to migrate to the most recent version of its ERP system - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0. The new version offered ten times shorter data processing times and ten times more features, including those directly influencing communication with customers and business partners. Above all, ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem decided to migrate to the new system in order to provide even better quality service to its customers and to save time and effort to its employees.
The new version has brought benefits both to the company and its customers The implementation of the new system was completed by Navisys, a company that on the top of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 provided also its own field-specific BIZ4Logistics solution. Transition to the new system was performed step by step during regular operations and it took almost 10 months. During this period individual employees and especially dispatchers presented their proposals of system modifications which would be useful in their everyday work. 80% of the modifications were thus proposed directly by the employees who in turn received a system exactly matching their individual needs and representing for them significant savings in time and effort.
At the same time, introduction of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 brought a number of new functions which meant for ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem and its employees a dramatic shift in the way they could work with the system. The new version was much more intuitive, graphically advanced, and faster, providing the individual employees with a strong tool capable of automating activities they had to do manually before.
All information at fingertips
With the new system the dispatchers have at any time an immediate view of all unallocated orders, which are in addition highlighted for better clarity, of the individual shipment states, etc. A great benefit is fast search of routes already taken, which makes it possible for the sales persons to give the customers exact price information and for the dispatchers to contact partners or carriers who have covered this route for ZDEMAR in the past.
At the same time, the company management have access to information regarding reliability and quality of individual carriers and they can at an early stage identify a potential problem with any of them, which gives the company time to look up a new partner. Likewise, the management have detailed and accurate information at their disposal regarding individual segments and national markets. Owing to this fact, ZDEMAR is all year round capable of keeping busy not only their 20 own trucks but also more than 80 other “heavy horses”. It is this market information and accurate, clear and easily accessible reports which are so important for the company. With more than 2000 customers where most of them place regular orders, an excellent overview for full loading of trucks is a must.
Discovering new opportunities is easier
The marketing department has also obtained a strong tool with the new system, searching hard for new opportunities, markets and segments. It is the marketing people who are commissioned to proactively address new markets in form of marketing campaigns, which are a matter of few minutes with the new system. One can simply enter all the key players at a particular market into the system, including their contact information, and contacting and evaluating the results takes only a few moments.
In addition, with the new system all employees in all departments work with up-to-date, accurate and, what is most important, identical data. When the management, using market trend reports, identifies a fading segment, they can easily commission marketing and sales personnel to focus on growing segments or to find new opportunities for the company. Thanks to this ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem continues to achieve double-digit yearly turnover growth rates even after 12 years of its existence.
Everybody benefits from the new system
Everybody benefits from the new ERP system at ZDEMAR – the employees whose job can be completed faster and more easily, the management to whom accurate information about the market situation and trends is available, the customers who now receive additional regular reports including information about actual truck loads, and the partners who can rely on getting new jobs and on the fact that the system keeps accurate and retrievable information about all their previous jobs. Additionally, it is the partners and customers for whom ZDEMAR Ústí nad Labem is preparing new services by means of its ERP system, including online tracking of individual container locations or an interactive job list selection system for partners and external carriers. The new system thus enables further growth to ZDEMAR and to continue improving the services it provides.
