Join Shaun Weston from Sorted as he sits down with Pavlo Zheldak, chief delivery officer at Acropolium, to delve into the transformative impact of cloud computing on logistics and supply chain management. Discover how decentralisation, real-time data and cost-effective strategies are not just buzzwords but real benefits that could revolutionise how we manage routes, inventory and scalability in response to demand.
We’ll tackle the challenges too – from fitting cloud solutions to specific business models to navigating data security concerns. Plus, don't miss out on practical, actionable tips that could elevate your logistics operations. Please enjoy the show!
Find out more about the world of post-purchase, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with new content, at https://sorted.com/
Join Shaun Weston from Sorted as he sits down with Pavlo Zheldak, chief delivery officer at Acropolium, to delve into the transformative impact of cloud computing on logistics and supply chain management. Discover how decentralisation, real-time data and cost-effective strategies are not just buzzwords but real benefits that could revolutionise how we manage routes, inventory and scalability in response to demand.
We’ll tackle the challenges too – from fitting cloud solutions to specific business models to navigating data security concerns. Plus, don't miss out on practical, actionable tips that could elevate your logistics operations. Please enjoy the show!
Find out more about the world of post-purchase, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with new content, at https://sorted.com/
Hello and welcome back to the Sorted Post-Purchase Podcast. On today's episode, I'm delighted to welcome Pavlo Zheldak, Chief Delivery Officer at Acropolium. Thanks for joining us on the show, Pavlo. I hope I pronounced your name okay.
Yeah, nice to meet you, Shaun. And hello everybody who is listening. And yeah, you are totally correct with pronunciation. I appreciate it!
Excellent, good stuff. So what is Acropolium, and where are you joining us from today?
Acropolium is a software development company – with Ukraine in heart – is a Czech software company, but its main development office is based in Ukraine. I'm joining you today from Chernihiv, the northern part of Ukraine.
So a couple of hours’ difference. It’s not too long, is it? We've invited you onto the show because the theme is cloud computing's impact on logistics and supply chain management. And thanks to your experience at Acropolium, this is a topic you know quite well.
Yeah, it seems so. And thank you for inviting me to talk about the supply chain and cloud computing in the supply chain.
No worries! Perhaps we begin by briefly emphasising how cloud computing is a game-changer for data management and accessibility. What would you say are cloud computing's main benefits in this area, Pavlo?
I guess the main benefits of cloud computing … there are many of them! I don't know where to begin to start talking about the benefits! It's a really broad subject.
It's a broad subject, isn't it?
First of all, I guess it's decentralisation and accessibility of real-time data when you actually understand what's happening in each warehouse, in each stage of the transportation chain, on each manufacturer, and where all the stakeholders have to be on the same page and understand what happened in their companies. Because we know that the logistics is widely distributed in business. And to save you time and money, you should understand what's happening on each chain of your supply chain management.
If we break down those elements, we're talking about the main benefits possibly being things like cost-effectiveness in terms of optimising route planning, and inventory management, and those sorts of things.
Yeah, if we look broadly on the supply chain, going from the manufacturer to the end customer itself. And the two parts of it, as you already mentioned, it's route planning, it's actually transportation, where we can use cloud computing there. Because if we analyse the big data with a cloud compute engine, how actually the routes are built, where are the corks in the roads, where are the better weather conditions, what is the fleet’s vehicle status, where they are, how they are moving, if they are loaded. Because based on research from 2021 – I don't know if you get such information before – 21% of the vehicles are running empty on their routes from the manufacturers to the customer.
Wow, what was that percentage again? 21%! Wow!
21%. Yeah, it's pretty large. And yeah, if you actually can replan how you deliver those goods, you can first of all save a lot of time to delivering the goods in time for warehouses, customers, whatever it will be. And of course it will be better for the environment because of less trucks.
Yeah, absolutely. And that is the second major benefit, isn't it, in terms of sustainability?
Yeah, that's correct. And let's probably turn back to the inventory management, because if we analyse with our computing some data from our selling points, for example, we can predict where will be the high season for the business and prepare our business for those seasons. For example, we will not be in the situation where we have extra goods stored in our warehouses, or we have shortages of our goods. So it will be like an exact balance of what you buy and what you try to sell.
How do you think cloud allows logistics companies to easily scale operations up and down based on demand?
Actually, it's pretty much out-of-the-box because I guess like all the modern cloud solutions such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, whatever, they already provide the mechanism where you can upgrade or downgrade your nodes or machines, where the computing is done based on the load that you have. So for example, if you need to upscale your performance, it's easier to do with a couple of clicks inside the AWS console. Because previously, before the cloud era, if you want to upgrade your hardware, you needed to buy it, install it, invite a specialist to install it properly and configure it properly for you. Now, it's pretty much easy.
What do you think some of the challenges are around using cloud computing, especially if you're new to using it?
I guess the main challenge is to understand if cloud computing is actually for you. Let me explain. If you are a small company and you’re just starting in logistics, you should firstly think about if it's okay to invest in cloud computing. If you're a larger company, yeah, that's for sure. That is a must, because it will save you time and money.
In other words, don't just jump on the bandwagon. Make sure it fits, make sure it's right for your business before you take that leap. What about things like data security? I guess that's one of the things people think about … you know, is my company data going to be secure in terms of logistics and supply chain if I opt to use the cloud?
That's correct. Actually, cloud providers now provide great security measurements just to ensure that the data is actually in the right place. Also, you can work with ... It's called IAM service, that can delegate those rules and privileges for certain roles, so you understand who and where you can access the data you're using. And in any way it's easier than hiring a lot of guys that will provide the security checks and implement the security standards – for example, ISO 27001 – for ensuring that your data is a policy when you're using on-premise installs.
And is there a learning curve for using cloud computing services? I guess it's a different infrastructure. You're moving from a physical infrastructure to having lots of new things to learn, I suppose, if you haven't sort of jumped into that before.
Each time you jump in from one solution to another, it will be longer for you to understand how everything is working. But I guess for now, all the cloud providers have such comprehensive documentation about how their solutions can be used. And there is a ton of services that they already provided for, almost usually needs security measurements, data measurements, analytics, artificial intelligence, everything that can be applied. But one tip: Be careful about that because out-of-the-box, usually, cloud providers also switch on some of the features that probably wouldn't be necessary for you, but will cost you a little bit. So it's better to spend time at first when you install your cloud solution, and check if you're actually utilising all the resources that you apply.
I think aside from knowing who to choose in terms of the right cloud services, I guess it's also a good idea to have the right partner that's going to guide you through that process.
The terms I would recommend to partner with some companies that already have experience on working with cloud providers, that will help you guide your business from the start, where it may be a concept or idea, and what you want to achieve when you are moving to the cloud. Install the infrastructure for you, help with configuration, and migrate your existing solution or we'll have to build on top of the clean cloud in your solution for you.
Pavlo, let's end our chat with one or two actionable tips then. How can businesses leverage cloud computing in logistics operations?
I guess businesses will leverage from the cloud computing first of all from the data-driven behaviour because ... let me remember ... It was Harari, the author that wrote Homo Deus, he was thinking about that: In future, data will be driven by our behaviour and our human being. So I guess when you have large amounts of data and don't try to operate it with yourself, you have cloud computers, you have artificial intelligence. It will be quicker than you and more proficient than you.
We've all got so much data these days, haven't we? It's a minefield of knowing how to actually process it and use it correctly.
That's correct. And yeah, actually 21st century – it's a data century. There is such amount of data that we need to operate each day. And it's better to actually delegate this job for somebody artificial.
In terms of going back to the sustainability part of things as well, if you’re a company, that's a really big thing for you. I guess exploring green cloud computing options is also something you should look into.
Yeah, that's for sure. And actually, when you're ...
Does such a thing exist?
Yeah, such a thing exists! But besides that, when you enable the cloud solution into your company, you can even play a significant role in environmental sustainability in cases you don't even predict. For example, we were previously talking about the decentralisation and real-time data operation. So, nobody will need to spend their time on the commitment to the warehouse just to manually check everything is there. It's not obvious, but it's actually making a huge impact on our environment.
Well, thank you so much for joining us for this episode, Pavlo. This is a, like we said at the beginning of the show, it's a broad topic, it's an evolving topic, and we've still got plenty of room to talk more about it. I hope you can come back and join us at some point.
I would love to because we covered only less than a percent about what's happening in the logistics and cloud computing area. Thank you very much, Shaun, for inviting me and see you on the next episode.