How Cross-Industry Collaboration Can Spur the Digitalisation of the Last-Mile Distribution Sector

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Last-mile distributors (LMDs) play a critical role in providing access to energy and other life-changing services to unserved or underserved customers in sub-Saharan Africa, and digitalisation is key to enabling these companies to operate efficiently on a larger scale. From processing micropayments and managing inventory logistics, to running business intelligence analytics and consolidating accounting reports, the benefits of digitalisation for social enterprises operating in last-mile markets are countless. And it’s crucial to support their efforts to efficiently scale the basic services they provide to millions of people around the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made this digital transition more urgent, as restrictions imposed on the physical movement of agents and assets have impacted the last-mile distribution sector. Over the course of the pandemic, many LMDs have accelerated their digital transformation processes, and many of their digital service providers (DSPs) have also streamlined their services to allow for more flexibility and adapt to the new challenges faced by these distributors.

However, both last-mile distributors and digital service france whatsapp number data providers currently often struggle to understand and service each other’s requirements.

LMDs understand the value of digital solutions provided by DSPs, and are willing to pay for the right solutions. In exchange, they want solutions that are easy and intuitive to use, and easily customised and adapted to their ways of working – while being versatile and interoperable with the other digital solutions they are already using. But despite the efforts of DSPs, not all of these needs can always be met simultaneously, as most DSPs don’t provide the full suite of functionalities required by their LMD customers. That leads to trade-offs in terms of design execution: For example, enabling greater customisability of DSP solutions generally compromises their affordability.

To address these challenges, Energy Catalyst, an Innovate UK programme supporting innovation to tackle energy poverty in Africa and Asia, and the Global Distributors Collective, which supports LMDs’ efforts to reach underserved customers globally, joined forces to launch a research report last year. The report, “Digital transformation to support last mile distribution: overcoming barriers together,” translates the respective needs of LMDs and DSPs, aiming to promote mutually beneficial dialogue between the two industries in order to accelerate the digitalisation of the LMD sector. It focuses on building bridges between the two sectors in five particular areas, which I’ll discuss below.