Schneider National adopted diversification as its principle business strategy. This is where the company’s management decided to respond to their customers demand for changing carriers after the new regulations by the government were effected, thus demanding the trucking firms to change their operations.
Schneider, therefore, chose to utilize information technology to improve the execution of its core processes and enhance the company’s structural position. This strategy enabled the company to achieve a great competitive advantage.
The role of telecommunications and information systems in that strategy
Telecommunications and information systems played a key role in the success of this strategy. Being enshrined in the company’s philosophy, the management used information technology to come up with programs that not only eased its operations but also led to customer and employees’ satisfaction.
How Schneider’s information systems changed its business processes
Information systems revolutionized the whole business process making it an admiration by competitors. This is where the systems were designed to reduce the paperwork since the customers’ orders could now be received through the web and the company’s Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system.
The company’s website also enabled the customers to make orders online using a browser and even track their orders to ensure they were delivered according to specifications. The system also enabled the drivers to avoid communication problems since they could use the system to communicate to the management at any destination.
Management, organization, and technology issues Schneider National had to address
With the launch of this technology, Schneider National had to address several issues. Firstly, the response of the drivers towards the system was a major concern. The company had to establish that the drivers were conversant with the way the system operated and whether they were comfortable using it. Secondly, the company had to address the logistics that would make the system operate effectively.
With the massive number of tasks that the system would work on at a time, the company needed to collect enough information about the clients and their loads and the trucks among other details in order to feed into the system making it fully functional. In order to win the satisfaction of the customers on the new system, the company had to ensure that their representatives understood how it functioned.
The company, therefore, had to dedicate four to six weeks of training to the new customer representatives in order to make them gain the skills of using the system.
Schneider’s success due to reliance upon information systems
Through offering training to its drivers and customer representatives, the systems led to improvement of ordering accuracy and general productivity. Information technology also enabled the employees to appreciate their jobs as it made their operations easy through improvement of communication, which is important to them.
The system also led to the company achieving an important goal in business – customer satisfaction. The company has also managed to get a strategy that will assist it to retain its drivers since they can use technology installed to keep in touch with their families. Another success of the system can be evaluated on the amount of expenses the company has managed to save thus increasing its profits.
The company’s transformation into a digital firm
Schneider National reliance on information system achieved its goal of transforming the company into a digital firm. This can be witnessed by the company’s step of using the electronic connections to transfer orders automatically to the company’s computer system.
As a result, the company has achieved increase in its level of accuracy, speed and productivity. In addition, using the computer-effective and dynamic websites, customers can now interact with the system to make orders and later track the products ordered to know the vehicle carrying the goods and the time of its arrival in various destinations.