In order for a company to deserve the name of a start-up, it must be very innovative. The list of such companies has been growing rapidly in recent years. Including those that operate in logistics and transport. Sophy specializes in streamlining communication in the transport sector. The task is by no means simple.
The problem has existed for a long time and is caused by a multitude of communication channels. Emails, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, text messages – these are just some of the possibilities of communication and at the same time ‘generators’ of the problem. On top of this, there is the diversity of languages, with drivers speaking 24 languages in the European Union alone. All this has an impact on the daily lives of road transport workers in Europe. Communication between transaction participants can be cumbersome. In many cases, it is a waste of a lot of time and money.
The creators of the startup founded in 2017, i.e. the brothers Roman, Christopher, Gerald Gutscher and Marcus and Gerhard Gruber (owners of the IT company Documatrix) have known each other for many years. In 2018 Alexandr Ivanov joined them. They all have experience in transport, dealing with either the transport itself or the software for transport companies. Therefore, they encountered similar difficulties. Over the years of work in the transport sector, they have found out how many connections, e-mails and documents are a problem. They know that data and documents generated from different systems are sent through different channels, and the flow of information has become a tiring and error-prone process, requiring a lot of effort and time.
Startup Sophy comes from Austria and is based in Vienna
The founders of the company considered it a key task to find a way to optimize communication along the transport chain. The creators of Sophy have focused on facilitating communication between logistics companies in such a way as to make it open for all forwarders and other industries. The idea is simple. It involves automating all the repetitive communication tasks. On the positive side, roaming charges in the EU were eliminated in mid-2017, increasing the availability of mobile data traffic.
Creating a single communication channel, reducing or even eliminating manual data transfer can significantly reduce the time spent on simple information transfer.
How does it work? The shipment (from/to, size, contents, carrier) is entered into a web application. Vehicle driver receives shipment data in a mobile application on his smartphone. Vehicle position and shipment status are then available to all transport participants in the web application.
Sophy is a platform consisting of a web application in the cloud and an application for the driver’s mobile phone. It allows for tracking the current location of transport and connects all participants, translating messages and information into the appropriate native language in real-time – directly and in a user-friendly way. Its functionality is based on a simple and clear application for the truck driver’s smartphone and a web browser. Direct communication is one thing; the application also gives the possibility of sending documents and photos directly from the truck or providing information about the status of the task. Translation from one language to another is done automatically.
Sophy can be easily integrated with other systems such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. The application also has interfaces to the most popular dispatching tools and freight exchanges. Also, there are no problems with integration with existing ERP systems, which eliminates multiple data entries and automatically updates these systems.
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