Traditional vs. No-Code Solutions in Supply Chain Technology

The demand for supply chain technology is rapidly growing but faces challenges like rising costs, higher customer expectations, more automation in times of labor shortage and the push for more sustainable practices. To effectively address these challenges, this article examines the impact of traditional software solutions versus no-code solutions on cost, speed, and efficiency, guiding you in identifying the most suitable approach for your specific needs.

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The market for supply chain technology solutions global supply chain industry is growing at an incredible pace and is expected to reach USD 18.7 billion  by 2026. Supply chain management technology is designed to address challenges such as global conflict, rising transportation costs, and increasing customer demand for faster deliveries, which are shaping the market conditions. Understandably, process efficiency and cost effectiveness are key to success. And software plays a critical role in delivering both. 

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Shippers and beneficial cargo owners are increasingly turning to specialized solutions that seamlessly integrate their supply chain operations, enabling them to build a tailored supply chain management system that meets their unique needs. But making changes to software platforms to keep pace with changing requirements is time consuming and expensive, as traditional development requires specialized coding skills, significant investment, and a long development timeline. The continued use of legacy unstructured tools like Excel for day-to-day activities, fragmented data, and legacy processes also add to the complexity of traditional software solutions. This slows down responsiveness to emerging requirements, impacts operational efficiency, and hinders innovation.  

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The emergence of no-code solutions promises to be a game changer for the sector. These user-friendly solutions eliminate the need for coding, ensuring faster implementations, and lower cost of development. This market is expected to grow at an incredible rate of over 30 percent annually, expanding from USD 3.8 billion to USD 25 billion by 2030. In comparison, the traditional software market is reporting a year-on-year growth of just over 5 percent. 

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This leaves us with 2 questions:

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1.  What is the difference between traditional software solutions and No-Code solutions?
2. How can No-Code Technology help you solve your supply chain challenges?

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Let's deep dive into it.

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Understanding Traditional Software Solutions

Traditional software solutions are developed by skilled engineers using programming languages such as Python, and Java, and are customized to meet the specific requirements of a business. The development process involves multiple steps such as requirement gathering, design, coding, testing, and maintenance. 

Robust traditional software solutions are optimized for performance and efficiency, and built for scalability. But they require sound development practices and testing in the initial stages and continued updates and improvements to keep them working as intended. What happens when the software needs to be changed to keep pace with evolving business requirements? This calls for significant investments in trained developers, and an extensive time frame for the changes to be executed. It is also difficult to find a solution that fits all requirements, and often, different teams need customizations that are expensive and time consuming to implement. This may lead them to try ad hoc third party solutions or even tools like Excel which impact efficiency due to a lack of integration and synchronization with the existing IT solution. 

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Understanding No-Code Solutions

No-code means that a platform can be tailored to the needs of a company and its processes without requiring programming skills or software developers. This allows departments to independently automate processes on an entirely new scale – from order intake, consolidation, and transport and logistics management to documentation and billing, all steps along the supply chain can be quickly digitized.

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With minimal training, users can map and automate process steps on the platform. Using drag-and-drop functionality, they can insert new elements such as switches, buttons, and data fields, and place them in the desired position within the business process. Additionally, users can set triggers that initiate specific actions, such as an automated email notification to the customer when an order is confirmed on the platform. Supply chain managers can easily define what should happen when an order is received, consolidate orders, and automatically initiate transport.

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The no-code approach is particularly beneficial for process changes: while even small adjustments in other software solutions often require collaboration with developers, no-code allows users to make these changes themselves. This not only prevents bottlenecks in the IT department but also saves time and costs - for the individual departments of the users as well as for the IT department. 

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Traditional vs. No-Code Solutions: Which Works Best for your Supply Chain 

Supply chain management solutions built on traditional software involve high costs and often require extensive time for implementation and adaptation to specific business needs. On the other hand, no-code solutions require no IT intervention or specialized engineers, and can be quickly adapted and deployed by business users. Furthermore, with no-code solutions that offer strong integration capabilities it is possible to combine both approaches effectively. By integrating traditional software with no-code solutions, you can create a robust, secure, and agile technology foundation that leverages the strengths of both methods. A comprehensive understanding of the deployment speed, cost and business value can help you decide the right software strategy for your business.

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Deployment Speed 

Traditional software implementation and maintenance can take several years, especially when addressing the individual needs of users and departments. Change management poses significant challenges, as traditional solutions often dictate rigid processes, requiring users to adapt their workflows. This, combined with approval processes, workload, and potential impacts on other departments, can result in change requests taking months to resolve.. This extended timeline not only delays project completion but also incurs substantial costs in both time and money. Half the respondents to a Boston Consulting Group Survey said that more than 30 percent of technology development projects within their organization suffer from delays and overshoot their budgets. 

On the other hand, a no-code solution like Logward can reduce development time to days and weeks. Business users can design the set up on a whiteboard, and then build workflows and tables on the platform themselves using visual interfaces like intuitive drag and drop tools.

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Cost Efficiency

Most traditional software projects can take two to three years to complete, during which time significant upfront costs are incurred for IT department’s consultation fees, change management, implementation and integration. All of these factors drive up project costs and the company typically does not derive any tangible benefits or ROIs from the project for years. 

A no-code solution can reduce 30-70 percent of project cost when compared to traditional solution implementation. A no-code solution provider like Logward ensures that project timelines are short which in turn reduces costs significantly. 

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Business Value

In the fast-paced business environment, companies need to swiftly adapt to market changes. No-code solutions can significantly accelerate time-to-value. Many challenges can be mitigated by leveraging a no-code supply chain platform, which, like other supply chain management systems, covers a wide range of functionalities: from transport execution, container and order management, and time-slot management to transport scheduling, and a clear overview on supply chain dashboards, including reporting and analysis.

However, the real advantage lies in the technological flexibility offered by platforms like Logward. Unlike many tech monoliths, the platform adapts to your unique business processes rather than forcing you to adjust to it. Additionally, it comes equipped with all the necessary features to seamlessly integrate with existing systems right out of the box. Moreover, it provides numerous options for easily accessing the essential data from global logistics providers and carriers.

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No-Code Solutions in Supply Chain Management

Now that we understand what no-code solutions do, let’s take a look at how they function in reality. Logward offers a no-code platform that enables shippers and beneficial cargo owners to configure and execute their end-to-end processes with our purpose-built supply chain execution platform. This connects stakeholders and integrates disparate features to create the comprehensive, connected supply chain management system that they need.

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Effective ocean freight allocation and capacity management are critical aspects of supply chain operations. Relying on Excel or ad hoc tools for these tasks can lead to inaccuracies, inefficiencies, and the unintended creation of shadow IT systems. Companies like Logward offer specialized solutions, such as Carrier Allocation Management & Monitoring for ocean freight, which provide logistics and procurement managers with complete visibility into shipping resources and carrier capacity for more efficient shipping operations. This targeted solution delivers data-driven insights through performance monitoring, enabling informed decision-making while minimizing errors and enhancing the effectiveness of allocation strategies.

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Business users can leverage Logward’s no-code customization capabilities to create unique business rules, such as approval processes, consolidation rules and workflow automations. For instance, with the Workflow functionality, they can select Logistics Service Providers to ship their cargo based on available freight rates or file Non-Conformance cases in case exceptions occur.

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Additionally, Logward’s No-Code Database Builder allows users to easily create and configure data tables, like Transport Orders, through intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, with access to over 20 different data types.

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Conclusion

While traditional software solutions remain important, no-code solutions offer a cost effective and less time consuming means to automating and improving supply chain management. Built on a strong logistics foundation, Logward offers organizations the capability to track and manage intricate supply chain processes in real time. Logward customers enjoy unparalleled transparency, flexibility, and operational capability and our no-code software helps them boost efficiencies, lower costs, and reduce dependence on internal resources across the supply chain. Our Allocation Management solution, for example, helped one of our customers reduce freight costs by $10 million, reduce rejections by 43% and spot bookings by 37%. Need more proof? We helped a leading provider of construction products save more than USD 150,000 in the first year of working with them, while a FMCG company realized 21.5% cost savings thanks to our quick to market no-code solutions. 

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Find out how we can help you improve supply chain management and book time with one of our experts.

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