The use of digital technology including artificial intelligence is significantly more utilized in the logistics sector. In addition to efficiency, technology also promises better reliability. Maritime Expert of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya Raja Oloan Saut Gurning stated that the digitization process provides a factual level of efficiency, although not only the digitalization factor.

First, digitization encourages changes in the way or process of logistics business. The pattern of commodity or physical movement, including goods, ordering and financial processes that were previously done manually, are now changing due to digital capabilities.The physical logistics movement (transportation, storage and handling) of goods remains. However, the flow of payment, ordering, evaluation, planning, including visibility (tracking/tracing) has been done virtually.

Second, business connections are increasingly open. Market expansion opportunities, the number and variety of service users and types of services can be more accessible. "This includes encouraging more actors or comparable service providers whose scale can be local, regional and international. So there are pluses and minuses," said Saut, Monday (11/12/2023).

Third, according to him, administrative processes related to government, which have been quite bureaucratic, are now easier. It does not need to be repeated and can be saved for a variety of different activities.

Fourth, in the risk management process. So far, it has been done individually, but now it can be done collectively through the scale of entities and equal communities (horizontal) to the ecosystem scale (vertical). Furthermore, he assessed that the amount of efficiency rates from digital utilization is very diverse depending on many factors, especially the changing business processes, the level of collaboration and the scale or scope of digitalization implementation.

"In maritime, in some cases that I observed, it can be up to 20 percent, especially in terminals, shipping, pilotage operations, and forwarding services. Especially administrative activities, planning, coordination, payments that are physical in nature become touch processes or digitalization," he explained.

According to Saut, a number of challenges still stand in the way of digital utilization in the logistics sector, starting from the level of need or maturity of the needs of logistics service users, then the consequences of this factor greatly affect the selection of technology (enablers) or the variant of the information system or ICT chosen.

Furthermore, because it is both internal and external, the choice of increasingly digitized processes and technologies is highly dependent on the support or response of external parties, including partners. This is the importance of digital collaboration.

"It is relatively process-intensive. Let's see, such as inaportnet, port community system with various variations: TOS, P-TOS, STID and others to the ecosystem level like NLE, it is not easy to fully implement them," he said.

According to Saut, digital collaboration needs to be accompanied by the ability to transform. Both internally and externally, on a horizontal-vertical unit scale, public-private, intra-community, to domestic, regional and global ecosystems. To enter this transformation, it requires management of changes in business patterns, ranging from manual, mechanical to digital. Including digital culture to the handling of digitalization risks so that it can be relatively flexible or resilient in the face of various change factors (disruption) that may occur

Cross-Border Potential

In recent years, the global expansion of e-commerce has been the driving force behind the evolution of the digital logistics landscape. Forbes estimates that the global e-commerce market is valued at a total of US$6.3 trillion by the end of 2023, and forecasts the market to grow to a total of over US$8.1 trillion by 2026. With this market expansion, there is a need for scalable and efficient solutions to handle the surge in cross-border shipments.

Businesses are being urged to invest in digital freight forwarding platforms that can seamlessly manage the complexities of domestic and international e-commerce logistics, ensuring on-time delivery and customer satisfaction. Logistics company forwarder.ai is one of the digital technology utilizers that can be an example of achieving efficiency, especially cross-border shipments.

The startup provides several digital freight forwarding services in the form of customized shipping solutions, instant quotes, personal dashboards, and logistics operations insights. forwarder.ai can generate optimal shipping plans that specifically cater to the needs of SMEs. From choosing the most cost-effective mode of transportation to designing efficient shipping routes, the digital freight forwarder ensures that SMEs can deliver their goods with utmost precision and at minimal cost.

Moreover, with Less Than Container Load (LCL) products, SMEs can ship by sea in cubic units instead of booking by container which requires SMEs to have a very high volume of shipments in order to take advantage of sea freight logistics. Another technology that forwarder.ai brings to its digital platform is the instant quotation feature. Through this feature, SMEs can estimate the cost that needs to be prepared for the cargo to be shipped.

This practicality is very different when compared to traditional shipping companies that require a long process in making price quotes, which is less practical for SME businesses that require swiftness and practicality in their operational processes. Then, one of the advantages of digital freight forwarding services for SMEs is the provision of a personal dashboard.

Digital freight forwarders prioritize customer satisfaction by offering dedicated support throughout the delivery process. In addition, utilizing advanced data analytics, forwarder.ai helps analyze shipping trends, identify bottlenecks, and anticipate potential challenges, the freight forwarder helps SMEs make informed decisions to optimize supply chain management.

forwarder.ai Co-Founder Stephanus Sugiharto believes that Indonesia's archipelagic geography brings unique logistics challenges. Digital freight forwarding platforms offer advanced route optimization and coordination capabilities, helping to efficiently navigate the complexities of transporting goods across multiple islands.

"Indonesia's various industries, ranging from trading to manufacturing, require flexible and adaptive logistics networks. Digital platforms provide the flexibility needed to accommodate the diverse needs of different segments of the supply chain, facilitating the seamless movement of goods." he explained.

According to him, Indonesia has a thriving SME ecosystem. Shipping goods via digital freight forwarders gives small businesses access to a global logistics network, empowering SMEs to engage in domestic and international trade by simplifying the shipping process.

Kompas.com: Efisiensi Logistik lewat Teknologi Digital, Manfaat dan Tantangannya