What I would do arriving today as CTO at a 150-person logistics company

The logistics sector has characteristics that make technology problems highly predictable: operations fragmented across multiple locations, margin pressure that has historically delayed IT investment, and legacy systems patched for years instead of replaced. If I arrived today as CTO at a 150-person logistics company, here is what I would do in the first 90 days.

• Interviews with drivers, warehouse operators and dispatchers to understand how they actually work, not how the manual says they should
• Map every active system: what it does, who manages it, what it costs and when someone last updated it
• Analysis of IT incidents from the last 12 months: what failed, how long to resolve and what operational impact it had
• Review of integrations between systems: how many are manual (someone downloading an Excel and uploading it to another system)
• Identify the most critical data point: where is the real status of each shipment at any given moment?

In practically every logistics company of this size there is a predictable combination of problems: the TMS is not well integrated with the ERP, so someone manually inputs data between systems. Real-time shipment tracking exists for customers on paper, but internally knowing the actual status of a shipment requires calling the driver. Incidents are managed via WhatsApp with no record or follow-up analysis.

• TMS and ERP disconnected with manual data entry as the bridge
• Tracking based on phone calls or WhatsApp, no real-time visibility
• Incident management with no system: WhatsApp, email and calls mixed together
• Backups nobody has tested and third-party access never reviewed
• Manual Excel reporting that takes hours to prepare and always arrives late

1. Real-time shipment visibility

The first project would be integrating vehicle GPS tracking (or mobile apps for drivers if there is no embedded GPS) with the TMS, so the status of every shipment is visible without calls. This reduces customer query handling time by 60-70% and eliminates most internal 'where is the truck?' calls.

2. TMS-ERP integration without manual input

The second project would be automating the data flow between TMS and ERP: delivery notes, invoices, work orders. Every manual entry point is an error source and an hour of work that adds no value. At companies this size, this flow typically represents 2-5 hours of eliminable administrative work per day.

3. Incident management system

The third project would be replacing the WhatsApp and email chaos with a simple ticket system for incidents. The goal is not the tool but the process: every incident has an owner, a status and a measured resolution time.

• Not replace the TMS or ERP. Legacy systems contain undocumented business knowledge. Replacing them before understanding operations is the most expensive mistake a new CTO can make.
• Not launch a large-scale digital transformation project. High-visibility large projects generate resistance and stall operations.
• Not buy any new software without first checking whether the problem can be solved with what already exists.
• Not promise results in 30 days. In logistics, seasonality and operational exceptions mean any project takes twice as long as estimated if not managed well.

The first 90 days of a CTO in logistics are not for implementing technology. They are for understanding which technology is worth implementing. The difference between the two approaches is the difference between a project the organisation adopts and one abandoned at 6 months.