Towering above: Imperial Logistics for Africa

Call for change

A digital logistics partnership for growth

Imperial Logistics, a DP World Company, is the leading logistics supplier in South Africa—and has its sights set on business growth in Africa powered by digital transformation.

Imperial’s supply chain control tower (SCCT) advisory and execution services were already in high demand. SCCT functionality enables companies to access data from multiple sources (partners, suppliers, service providers and external data providers) in a single platform, gaining full network visibility to better anticipate and respond to demand. This provides the groundwork to make supply chains more customer-centric, sustainable, responsive, resilient and agile—even through disruption. Imperial realized that enhancing its SCCT capabilities would enable the company not only to meet customer expectations, but differentiate its solutions, expand its market and unlock new revenue.

To support its transformation and deliver on the new strategy, Imperial set about creating a unique partnership with Accenture.

When tech meets human ingenuity

The future-ready supply chain

The partnership brings together a local and global network of supply chain advisory and operational expertise to unlock enterprise value.

To create this model, Imperial’s supply chain advisory team of 50 people has been incorporated into Accenture’s supply chain operations in Africa. This team will identify, design, implement, manage and maintain SCCT services for Imperial and its customers. Meanwhile, Accenture’s suite of supply chain methodologies and templates will accelerate SCCT customer onboarding. Its SCCT software-as-a-service solutions (including One Network, Blue Yonder and O9) will enable the SCCT team to tailor solutions to customers’ specific needs.

The enhanced SCCT service created by this partnership will cover scheduling and optimization across everything from planning through fulfillment. Advanced capabilities enhance synchronization between the supply chain and stores through backdoor scheduling and intelligent responses that leverage predictive analytics and automation, minimizing human error and transactional tasks. A dynamic risk assessment capability also uses external data sources and blockchain to provide integrated visibility, ensuring greater oversight and traceability, and enhancing customers’ sustainability credentials in the process.

A valuable difference

Solutions that drive savings

The partnership provides a strong foundation for Imperial’s digital transformation and growth—and strengthens its leading position as logistics services become increasingly complex and data- and analytics-driven.

The model took just six months to deploy, and helped attract significant deals with a financial entity and a major grocery retailer. The latter is the biggest single contract Imperial has signed.

Along with managing the retailer’s 2,000-strong fleet of trucks, the Imperial-Accenture offering will help the retailer improve synchronization between its supply chain and stores, reducing driver hours and ultimately the size of its fleet. Intelligent automation will minimize mistakes and routine tasks, while additional blockchain capabilities will increase transparency. The retailer’s predicted cost savings will amount to approximately 20% after five years.

Together, Imperial and Accenture offer the most cost effective and reliable logistics services across the African continent.