Seeing the world as ORTEC’s Implementation Consultant (4)

The time flies in Rio de Janeiro and the project is taking more shape every day we are working on it. In this fourth blog I will tell more about the project and what I have been working on for the last two months.

In Fortaleza we gathered all information regarding the current planning process of the customer. In essence, it is asking a lot of questions in a short amount of time to get a picture of how they work on a day-to-day basis. What, when, and how do they transport? Which teams are involved and what steps do they take from the moment a customer orders something to the moment it is actually delivered?

The next step of the puzzle is to define how our routing software is going to help them improve their distribution process. My colleagues from Sales (initial contact) and Business development (drawing the initial solution) already did an excellent job, so I did not have to start from scratch. I went over their design together with the customer to make sure all the assumptions are correct and from there I started to fill in the details. First, we configured their new planning process inside our software. The next step is connecting our software with their current IT systems. Afterwards we do extensive testing, both remote from our Brazilian office and on-sight in Fortaleza. We have to do this thoroughly. Forgetting something small like importing the driver’s telephone number can have a huge impact. If the tests are successful, we have the moment of truth during “Go-live” where the customer says goodbye to the old way of planning and changes to the new way with our software. This moment is always stressful, but it is extremely satisfactory when the final result is as expected.

The fun thing about the work is that you first are solving the puzzle of coming up with a viable solution, then you convince the customer your solution is the one to go with, and finally you see your ideas coming to live and actually helping the customer to improve their logistics. I really love the combination of playing with the technical details, interacting with all levels of employees at the customer, and in the end seeing the benefits of our implemented solution to the customer.

Mathijs Waegemakers