Reporting and Documentation Tracking System for Logistics

About the Client

The client is an industry-leading international logistics company with a global presence on multiple continents. It relies on a diverse workforce and manages a vast network of packing centers, transportation hubs, and administrative offices.

The company faced challenges in managing the complex reporting processes and tracking documentation across its global operations.

Goal

The client aimed to implement technology-driven, structured, and compliant reporting and documentation tracking processes across their large multinational company. The current approach to these crucial operational workflows has critical gaps:

•  Inconsistent reporting: the client’s existing reporting processes needed to be more consistent and varied by region to eliminate inefficiencies and delays in decision-making.
• Difficulty in tracking documentation: The logistics company needed help tracking and managing documentation across multiple regions and languages. They needed multilingual support for shipping manifests, compliance reports, and internal records.

The client envisioned a comprehensive Reporting and Documentation Tracking System that would operate across multiple regions, support multilingual interfaces, and consider cultural differences between Europe and the US.

The project aimed to streamline report management, enhance documentation tracking, and ensure compliance with global regulations. It was intended to support multiple languages, allowing the logistics company to manage English, Spanish, and French documentation.

Work Description

Project duration:

5+ years

Approach:

To meet the client’s expectations, our experienced team took a systematic and structured approach to development. We investigated the company’s challenges, collected all requirements, and identified technical limitations to develop the most efficient solutions.

The team prioritized essential features and functional modules, focusing on key functionality first and gradually expanding capabilities. We divided the project into well-defined stages that helped us deliver the envisioned functionalities.

Primary Features Delivered by Geomotiv:

• Forms management. We implemented a core forms management system using an open-source forms constructor tailored to the client’s specific reporting needs. Our team integrated it with the backend systems and customized it to support multilingual content. 
• Content Management System (CMS). Next, the team customized CMS built on Django’s framework to manage and publish documentation. This system streamlined handling large data volumes across the client’s extensive network.
• Reporting and analytics. Our developers integrated Power BI to add real-time reporting capabilities. This step allowed stakeholders to generate custom reports, analyze collected information, and gain valuable insights.
• Communication module. The team used Twilio to integrate a robust messaging and communication system. The developed module generates timely reminders and alerts regarding critical documentation deadlines and updates. 
• Advanced search engine. Our developers added accurate search capabilities across the documentation. A deployed custom search engine lets users locate documentation quickly based on various criteria.
• Improved documentation tracking. Geomotiv’s development team incorporated additional tools to track the history and status of all documents, ensuring full transparency and accountability throughout the document lifecycle. These tools actively monitor each document’s progress, from creation and revisions to final approval.

Key implementation difficulties and how Geomotiv addressed them:

• Data integration.

The client operated disparate tools and systems, including legacy solutions and third-party databases. Integrating these diverse data sources for a unified view was one of the main hurdles during project implementation. Our team coordinated and planned all activities to ensure seamless communication between disconnected systems.

The team developed custom ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) scripts to migrate and synchronize data across platforms. We tailored the scripts to handle incompatible data formats and map issues, as well as address other challenges the existing ecosystem presented. Additionally, we established ongoing monitoring and adjustments to the ETL processes to maintain data integrity throughout the project.

• User adoption. 

Due to the company’s global presence, the system needed to support a large and diverse user base from various language environments. The primary challenge was ensuring a high user adoption level across these different regions.

Geomotiv’s team delivered targeted training sessions tailored to each region’s specific needs, directly addressing local nuances and language preferences. Additionally, we focused on developing intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that accelerated the learning curve.

Post-launch support and improvements

Geomotiv supported and maintained the developed system during the first year after its launch:

• Ongoing bug fixes and updates. Our team resolved all identified issues during the support period at no additional cost to ensure uninterrupted system performance.
• Regular enhancements. We consistently updated the system with new features and security patches to keep it relevant and secure.
• Backlog management. Our developers actively maintained a project backlog to prioritize new feature requests and improvements, allowing the system to evolve with the client’s changing needs.
• Scalability. The system architecture was designed to handle the company’s growing data and user base, ensuring it could scale as the client’s operations expanded.

Work Stages

1. Requirements gathering
2. Planning and design
3. Coding, testing, and implementation
4. Support and maintenance

Results

Our collaboration with the client resulted in a long-term partnership that lasted over five years. The successful cooperation led to the production of a comprehensive Reporting and Documentation Tracking System.

Geomotiv helped continuously update the system to meet evolving requirements and scale it to manage a 50% increase in workload without performance issues. Our company demonstrated its capability to collaborate with the client over time and consistently support their business objectives.

Key metrics and outcomes:

• 60% acceleration in generating reports: integrating Power BI and automated reporting tools reduced the time required to create and distribute reports.
• 40% accuracy improvement: enhanced tracking and management tools significantly reduced documentation errors and gaps.
• 100% compliance with global regulations: the system ensured that all reports and documents met regional and international regulatory requirements.
• 70% faster document retrieval: the advanced search engine reduced the time required to locate critical documents.