|
WITH
THE PEOPLE OF YELLOW TECHNOLOGIES, |
|
 [Top Left Photo] (left) Lynn Caddell, President (right) Cheryl Billington, Vice President, Systems Development [Top Right Photo] Craig Bohon, Network Engineer Mary Perez, Communications Analyst [Bottom Left Photo] (left to right) Bill Latteman, Disaster Recovery Analyst; Christy Moody, Sr. Operations Support Analyst; David Zinser, Manager, Workstation Support [Bottom Right Photo] Carlene Wierman, Manager, Systems Development Hitendra Jogi, Help Desk Specialist |
More
and more large shippers demand seamless information linkages between
themselves and their transportation service partners. It’s a condition
of earning their business.
Yellow Technologies, a wholly-owned, 400-person subsidiary of Yellow Corporation, has provided the technology backbone that allows Yellow Freight to compete. Founded in 1992 as Yellow Technology Services, Inc., the mission of this internal company has changed dramatically. Established originally to provide systems support and administration along with various corporate and shared services, Yellow Technologies today focuses strictly on development, deployment and support of proprietary, state-of-the-art technology systems. "Yellow Technologies is our secret weapon," says Bill Zollars, Chairman, President and CEO of Yellow Corporation. "You have to have the ability to communicate with your customer base in real time about anything and everything related to their shipment. The winners and losers in our industry will quickly be sorted out based on their ability to do that." Under the leadership of Yellow Technologies President Lynn Caddell, the company works on dozens of proprietary information technology projects that can be roughly categorized as: 1. Applications that improve operating efficiency, save costs and improve service, and; 2. Applications that help Yellow connect with customers through the Internet. Supply chain management and lean inventory strategies are standard business practices for companies throughout the world. But the basic laws of commerce have not been repealed. There is no substitute for on-time, damage-free service. Quality of information just reveals which transportation service companies are performing and which are not. According to Traffic World magazine, information flow between shipper and carrier is rapidly moving to the Internet. By 2002, nearly 7 in 10 of those shipping transactions will occur online, rather than by phone, fax or mail. The My Yellow web site developed by Yellow Technologies reflects that trend. There are currently more than 20 million hits per month on the web site and at year-end, nearly 25,000 customers had created customized My Yellow web pages for use in conducting daily business transactions with Yellow. Those customers receive personalized, password-protected data on everything from rates to tracking reports to final invoices. They can schedule a shipment pickup and then fill out a bill of lading without ever leaving their computer screen. During 2000, Yellow Technologies employees were dedicated to an intensive effort to roll out 13 new interactive My Yellow applications. The strategic competitive advantages created by Yellow Technologies are becoming widely recognized. In 2000, Yellow Corporation was named to the CIO-100 list for the second consecutive year by CIO magazine, largely because of the work of Yellow Technologies. "Our industry has always been a
relationship business and that will not change," says Yellow
Technologies President Lynn Caddell. "The true value of technology is
that it strengthens those relationships in ways that we have never been
able to before. Our technology investment continues to pay big
dividends." |
