Scalable and
customised cloud
solution creates secure IT growth for
TKL Logistics
The challenge
The global transport company TKL Logistics needed a reliable one-stop partner to manage the company’s IT needs, as the solutions in place could not be upscaled and adapted to the business’s rate of growth. Nor did they provide adequate security for either operations or data protection. When the company started its journey of digitalisation, one of the goals was to develop a customer portal, where purchasers of freight services from all over the world would be able to go in and order, manage and monitor freight orders.
“Our vision is to digitalise the logistics industry and strive to simplify what is quite a complicated industry. Basically, we want to streamline everyday operations for our customers. We chose Nordlo because they presented a setup that was well in line with our operation and vision,” says Oscar Lundgren, CEO at TKL Logistics.
The collaboration started with a preliminary study, in which TKL’s entire IT platform was reviewed and analysed with a focus on security, efficiency and scalability, and how these parameters corresponded to the company’s specific needs. The outcome of the preliminary study confirmed the need for a new, adapted, secure and scalable service that could manage the operation of all TKL’s systems and become an optimised, secure platform for the customer portal.
“We aim to be the best in the field of transport and logistics, we purchase expertise from Nordlo because they’re the best at IT”
- Oscar Lundgren, CEO at TKL Logistics
The solution
Nordlo’s solution initially comprised two stages:
- To meet TKL’s needs and create opportunities to grow, the in-house platform was adapted, and this can be expanded as the business develops.
- A solution for the customer portal was customised based on an existing platform solution, which both met the needs of existing users and can be upscaled as new users are added.
One of the first measures was to move all of TKL’s data, systems and applications — which used to be on individual, shared remote servers — to a single cloud environment where the risks of contamination are minimised and they have good control over the whole IT infrastructure.
The existing solution was not ideal, partly because many different kinds of data and systems were stored in a shared environment, which meant that the data was exposed. In TKL’s new, cloud-based server environment, data storage has been divided up, which also means that the capacity of individual parts of the systems can be increased as required.
One concrete example of the way Nordlo was quickly able to streamline TKL’s operations was by digitalising and automating the invoice flow. At present, approximately 80,000 supplier invoices can be processed digitally and virtually, with a minimum need for staff resources.
100% of TKL’s data, systems and applications are now in the cloud, in virtual, scalable database servers known as Elastic Pools. Thanks to this elasticity in the cloud databases, the digital customer portal, which now has around 500 active users all around the world, can grow organically, while operations and security have been safeguarded through the collaboration with Nordlo.
“One of our requirements of a long-term IT partner is presence and being able to rely on the support functioning, both remotely and locally. Just like TKL, Nordlo has an office in Jönköping, which has contributed to intensifying and simplifying our collaboration,” continues Oscar Lundgren.
Customer value
The solution gives TKL room to grow. Thanks to the fact that the system is adaptive, they can be agile, add, remove, increase or reduce system capacity according to need and usage, which has proven to have a major impact on costs and earnings. The positive results are also significant for TKL’s customers, as clearly evidenced by the level of customer satisfaction. Thanks to the customer portal, more and more customers can manage their freight orders themselves, making their everyday lives simpler.
“We can quickly see trends and changes, enabling us to boost performance or adjust capacity temporarily. We can also monitor the way users use the portal and make adjustments according to customers’ booking behaviour. This gives TKL a major competitive advantage as a logistics partner,” concludes Oscar Lundgren.
About TKL Logistics
TKL Logistics is a global transport company, founded in 1994, with a head office in Jönköping. The company has thirteen offices worldwide in total, with net sales of approximately SEK 600 million. TKL offers high-quality, one-stop solutions in the areas of maritime, road, rail and air freight, with personal service and one single point of contact for customers, in a global transport market characterised by competition and tough demands for both the lowest price and the highest quality. Find out more at tkl.se/en/.