Computer Business Review (CBR), UK: Cognizant’s Head of Consulting in the UK Says Commercial Drones are Promising if Companies Collaborate to Drive Innovation in the Supply Chain Process

“The possibilities of commercial drones are diverse and promising now that there are numerous pilot schemes and in trials,” writes Rupert Chapman. “Drones that deliver packages, drones that monitor agriculture, drones that assess property damage, drones fighting fires and locating chemical disasters.” Excerpts:

“The use of drones by businesses is barely visible in some countries and organizations still seem to be reluctant to deploy drones. This is often due to complex and strict legislation around their use and negative messages about privacy.

The impact of drones on businesses can be immense. Drones can speed up efficiency and reduce costs associated with traditional supply chains, they can deliver an additional source of data gathering and provide added convenience in delivery. However, the implementation of drones by businesses is developing much more slowly than expected due to a number of challenges that still need to be overcome.

Of paramount importance is that companies are confronted with strict rules and regulations. Furthermore, it is important for companies to be compliant with strict privacy rules. Communication about what a successful integration looks like is still very limited. Companies are still not integrating commercial drones into their business processes, because it is not clear how they can fit drones into their workflow. Undertaking research on possible solutions is often time consuming and expensive with little idea on the return on the investment.

Companies already using the new technology seem reluctant to share too much information in order to reap the benefits of their early investments in market leading and innovative tools. As a result of this reluctance to share, further integration elsewhere lags behind as companies wait for successful user stories that may never appear.

There is an important task for companies to encourage the development and implementation of commercial drones by other organizations if they want to change the legislation and encourage the relevant infrastructure, which, ultimately benefits everyone. Companies that successfully integrate drones into their business processes should be encouraged to communicate proactively about how they achieved this success.

When companies are willing to communicate about how they achieved their success, it provides third-party partners with a way to encourage further integration of drones through coordinated collaboration sessions between companies that would provide value in a non-competitive way, build the business case and risk/benefit scenarios to ensure investment and strategic vision approval.

The possibilities of commercial drones are very promising as long as the benefits and examples of successful integration are communicated and companies are willing to collaborate to drive forward innovation in the supply chain process.”

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