Facing unrelenting pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency in the already low-margin transport and logistics industry (in India, logistics costs are nearly 14 per cent of the GDP compared to the Western world’s 8 per cent or so), DARCL decided to increase its speed of innovation and continuously assess and re-define its business model so as to maintain leadership. Today, DARCL collaborates with a network of over 5,000 independently-owned trucks and trailers across the country, in addition to its own transport fleet, to fulfill customer needs.
The company also has a licence from the Indian Railways to operate container trains across various routes, offering cost savings to customers by way of providing value-added, end-to-end domestic multi-modal transportation services. In addition, the company has partnered with rail and shipping service providers to harness new revenue potential in the multi-modal transportation segment.
DARCL realized that it needed an enterprise-wide integrated business process platform to profitably and efficiently engage with such a complex supply network. With SAP ERP 6.0, which will integrate the finance, procurement, human resources, sales, business intelligence and logistics functionalities on the SAP NetWeaver platform, the company will be able to sense and respond to real-time transportation events and disruptions across its entire business landscape.
“It was natural for us to choose SAP because of its in-depth understanding, coupled with wide expertise at the global level and leadership in the ERP space. As many of our customers are also using SAP systems, we foresee opportunities to integrate with our customers’ systems, thus allowing us to improve the value proposition to customers and move higher up the value chain,” said Puneet Agarwal, Director, DARCL. “We are confident that through strengthening and consolidating our business from within, the best practices we adopt from SAP will transform the company into a truly global enterprise.”
“The transportation industry in India is rapidly transforming, and it is heartening to see industry leaders such as DARCL take a lead in leveraging technology,” said Ranjan Das, Managing Director, SAP, Indian sub-continent. “The future of transportation logistics lies in greater accuracy, transparency and superior customer connect. SAP remains committed to India’s growth, and will continue investing in growing the IT eco-system to help businesses innovate and transform to become more competitive. Deploying technology is the smart way forward, and we are glad to be a part of this revolution with DARCL.”
