It’s almost frightening the speed at which technology is evolving, and the rapid rise of cloud-based technologies to fulfil seemingly every business requirement. By the time you’ve reviewed competing submissions, and made a decision, the technology you thought was going to solve your logistics problem has been superseded by something shiny and more fashionable.

Over the years I have seen the demise of 8”, 5.25” & 3.5” floppy’s and now with the CD virtually extinct, we are now able to install PCs reduced to the size of a book. Using the technology from the latest laptops with Solid State Drives and low watt CPU’s. All you need now are USB and video ports. The reduced size and power requirements will see a reduction in power consumption and an increase in speed with the use of the latest technology PC’s.

Managers today frequently suffer an overload of heavily data-driven, usually Excel-based, reports from both internal and external providers.

“Cloud Computing” refers to the shared infrastructure, platforms and software that users access via the web in a 24/7 format. Instead of storing information in their own data centre’s physical servers, businesses on the “Cloud’ rely on servers maintained by the cloud computing software providers. Cloud-based solutions and applications are now emerging within the logistics and supply chain markets. They are scalable, manageable and cost-effective. Users can access cloud computing from various types of devices including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.