International transport company van den Bosch transporten opts for the Thinkwise Low-Code platform

According to Gerard Alders, responsible for ICT & Data Management, it is essential to support the distinctive character of Van Den Bosch Transporten with a flexible solution. This will allow us to respond to developments in the organization and the ever changing demands of the market. Partly due to the tight margins, it is now more important than ever to be able to identify the costs and the revenue of a truck journey.

Gerard Alders: “Time and again, people have demonstrated how poor we are at predicting the future. You therefore need to have the ability to quickly adapt to developments in order to continue to provide your customers with the best possible service. This means that you need flexibility, which is often lacking in traditional software packages. The Thinkwise platform provides this flexibility”.

Proof of concept

During the Proof of Concept, a solution was developed to automate the invoicing process for one of the company’s transshipment terminals. As Van Den Bosch had optimized the process to meet the wishes of its customers, it no longer fitted in with the manner in which the terminal management system worked. This meant that every month they had to manually combine dozens of Excel files in order to be able to invoice the customers in the required manner.

The new solution automatically generates the correct invoices by means of registered activities and is based on cost categories and cost centers specified by the customer. The system saves several days of manual work each month and greatly reduces the risk of errors. This means that the invoices can be processed faster and more efficiently and this reduces the payment time because the invoices can be presented faster and on a right-first-time basis to the customers.

Strategic choice

As a result of the cooperation with Thinkwise, Van den Bosch Transporten now has an environment, in which the company can implement their process optimizations quickly and cost effectively and thus strengthen their competitive advantage. Because of the low-code and model-driven approach the software can be developed up to ten times faster than with traditional software development methods such as programming in Java and C#.

In addition, the Thinkwise platform is ready for the future, in which the use of Big Data, AI and the Internet of Things will play an increasingly important role in the transport and logistics sector. For instance, by doing predictive analyses and using smart algorithms to link a transport request directly to the vehicles available at that time and place, you can focus even more on cost control and productivity growth.

Gerard Alders: “Traditionally we used to describe the functional requirements in detail and then started with the technical development. This doesn’t work, especially with innovative projects, where you learn during the project. With the Thinkwise platform you can obtain quick results, gain progressive insight and, if necessary, change course without losing too much time. A fast form of iterative software development”.

About van den Bosch transporten

Van Den Bosch Transporten is a leading international logistics service provider and with an annual volume of 2.4 million tonnes of transported product it is one of the top 10 companies in Europe in the field of bulk transport. A key objective of the company is the organization of global supply chain activities for customers in the food and chemical industry, something in which Van den Bosch distinguishes itself as the specialist in intermodal transport.  www.vandenbosch.com