Why did French company Solystic triumph in this year’s Supplier of the Year category? One word: innovation. “We look at innovation as a way to bring a real, concrete value to our customers and partners,” says Maurizio Puppo, Solystic’s director of marketing and communications. “We always try to think creatively.” Solystic has many satisfied customers from the past 12 months, all happy to verify the company’s innovative approach. “We assist in lots of ways, but key is our ability to help others make the best use of their existing industrial assets,” says Puppo. “Where appropriate, we can supply new solutions to optimize or enforce logistics networks, as with our XMS machines, a solution that sorts and prepares both letter size and flat mail deliveries, dramatically reducing fixed costs, or CPS, which can help customers deal with this increasing flow of cross-border small parcels.”
Specific clients for Solystic have included Bpost, the Belgian postal operator; La Poste in France, and Posti in Finland, among others, with the company working on other technology to secure more future business. “We are focusing on several areas, but mainly on introducing more automation into the process,” Puppo explains. “We constantly analyze market trends and developments, and learn a lot by speaking to and closely cooperating with our customers.” But will anything be as intriguing or as futuristic as Soly, which uses fleets of mobile robots to handle parcels? “They are managed by a common IT application,” Puppo says. “In the past, the preparation of parcel delivery has been largely manual and labor-intensive, with shopping events like Black Friday and Christmas creating spikes of added pressure. Soly can be scaled up or down as needed, and reduces the workload through its smart handling of parcels, without requiring any fixed infrastructure.”
With its impressive legacy already a major talking point in the industry, Solystic is certainly confident about the future. “We want to remain at the cutting edge, ahead of the competition from across the parcel and mail industry, working closely with our customers and partners,” Puppo concludes. “Our key focuses will be keeping the mail business sustainable, despite decreasing volumes, and meeting the growing demand for parcels helped by e-commerce. Our solutions and services will be very helpful in meeting these challenges.”
Supplier of the Year Shortlist:
- What3Words
- Vanderlande
- Solystic
- Keba
- PUDO
