Joseph hails from an ordinary family who did not want to continue their traditional job of farming. He completed his pre-degree and went in search of some job which will satisfy his interests. After sending a series of application into various firms, he got a job in the Bangalore office of XYZ Roadways, an established transport and logistics firm, at the age of 19. It has been 31 years now since Joseph joined XYZ.
Being office staff, their clerical works mainly included handling receipts, registers, accounts etc, with a lot of files piled up. As the organization grew, the staff also had to be prepared for the growth from grass root level. It included partial change in their work process with the aid of computers.
Years later, the management decided to improve the process and minimize the workflow. For this, they decided to computerise the entire process and implement logistics management system. As a result, the earlier version of SA-FMS, the logistic management system was introduced to XYZ. Joseph was much concerned and worried about this step, as many employees including him were not computer savvy. He had a feeling that computers may take up his job and he may become jobless. He was concerned about his work efficiency, once the logistic management software is implemented. He was also concerned about how difficult his further work would be with the transport software.
The change was not that smooth. Freight logistics software was implemented and computers became a part of their work-life. But ERP had all the processes simplified in place, interconnections between all the branches and a delivery tracking software.
There were many anxiety reasons for the staff. Reluctance towards a new technology they think they cannot master, confusions about what can be done by computers and what cannot be done etc. SA-FMS and XYZ management took care in handling the issue by giving training and support to the staff. The effort involved was mainly in dealing with the mind block of the staff. Once it was solved Joseph and his colleagues realized that the logistics management software had all the simplifications for a layman to work on it with mere common sense and organization knowledge. The staff was able to accustom gradually to the system. They realized that there is a considerable amount of time saved. There was no more a delay in communication between the departments and no question about updated information.
SA-FMS underwent several version changes and each time it evolved into a better version which makes tasks simpler for the employees. Joseph has worked with all these versions and he is very much impressed with the system. According to him, “SA-FMS is very user friendly. I have not been trained in computers and I’m 50 years old. I don’t find any difficulty to use SA-FMS. The colors used are optimum, without causing much strain to the eyes. The interface is well designed and the sorted menu on the left side of the screen helps to select each function from the particular module.” Now Joseph is proficient in the software and he is able to clear the clarifications of his colleagues. He even provides the software training to the new employees hired. SA-FMS indeed has also improved his computer knowledge and he has started using various other features in computers including e-mail, web browsing, word, excel etc.
