City Link, long established as one of the UK’s leading express parcel carriers, is undergoing a new lease of life as part of the Rentokil Initial Group, and is midway through a major £2.5 million investment in IT, marking a hugely exciting new development for the business. City Link has begun the phased deployment of new handheld EDA’s (Enterprise Digital Assistant) to all their Driver Routes. These devices with built-in GPS have been deployed with improved software that integrates into the existing operation and delivers the efficiencies that customers demand. The implementation is being masterminded by Linda van As, IT Director at City Link. She spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
Warehouse & Logistics News – First of all, Linda, as City Link’s IT Director, what’s your personal role in the project from day to day? Who else is on the City Link IT team?
This has been a team effort, and would not have been successful otherwise, but it has been my responsibility to ensure that we have the right people on the team, and everyone has the support and resources needed to deliver a successful solution. We started by getting everybody together to better understand our customers’ needs and define the business requirements. By working in cross-functional teams, we have a better understanding of our business and we have created internal stakeholders to help drive and own the implementation. The result is that we have a team fully committed to the success of the project driving our business forward.
WLN – How long have you (Linda) been with City Link? What were you doing before?
I joined City Link in March this year. Prior to this I was Global Service Delivery Director for Manpower, responsible for their three Data Centres in the UK, Singapore and the US. Before that I worked at DHL for 15 years. This industry does get into your blood, and it has been immensely satisfying to work at City Link as part of such a dynamic organisation.
WLN – Is this IT investment programme part of a bigger overall investment plan for City Link?
Yes, it’s a central part of the three to five year revival plan that our new management board has recently announced, based on our core principle of ‘service, service, service.’
WLN – Can you tell us about City Link’s other current areas of investment?
Our investment programme is centered on getting the infrastructure right for our business going forward to ensure that we are able to meet our customers’ needs. We have invested over £1m in providing I.T. solutions for our customers both in terms of the extensive equipment refresh programme as well as bespoke solutions for our major customers. We have also recently taken delivery of nearly 200 new vehicles, and invested in 16 either new or re-furbished depots, as well as introducing a number of training and development programmes for our people.
WLN – Does City Link operate as a parcels carrier in any other countries besides the UK? Does this new IT enable you to track parcels in those countries too?
Yes, as part of our international offering we are a partner of Net Express Europe (NEE), a European alliance offering global solutions and work with some of the largest domestic carriers in their respective countries. All our customers are able to track their consignments via our website and obtain delivery information.
WLN – How long has City Link been going?
City Link was established in 1969 and we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2009.
WLN – How do you differ from other parcel carriers?
We believe the way we focus on our customers helps offer a differentiator in the market. We are obsessive about service, service, and service and believe in working with honesty and integrity with our customers to develop true partnerships.
WLN – Whereabouts are you based? What operating depots do you have across the UK? How many staff and vehicles do you have?
City Link is headquartered in Camberley, Surrey. We employ more than 7,000 staff, operate a fleet of 3,500 vehicles and run nearly 100 depots throughout the UK, delivering about 350,000 parcels every day.
WLN – Who owns City Link? Who heads up the company?
City Link is part of the Rentokil Initial group. Our Managing Director is Petar Cvetkovic, the former CEO of Target Express. the carrier bought by City Link’s parent company Rentokil Initial just under two years ago. Petar has completely changed the focus of City Link since he joined the company earlier this year.
WLN – Is the City Link parcels service now fully integrated with Target Express? Will you keep on the two brands?
We are still working through a unification programme, which will continue for some time, however the business is all operating under the City Link brand.
WLN – Which are your main industry sectors for your express parcels business? Can you name any particular customers, and talk about what you do for them?
We work closely with our customers to ensure seamless integration, for example, we have provided a bespoke solution for a major international business that enables them to dispatch throughout the day from their facility, consolidating orders from various pick locations and providing a single consignment delivery to the end customer. Similarly we have tailored the electronic communication interface for one of the largest on-line e-commerce businesses, providing them with a seamless electronic data transfer. For another major e-tailing business, we have deployed a radio frequency scanning solution to confirm movements around their automated distribution centre.
WLN – How is City Link doing at the moment as a business?
City Link has recently won several multi million pound long-term contracts with several major household names, an indisputable indicator of customer confidence in the brand. We have also signed a number of contract extensions with existing customers, and our multi-million pound investment plan to acquire, renew, extend or replace 16 depots in the next 18 months is on course. We will be increasing the square footage of the network by a double-digit percentage expansion.
WLN – Can you tell us about the new EDA technology?
The new driver scanning solution, comprising a Motorola MC70 handheld device operating through the Vodafone network, gives customers access to consignment tracking data in real time. It means that, in general, they will now be able to get this information within minutes of the collection or delivery taking place. Not only does the new system considerably improve a customer’s supply chain tracking facilities, it also provides City Link with added security and tracking points from the moment of collection right through to delivery
WLN – Are the Motorola devices specifically tailored for your business? How ‘state of the art’ are they?
The Motorola MC70 is considered to be the best EDA available. Its use in the company means that City Link is now one of the most technologically advanced express parcel carriers in the market. We have worked very closely together with Motorola to ensure seamless integration into our existing systems and processes.
WLN – What other IT improvements have you made?
The Motorola devices are not the only enhancement to service and systems we have been working on. Our IT team has have been making improvements to Virtual Warehouse, an internal company system that when originally introduced within the old Target Express network produced significant efficiencies and savings in time and money. Now, having undergone a series of developments that will see the existing software replaced, it is planned that Virtual Warehouse Gateway (VWG) will form the basis of our new integrated solution for Warehouse Management.
Pilot programs we have run since August in our Wigan and Stafford Depots have produced excellent results and are now fully operational in these sites. We have also developed a new reporting system, Figaro, which provides a range of weekly financial and statistical information to support the business.
The weekly reports delivered through FIGARO wherever possible take data from the source systems, eliminating the need for manual statistics provided in the past. This has been an exciting project, targeted at giving our colleagues the right tools for the job, freeing up time taking action on information rather than providing it.
We have also developed an automated alert service to proactively service our customers and consignees, whilst at the same time decrease operational costs of wasted delivery attempts. The solution will improve the customer experience for all home deliveries by providing an automated pre-delivery notification via SMS or Email message. This solution offers alternative communication methods to our customers and a more reliable backup solution to the delivery cards. The first phase of this project is currently in pilot and we plan to rollout in the coming weeks.
WLN – Is there now one single customer-facing IT system for the whole company? If not, when will it come into effect?
We have done much work to develop our strategy towards a single customer-facing system, which will be implemented in several phases to reduce the risk and ensure we address the areas which will give us most benefit as quickly as possible. This has already started with the implementation of the new driver solution and VWG, and will continue throughout 2009.
WLN – When did you start the new IT project, and how far have you got?
When I joined City Link, it quickly became evident to me that we urgently needed to do something to improve our driver scanning solution. One of the main priorities for the City Link board is to ensure that our customers have a good Christmas, and driver scanning is one area that will improve this experience significantly. We started planning the solution in late March, with the first pilot carried out in July. An aggressive rollout schedule started in August, involving 2,000 devices in two and a half months.
WLN – How many depots and what proportion of the country, in which areas are covered so far?
We adopted a low risk strategy, deploying the solution in tranches. Whilst some of these tranches run concurrently, they are managed distinctly to ensure focus and success. The first part consisted of the replacement of the obsolete scanners that we were using in the old City Link Depots around the country, and this will be completed by end October. The next tranche, which we have also started, is the implementation of equipment in the old Target Express Network. This will take a bit longer as it involves business process change, and we expect to complete this during Q1 2009.
WLN – How has the new kit been received?
From day one it has received excellent feedback from drivers, end users and those operating the company’s IT systems. The new system has been enthusiastically taken up by staff and has already produced a radical improvement in service that has led to a major improvement in morale. We have even received positive, unsolicited, feedback from our customers who have noticed the change. One customer emailed to say, “We noticed this week that Andy, who collects from us on a daily basis, is now using a hand-held scanner. I have also noticed both yesterday and today that delivery information is coming through much quicker than normal, and I am assuming that the use of hand-held scanners by City Link has increased throughout the country? If this is the case, this offers us a much improved service.”
WLN – What benefits does the new system bring to customers and to your business?
Not only does the new system considerably improve a customer’s supply chain tracking facilities, it also provides City Link with added security and tracking points from the moment of collection right through to delivery. One of the greatest benefits has been the improvement in the ‘load to vehicle and morning driver release’ process, which now gets drivers out on the road up to 30 minutes earlier on average. Drivers also say the new device is quicker and easier to use, and is helping to make their work easier. At the same time, by removing the need for phone calls between operations and drivers to chase up delivery confirmations, City Link’s customer services people are able to make more effective use of their time.
WLN – When will you start phase two of the programme, and what will it entail?
The next step in the project, driven with input from the business and its customers, is to conduct a series of workshops that will identify, plan and prioritise the functionality that will be needed to deliver additional business benefits and meet future customer demand.
Phase two of this development is expected to be ready for testing and ongoing during the peak trading period, leading up to Christmas, with further improvements during Q1 2009. It will be an exciting and challenging period for the company as we seek to rebuild customer confidence and generate new business.
WLN – Presumably you’ve had to phase this new technology in while you’re running the business and having to meet your normal customer service targets. What are the challenges in transforming a parcel business’s IT system while the business is in full operation?
The main challenge is to reduce risk, and the secret to success is to eat the elephant in bite size chunks…
WLN – As you grow further, how scalable is the new IT system? Will you be able to upgrade it easily?
The possibilities for extension are excellent and we now have the right set of people and skills, resources and partners to make improvements across the board and introduce a series of service enhancements that can benefit both the company and its customers. These include daily route optimisation, the production of ETAs based on GPS co-ordinates, drop order and traffic conditions, enhanced driver and vehicle security, and the integration of new features into the MC70 that will lead to the removal of in-cab mobile phones.
WLN – Finally, where do you see City Link going from here, and what business challenges are you most looking forward to addressing as IT Director?
City Link is well on the road to recovery. We’ve had a very difficult but exciting year, and have made significant progress. My key challenge is to ensure that we keep the momentum and rapidly deliver solutions to help drive the business forward.
City Link
Tel: 01276 606200
www.city-link.com
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