Best logistics and supply chain management systems in the Arab world from OTO

With the many dynamic changes in the logistics sector, the need for smart logistics management systems and solutions is increasing for companies to enhance their operational efficiency, especially with the complexity of supply chains in e-commerce; to be a key to success and distinction in the highly competitive market.

The latest statistics show the extent of the expansion of the shipping and logistics sector in Saudi Arabia, where it is estimated at about $23.85 billion in 2023, and experts expect it to reach $32.97 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.54% during the forecast period (2023 to 2029).

These statistics confirm the importance of this vital sector and indicate the urgent need to apply smart shipping and logistics services solutions that keep pace with this rapid growth, which requires relying on a strategic partner who combines technology and innovation to meet changing needs efficiently and effectively.

In this context, we review OTO's advanced systems that serve as a powerful, unified, and integrated tool to simplify shipping and enhance the efficiency of logistics operations. But first, let us show you a quick scene that summarizes the goal of launching OTO.

Building Bridges and Changing the Logistics Landscape in the Arab World

Since the launch of OTO, the leading shipping gateway in the Arab world in 2019, it has taken upon itself the mission of changing the landscape of the shipping and logistics sector in the region, in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, empowering business owners, supporting omnichannel selling strategies, and developing shipping management systems and software and automation for e-commerce to be the pivotal link between different sales channels, warehouses, and point-of-sale (POS) systems.

This is in addition to providing competitive shipping prices, controlling all stages of the supply chain, monitoring them in real time, and providing instant data to make decisions based on data, not assumptions.

OTO combines many innovative systems that help large and small commercial activities alike to manage various logistical operations easily through a simple and easy-to-use control panel to provide a smooth and distinguished shipping experience that contributes to enhancing competitive value.

OTO's Advanced Systems for Logistics and Supply Chain Management

As we mentioned, OTO is a comprehensive software solution and an integrated logistics platform that combines many innovative technological systems and tools in one control panel for easy management and control. These systems include:

First: Order Management System (OMS)

The process of managing and processing orders represents a major challenge facing various brands, especially those dealing with large quantities of orders sent from consumers.

To overcome this challenge, OTO offers an innovative Order Management System that simplifies the entire order lifecycle, from processing to fulfillment, through one easy-to-use control panel.

This innovative system from OTO has many features, including:

• Customizing the order orchestration process to process them based on the specific needs of each business and ensuring maximum efficiency and professionalism.

• For example, OTO contributed to accelerating the order fulfillment process at Al Saif Gallery last year after it increased by about 10 times, thanks to the ease of receiving and processing orders through one control panel, which contributed to enhancing efficiency and growth.

• Providing a central control panel to manage orders and monitor performance moment by moment.

• Automatically processing orders to reduce delays and manual errors. For example, OTO helped Whites Pharmacy chain deliver orders to customers within two hours of completing the order.

• Effectively managing orders across multiple sales channels such as e-commerce stores and traditional stores.

• Granting the possibility of integration with different systems such as ERP systems.

This advanced system provides logistics solutions in:

• Fast order fulfillment which contributes to gaining customer satisfaction and enhancing their loyalty.

• Simplifying the order processing operation faster and error-free.

• Facilitating technical integration with different sales channels to synchronize orders and ensure harmonious operational processes.

Second: Warehouse Management System (WMS)

Following traditional methods for warehouse management leads to errors and weak efficiency, which necessitates relying on an advanced system to avoid delays in delivery times and low customer satisfaction.

The Warehouse Management System, which includes the OTO Pack application, works to improve the performance of operational processes with the aim of achieving maximum efficiency and effectiveness. It is characterized by many unique features such as:

• Dividing the warehouse into several zones and paths to facilitate the process of managing goods from the moment they arrive at the warehouse until they leave.

• Improving order picking times whether from branches or dedicated pickup areas.

• Improving the efficiency of warehouse workers by providing clear and simple instructions to prepare the required items accurately and with minimal time and effort.

• Improving packaging operations and reducing errors and the time required for packaging.

This advanced system from OTO helps commercial activities in:

• Fulfilling orders accurately and without errors which leads to improved customer satisfaction.

• Simplifying returns management without complexity as a result of organizing the performance of workers within the warehouses.

• Reducing operating costs within warehouses such as accurately picking product items and effectively packaging them, in addition to reducing labor requirements. For example, OTO's smart and innovative solutions have contributed to increasing work efficiency within Arabian Oud warehouses by 30%.

Third: Logistics Management System (LMS)

Commercial activities face many complex challenges related to last-mile delivery operations, represented by coordinating with multiple shipping companies, ensuring shipments are delivered on time, and meeting increasing customer expectations.

For this reason, OTO worked on innovating a unique system that contributes to simplifying the last-mile delivery process by providing strong technical integration with shipping companies supported by an advanced automation system.

Perhaps the most important features of this innovative system from OTO are the following:

• Technical Integration: OTO's advanced logistics management system is technically connected to more than 200 local and international shipping and delivery companies, which contributes to simplifying the process of choosing shipping partners for merchants and business owners.

• Automated shipping according to customized rules: OTO provides an automation system that automatically executes shipping operations based on many inputs or rules that you set in advance so that the best shipping company is chosen in terms of performance, cost, speed, or other inputs.

• Shipment Tracking: OTO allows business owners and their customers to monitor orders step by step in real time, which enhances transparency and reliability and increases the merchant's ability to control shipping operations from start to finish.

• Management and Performance Improvement: This system allows companies to manage and ensure adherence to service level agreements for shipping companies, which ensures timely delivery and meeting customer expectations.

The most prominent benefits of the LMS are:

• Providing accurate shipment tracking that achieves transparency between the merchant and the customer.

• Meeting and even exceeding the service level agreements of shipping companies to ensure timely delivery.

• Smooth and simplified technical integration with shipping companies.

• Advanced automation system that contributes to accelerating and improving shipping operations.

Fourth: Shipping Aggregators

There is no doubt that managing several shipping companies at once is a complex matter that takes a long time and a great effort, but OTO has made this much easier for merchants by gathering all shipping companies in one place to simplify their management and execute shipping operations with minimal time and effort.

This unique solution from OTO has many important features, including:

• Access to a variety of shipping and delivery company services, including major and specialized service providers, all through one comprehensive and smooth control panel.

⭐ For example, OTO helped Arabian Oud connect and deal directly with more than 10 shipping companies without confusion or complexity, and manage them all from one control panel to meet different needs.

• Automatically calculating shipping costs taking into account the dimensions, weight, and destination of the shipment so that merchants can compare the prices and features of shipping companies to make accurate decisions and balance cost and delivery speed.

• Monitoring performance, updating information, and sending instant notifications directly to customers about the status of their shipments.

• Providing the ability for bulk shipping and printing shipping labels all at once to manage multiple shipments through different shipping and delivery companies, with the ability to customize labels and invoices to suit your brand identity.

This innovative system from OTO benefits brands in:

• Reducing shipping costs by using OTO's special pre-negotiated reduced rates.

• Saving time with automation features that allow processing and fulfilling multiple shipments at the same time through one control panel.

• Reducing the volume of manual tasks and thus reducing the likelihood of errors in shipping details or customer data.

• Scaling operational processes up or down according to your business activity levels as a result of providing a wide range of services that meet different shipping needs, whether for small merchants with a small number of shipments or for large companies with a huge number of regular shipments.

Fifth: Driver Management System (DMS)

This innovative system from OTO helps large commercial activities that have their own drivers and want to manage them professionally to deliver orders to customers in the shortest possible time.

This system is represented in the OTO FLEX application, which enables:

• Sending and receiving orders to drivers and directing them to pickup and delivery locations with ease.

• Dividing drivers according to the work area to be covered.

• Determining the number of orders that can be picked up and delivered for each driver on a daily or monthly basis to measure the extent to which drivers meet the sent orders and their performance in dealing with them, ensuring the tasks are executed effectively and with high quality.

It is worth noting that you can set a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for your private drivers so that you can measure the extent of their commitment and speed of response to orders. For example, you can set a clause that guarantees fast delivery of orders to customers so that it does not exceed 4 hours, and then you can measure the performance of each driver separately and identify the problem causing the delay in order delivery.

In short, it can be said that the Driver Management System provided by OTO, the leading shipping gateway in the Arab world, and represented in the OTO FLEX application, gives owners of large commercial activities the ability to deal with their private drivers as if they were an independent shipping company whose performance can be monitored and measured through key performance indicators according to the pre-established service level agreement, ensuring the fastest possible delivery of orders to consumers.

The OTO FLEX application has many features, including:

• Improving scheduling and planning: OTO's driver management system provides detailed information about driver locations and their working hours. This information can be used to improve order scheduling operations, determine the most effective routes, and determine optimal delivery times. In addition, detailed information can be provided to customers about the delivery status and potential delays.

• Reducing costs and increasing productivity: Thanks to improved efficiency and planning, the driver management system can contribute to reducing the overall costs of the commercial activity's fleet and improving productivity by reducing unjustified vehicle stops and avoiding congested roads, thus delivering orders to customers as quickly as possible.

• Improving driver performance: The driver management system provided by OTO helps monitor and evaluate driver performance by analyzing data to identify weaknesses, work to improve them, and provide appropriate training to enhance efficiency.

The most prominent benefits of this system are:

• Managing drivers and operational processes, monitoring performance, discovering opportunities, and supporting decision-making based on data, not assumptions.

• Enhancing the company's reputation and customer satisfaction level by providing direct shipment tracking mechanisms, adhering to expected delivery times accurately, and providing ways to prove that orders have been sent and received by customers.

• Handling a larger volume of delivery operations, reducing operating costs, and providing the necessary flexibility to accept last-minute changes smoothly.

Sixth: Returns Management System (RMS)

Returns represent a major challenge, especially for large commercial activities that receive a large number of returned shipments every month, which increases operating costs and thus loses money. Returns require a unique system to manage them effectively and make it easy for customers, ensuring a smooth, simple, and hassle-free return experience.

OTO's Returns Management System provides an innovative solution for large commercial activities. Through it, returned orders can be easily controlled, and a return form can be sent to the customer that simplifies the steps for returning products so that they can log in, view all the orders they purchased, choose the product to be returned, state the reason for returning the product, attach the receipt as evidence, and then verify and process the request and retrieve it with ease.

This contributes to eliminating traditional methods that consumed time and effort from the customer as well as the commercial activity to retrieve products.

It is worth noting that OTO, the leading shipping gateway in the Arab world, provides a smooth and distinguished control panel for owners of large commercial activities to manage returns, view all returned orders, and deal with them according to the set policies.

Once the return request is approved, a return shipment can be created with any of the available shipping companies, as OTO undertakes to issue the return label and send it to the customer to place it on their package so that the shipping company can come to pick up the shipment as quickly as possible.

The most prominent features of OTO's Returns Management System are:

• Granting the necessary flexibility to customers to be able to return more than one product in one request.

• Effectively processing return requests, inspecting returned items, and quickly restocking them; to avoid waste and loss of funds.

• The ability to send instant notifications to customers to track the status of their return request

• Building a clear vision and in-depth understanding of the reasons for return; to apply future improvements to products or different shopping aspects.

This system has multiple benefits, the most important of which are:

• Increasing customer trust by providing a smooth and fast return service without complications.

• Reducing costs by processing returns and managing inventory faster.

• Discovering opportunities and extracting actionable procedures to improve products and enhance the performance of operational processes.

Seventh: Notifications and Alerts System (CNS)

There is no doubt that you want to provide a distinguished service to your customers that makes a tangible difference for your brand compared to other commercial activities, and this is exactly what OTO's Notifications and Alerts System does, which allows your customers to track their shipments through any of the available shipping companies moment by moment and know the delivery times without having to go to the shipping company itself.

OTO's Notification Management System is an integrated system that allows sending text messages, email, or WhatsApp messages with the aim of tracking shipments and knowing their delivery times to avoid delivery failure. OTO's Notifications and Alerts System has many features, including:

• Simplifying and organizing the process of sending notifications and alerts to customers about the status of their shipments to monitor them in real time and know delivery times.

• Sending automatic instant notifications to customers to verify order data, or inform them of shipment status updates, or changes to the shipping service, and others, thereby achieving accurate and effective communication with them, which enhances transparency and reliability.

• Creating tracking pages with a distinctive brand identity, as well as customizing tracking messages with customer names, referring to their purchases, or mentioning information specific to their location, etc.

The benefits of this system include:

• Enhancing satisfaction and loyalty levels by keeping customers informed of every stage of their shipment journey.

• Increasing operational efficiency and reducing the workload on customer service teams – by using instant automatic notifications sent to customers – to give them time to focus on more important and complex tasks.

• Enhancing customer interaction and engagement with commercial activities through regular and relevant communication that establishes your brand in the customer's mind.

Eighth: Business Intelligence and Analytics System

The lack of accurate data necessary to make sound and informed decisions poses a major challenge for many commercial activities, which affects the workflow and the achievement of sustainability and growth.

OTO's Business Intelligence and Analytics system supports strategies based on accurate data and actionable insights to contribute to improving the decision-making process at the optimal time. This system has many features, the most prominent of which are:

• Evaluating performance by analyzing shipping data and operational processes.

• Automatically evaluating shipping costs to compare shipping invoices with estimated shipping contract prices.

• Dashboards that are updated instantly to display key performance metrics.

This advanced system is beneficial in:

• Making informed strategic decisions supported by clear and comprehensive data at your fingertips.

• Increasing the efficiency of the business as a whole by addressing challenges related to operational processes, shortcomings, and any other issues.

• Benefiting from instant analytics to gain a competitive advantage as a result of understanding market trends, customer behavior, available opportunities, and potential risks.

This is a quick overview of the most important aspects of OTO's logistics systems, and here are some tips for making full use of these systems for your commercial activity.

General Guidelines for Achieving Maximum Benefit from OTO Logistics Management Systems for Your Business

• Benefit from the power of the data analysis and reporting tools integrated into the OTO platform to make strategic decisions and constantly evaluate performance to improve shipping methods and routes and choose the appropriate shipping companies.

• Benefit from OTO's customized solutions to enhance the customer experience by providing various shipping options, accurate delivery schedules, and real-time order tracking.

• Rely on the automated shipping feature in OTO to reduce logistics costs by focusing on comparing shipping costs for different carriers, various shipping options, and effective route planning.

• Use the instant monitoring feature available on the OTO platform to proactively identify and resolve supply chain problems and ensure minimal impact on the customer experience.

• Keep up-to-date on the status of your orders and track them in real time through the OTO control panel.

• Benefit from direct integration with more than 200 local and international shipping companies, and provide your customers with various shipping options, including express, refrigerated, and international shipping, among other multiple shipping options to meet their different needs.

In Conclusion

Investing in OTO's advanced systems is a wise decision for companies seeking to improve the efficiency of their logistics operations, as these systems provide a wide range of advantages that help improve inventory management, track shipments, and reduce operating costs, as well as enhance the accuracy of demand forecasting, boost the efficiency of operational processes in warehouses, and improve the routing and scheduling of shipments more effectively, which reduces shipping costs and improves delivery time.

OTO's advanced systems help improve resource planning and supply chain management effectively by providing and analyzing data, which contributes to making smarter and more strategic decisions and working to improve coordination among all parties involved in the supply chain and enhance competitive value.