Inventory tracking and logistics

The client is a warehousing, logistics, and transportation company that has served the northeast United States for three generations. Alongside public and contract warehousing, order fulfillment, and kitting operations, the business runs its own in-house transportation fleet, all coordinated through a customized inventory tracking system built specifically for how they operate.

That system had been developed and enhanced in-house over fifteen years, largely by a single programmer. As the business grew and expectations for speed and service rose, new enhancements became more complex and time-consuming to build, even as the demands on the system kept piling up. The programmer who maintained it had spent two years alone just getting up to speed on the business before resigning, leaving nobody behind who understood how the system actually worked.

Leadership knew the system couldn’t stand still, so they evaluated roughly a dozen off-the-shelf commercial packages and attempted to implement two of them. Both fell short. Each process the new systems made easier came with another process made harder, canceling out any real gain. It became clear the only path forward was rewriting the existing system with modern technology, folding years of accumulated enhancement requests into the rebuild from the start. Several development firms were considered, but many relied on offshore programmers with unclear accountability, and others were too small to take on a rewrite of this scope within a workable timeline.

Gavant spent time building a full understanding of the business itself, not just the existing system, working directly with the team to capture both current needs and what they’d need down the road. “I was amazed at how quickly the Gavant team understood our business,” said Alison, the client’s EVP. The team was consulted throughout the rebuild, with regular milestones tracked along the way. “Customers are pleased to see investment in technology that differentiates us from the competition,” Alison said.

Employees now spend eight or nine hours a day in the new system, and the difference shows. “It needed to be soft on the eyes, and it is,” Alison said. “The system has delivered on all of the business expectations and has had a very positive impact. People feel good about the system because it’s intuitive and does what they need. They get excited about seeing enhancements.”

The billing process now takes 75% less time, saving a day and a half every month, and the manual offline workarounds that used to eat up staff time are gone. Customers have taken to the new self-service portal too, cutting down the volume of routine calls into customer service for information they can now access anytime. “We’re confident this system will help keep us highly competitive for the next 15 years,” Alison said.