GlobalTranz | High-Tech & Software, Private Equity, Digital
Designing a new digital logistics tracking system to deliver value—12 weeks sooner than expected
Designing a new digital logistics tracking system to deliver value—12 weeks sooner than expected
Our Impact
Private-equity-backed GlobalTranz, a top-10 tech-enabled third-party logistics provider, needed to design and develop a digital-first shipment tracking and tracing system for all users and customers.
The project was intended to improve the customer experience, provide stronger integration between existing systems and processes, and improve automation as GlobalTranz continued to grow and change. However, to keep pace with the rapid changes already underway, the new system needed to be designed and developed in weeks rather than months.
Because we understand that speed is often more important than perfection, our team worked with the company to urgently develop a minimum viable product (MVP) that could be enhanced over time, while incorporating user input into the interface design and integrating the new system with existing transportation management technology, GlobalTranz TMS.
66%
faster delivery of a new system
12
weeks earlier realization of value from the system’s new capabilities
1,200
hours of executive time saved during development
The Challenge
Given the rapid pace of GlobalTranz’s growth, both organically and through acquisitions since its founding in 2003, the company needed to define and build a new track-and-trace system in weeks rather than months to realize maximum value.
As part of a broader effort to consolidate and optimize technology platforms, company leaders launched a project to define and build a single, user-friendly system that all users and customers would use for tracking and tracing shipments. The solution needed to be flexible to support both current and future operations – including additional acquisitions.
The accelerated development of a Track and Trace system was critical to ensuring GlobalTranz could reach parity of functionality and support simultaneous growth and modernization efforts across several areas of the business. With this digital mindset, the company aimed to deliver a better customer experience, access stronger integration between core systems, streamline internal processes, add flexibility to extend processes and automation as the company continued to grow and change.
An Undeniably Different Approach
Our team brought the skills, best practices, and proven approach for delivering a new track-and-trace system with essential features, known as a minimum viable product, within weeks and then increasing its capabilities over time.
We believe it is important not to just to develop and deliver a MVP—but also to work alongside our clients to improve their ability to deliver more quickly using this approach. The approach was focused on delivering a new, digital system with speed, while also ensuring a quality user experience. We paired our team of industry, design, technology, product development, and change management experts with GlobalTranz’s own technologists, product owners, and business subject matter experts.
Recognizing the importance of user experience, the team used design thinking and involved actual users in at the beginning and throughout process. User involvement at the outset helped the team identify pain points and understand key activities to improve adoption and experience from day one. This exercise then provided input for designing screen concepts.
Real Results
Working closely together, GlobalTranz and West Monroe technical experts developed the architecture, forecasted the engineering effort, and created a detailed plan for both the initial product (the MVP) and future enhancements (the backlog). In eight weeks, we rapidly mobilized a design and engineering team to develop and deliver the initial Track and Trace system.
Through West Monroe’s unique approach, the new system was developed three months sooner than expected and allowed the company to realize value 66% faster.
In addition to the MVP Track and Trace system, project outputs included:
- 18 scenario maps
- 4 user personas
- 3 user experience (UX) screens
- A list of 268 enhancements to be delivered during future development iterations
Project Timeline
2
weeks
Product vision, user research, and user experience design
4
weeks
Technical architecture, MVP design, and full list of future enhancements
2
weeks
Prioritization of future enhancements and estimated engineering effort
8
Weeks
Development of the Track and Trace system MVP
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