Blending tradition with innovation finds that sweet spot to successful change management

Aladdy Choo, Customer Success Consultant, asserts that the key to successfully transitioning customers from conventional, reactive supply chain methods to a forward-thinking, proactive strategy during their onboarding with CargoValue involves identifying the optimal balance—a "sweet spot"—that harmonizes time-honored practices with new technologies made available today. This balance enables customers to not only adopt new technologies but also to integrate them effectively with established workflows, thereby enhancing their overall supply chain management.

A process that is changing with the times

Customer relationship building and onboarding, once predominantly a physical journey, pivoted online during the pandemic. Choo recognizes that while the world has reopened, the essence of onboarding has dramatically evolved, “there’s a lot of self-service in the world today, suppliers have become more reactive to their customers, which risks only hearing from your customers when they are fire fighting.”

Choo explains that as much as we can do things online, there’s a great deal of value to be had in meeting face-to-face, “relationships require intentionality, and keeping that bit of tradition alive in this business is important to us. It sends an underlying message of care to the customer.”

Today, Choo and the rest of her team believe in a hybrid approach that blends the digital with the physical. This model keeps alive the clear value of human connection in processes largely dominated by technology. As Choo puts it, “you can’t turn off your face in real life!”

Getting everyone on the same page

Each onboarding is a lesson in scalability and adaptation. From small groups to hundreds of users, the process is designed to evolve. A notable challenge highlighted by Choo is the conversion of skeptics, “just to meet users at their current level is not enough, if someone tells us they are already doing the same thing today in their spreadsheet – then yes, why should they choose us?” referring to how many industrial companies still rely heavily on spreadsheets to manage their supply chains.

Choo goes on to explain that it’s about adapting the onboarding and value creation to each user, reiterating that it’s about finding that “sweet spot” where innovating with the new way of working will clearly surpass existing methods, “it’s almost like creating a bar chart, here’s where you are today and here’s where we can take you.”

Beyond onboarding - what, so what, now what?

Post-onboarding, CargoValue shifts focus to adoption, as Choo emphasizes the need for users to, “not just understand ‘what’ the buttons do, but ‘so what’ does it mean for their daily operations, and 'now what' they can do to leverage that insight to improve their daily work.”

As Aladdy and her team shepherd users beyond the initial stages of onboarding, they underscore a philosophy that transcends mere adoption. It's about embracing the 'what' of functionality, understanding the 'so what' in terms of real-world application, and actively pursuing the 'now what' to drive improvement and efficiency in day-to-day operations.

This forward-thinking mindset ensures that the adoption of CargoValue is not the end goal but the starting point of a journey towards excellence. The transition from the comfort of spreadsheets to the dynamic capabilities of CargoValue's interface is more than a change of tools; it's a transformative shift in operational philosophy. By finding the "sweet spot" where tradition and innovation coexist, CargoValue not only aligns with the current needs of the shipping industry but also paves the way for the future.