Jihuobao: digitally empowering the supply chain

The outbreak of the "Global New Coronary Pneumonia" in 2020 has had a huge impact on various industries. On the one hand, many companies have been unable to avoid the crisis of supply chain fluctuations and even interruptions. What measures should be taken to minimize losses to Minimum is the core of the current business response to this crisis. On the other hand, enterprises recognize the importance of supply chain visualization and effectiveness, and will also improve the overall transparency of the supply chain and prevent unknown risks by adjusting business strategies and optimizing the specifications of each link of the supply chain.

"In different industries, supply chain merchants conduct collaborative operations." Lin Zhiwen, general manager of Ningbo Jihuobao Network Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with CEConlines that turning crisis into opportunity is the most urgent thing at the moment. At that time, Lin Zhiwen was running on the road of warehousing and company to open up the local agricultural e-commerce supply chain in Ningbo. For him, digitization is everywhere.

The McKinsey Global Institute found that wider use of digital technologies could divert or generate 23% to 33% of the industry's total revenue, resulting in breakthrough efficiency gains. To a certain extent, a digital supply chain can drive a 10% increase in corporate revenue, a 20% reduction in procurement costs, and a 50% reduction in supply chain costs. Therefore, realizing the digitization of the supply chain will greatly improve efficiency and reduce costs, which is conducive to the long-term development of enterprises.

There is no doubt that digitalization is the biggest trend, and it is related to the future of enterprises. The value of digitization is not only the simple onlineization of existing chain participants, but a new, collaborative and integrated supply chain network driven by user needs. A new business model emerges as the times require: a supply chain operation platform that provides brand customers with comprehensive products of "solutions + data services". Build platforms and systems to help decision-making through data integration and analysis. Jihuobao is such an ecological platform company that is deeply engaged in digital supply chain logistics.

"Digitalization" drives development

As a foreign trade veteran with 15 years of international logistics, 9 years of international trade, 8 years of software development and other rich industry experience, Lin Zhiwen I have always been on the road of starting a business: "To say that I have started a business for so many years, there are three things that I have experienced the most: one is the sense of purpose, whether you are clear about your goals; the second is multi-dimensional thinking, and the vision should be wide; the third is to grasp the sense of rhythm and handle it well. Details."

As an experienced cross-border entrepreneurial pioneer, Lin Zhiwen founded Ningbo Guardian International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. in 2008, Ningbo Jiaji Logistics Co., Ltd. in 2011, and Zhejiang in 2015. Jihuo Network Technology Co., Ltd. founded Ningbo Jihuobao Network Technology Co., Ltd. in 2019. In the transformation from traditional logistics to a digital supply chain service enterprise, Lin Zhiwen stepped on every step steadily and calmly. The establishment of Jihuobao stems from his in-depth cognition and prospect analysis of foreign trade and logistics industry over the years. Lin Zhiwen said frankly: "The production efficiency and quality control of many brand customers are not optimistic. The direct impact of this is that it is difficult to precisely control the timing of product delivery and delivery, which will not only bring loss of profits, but even reduce customer satisfaction. Trust.”

At present, with the changes in the foreign trade environment, how can the competitiveness of the supply chain service platform be improved? In the future trade environment, the supply chain needs to be digitized and the response speed will be more agile. So how to use digital technology to improve supply chain management?

The digital transformation of the supply chain cannot be achieved by the application of digital technology alone, but requires comprehensive adjustments in all aspects, including corporate strategy, organization, process, personnel skills and technology platform, etc. This is the correct understanding of supply chain digitization. As a result, it has become the mission of Jihuobao to help traditional enterprises transform into supply chain digitalization. "Entrepreneurship stems from complaints from customers: new customers are difficult to talk to, old customers are becoming more and more critical, and peers are becoming more and more powerful. What should I do if old customers can't keep up and new customers can't come in?" Before answering the question, Lin Zhiwen recalled Some retrospective records during his entrepreneurial period.

The module digitization of Jihuobao includes the digitization of the marketing side, the digitization of the supply chain side, the digitization of the organization side, and the digitization of products and services. The four modules correspond to the changes and upgrades of the four ports respectively. In recent years, with the emergence of emerging technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 5G, and new business models such as platform models, the digitization of supply chains has set off a wave of climax. Jihuobao has stepped up its cooperation with platforms such as JD.com to launch solutions and push them to the end market.

In the era of digital productivity, the key to reducing costs for supply chain logistics companies lies in their digital capabilities centered on technology. Digitization and the digital economy are changing our way of life, but also bring challenges to the operation and development of enterprises: how to quickly acquire and meet rapidly changing customer needs? How to improve the accuracy and response speed of supply chain forecasts, and control costs and risks?

“Fighting services” is still the main focus

“Nowadays the competition is not the competition of sales ability, but the competition of supply chain and service.” Lin Zhiwen said to the CEConline . Through the front and back ends of the supply chain, it can effectively help reduce customer operating costs.

Digital supply chain is the future development trend is the industry consensus. Lin Zhiwen believes that service productization is an important focus. Make order delivery simple, and change the way manufacturers get orders through supply chain transformation. "Let logistics return to service, and use service to influence customers." This is the Slogan of Jihuobao.

In 2016, Jack Ma once said that in the new retail era, in order to do well in e-commerce, online, offline and logistics must be closely integrated, and smart logistics has become the key. Change is fair to any company. In the future, as long as technology, data and innovation are used, everyone will have a chance.

So what's the next step? "When customers complain, we have to think faster and think about the development of the entire global trade on a large scale, especially the problems arising from the integration of logistics." Lin Zhiwen said. It takes a lot of time and energy to polish a product that is suitable for the market. Since its establishment, Jihuobao has made several product adjustments, and finally decided to focus on the intelligent fleet management system and mobile CRM products.

Jihuobao has established a close relationship with customers in repeated product tests, and the difficulty lies in cutting in from digitalization and informatization. "We have been debugging on the customer's side for a while," Lin Zhiwen said. "Digital supply chain transformation is a good way for many traditional companies to cope with the new order model, but it requires a process of adaptation. So far, Jihuobao's IT engineers have It is a round trip between the company and customers. Communicate problems, understand needs, and then use the most effective methods to solve problems." Lin Zhiwen has his own unique understanding of this industry.

"One is 'understand you'. In the past, it was enough to understand the customer, and simply win by price; now we need to understand the trend of the product market, the purchasing trend of consumers, etc. Therefore, I often think about the whole process. How much do we know about our customers? The second is 'transparency'. The entire supply chain must be transparent. The buyer must control the transaction and the trader control the factory." Lin Zhiwen said to the CEConline.

Where is the future ecological map?

“We first establish initial contact with customers rhythmically, become a supplier of one of their products, and then cut into suppliers of more scenarios for customers layer by layer. Going is like weaving a web. When you cut into a certain scene of a customer, it is equivalent to pulling a line on the customer. When more and more lines accumulate to form a network, then the relationship between the customer and you will be closer. "In fact, digitization is the accumulation, precipitation and screening of data. But the problem then follows - what if the customer's decision-making chain is too long and the efficiency is too low?

The sudden outbreak of the epidemic caught many companies by surprise, and also planted a grass in everyone's heart. Digitalization can effectively resist risks. During the epidemic, Lin Zhiwen's biggest feeling was the trade of masks and anti-epidemic materials. "In the past, as a supply chain service company, I helped you with the freight and the business was completed. Not long ago, it was not like that for customers. Order, find factory production, goods customs clearance, arrive at the destination on time, and finally deliver to the customer, this whole chain.”

Jihuobao is positioned to do digital management, providing a digital tool to effectively The most important thing is to implement this tool into the management of customers. The real core competitiveness is here: after the production of the goods, Jihuobao is responsible for the inspection of the goods and checks the quality of the products until the buyers are satisfied with the traders. In Lin Zhiwen's view, if digital tools are not sustainable, they will be worthless in the future, because data cannot be precipitated, and the most valuable data decisions cannot be made. As a result, scenario-based and small closed-loop solutions emerge as the times require. Build a small platform for quickly generated various scene-based applications, and then discuss with customers which scene needs to be quickly applied. For example, the management of inspectors and the control of product quality, iteration is critical.

When manufacturers launch new products, how can they effectively reach customers? Lin Zhiwen suggested dividing sales into five dimensions: the first dimension is leads, the second dimension is reach, the third dimension is conversion, the fourth dimension is customer success, and the fifth dimension is order renewal.

"Solving customers' pain points is the core competence of an enterprise." Lin Zhiwen said, "In the next two to three years, our product direction will be the development and implementation of digital tools.

Lin Zhiwen feels that this is the biggest change since he started his business. He often mentions a sentence, "It is as fast as the wind, as quiet as a forest, as aggression as a fire, motionless as a mountain, as hard to know as a shadow, and as a thunderbolt". Lin Zhiwen likes to read , especially "Sun Tzu's Art of War". "Thinking must be deep and broad, and then you can slowly form ideas, and once you make a decision, you can do it faster than anyone else. "Lin Zhiwen said.

"In the long run, the digitization of the supply chain and the Internet will be the general trend of future development, and the logistics industry will usher in a new wave of climax. Lin Zhiwen told the CEConlines that Jihuobao will maintain strong innovation and service capabilities in the future, and expects to work hard for the final realization of a complete ecological chain. These are his "large-scale" thoughts on the digital supply chain.