How Blue Yonder Shifted to Work From Home & Supported Critical Supply Chains During COVID-19

The journey a product takes from the fields or the factory to the customer is complex, and Blue Yonder is dedicated to making that process as efficient and cost-effective as possible. Founded in 1985, Blue Yonder provides its customers with digital supply chain management solutions through its digital fulfillment platform, enabling clients to deliver to their customers when, how, and where they want it.

Blue Yonder coordinates those efforts from its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, and from regional offices around the world that support over 5,500 associates. With a focus on machine learning and cloud-based solutions, Blue Yonder provides its customers with top-tier solutions that drive supply chain efficiency. As COVID-19 swept across the world, Blue Yonder was able to leverage Zoom to support its customers’ critical supply chains and seamlessly transition its thousands of associates to a work-from-home environment.

The need for a reliable, flexible, global solution

Dorien Weijts, Senior Vice President and CIO at Blue Yonder, and her team had just implemented Zoom across the organization in February 2020, and the timing was a bit fortuitous.

As an organization that designs technology to track the routes of trucks, trains, and airplanes carrying vital equipment like food, supplies, and medical equipment, Blue Yonder needed a solution that could perform in a wide range of environments to support its customers and ensure the delivery of goods, including essential supplies. The frequent reliability and connectivity issues of a legacy communications solution could have proven problematic as COVID-19 swept across the world, according to Weijts.

“With the prior solutions we used, we experienced poor connectivity, especially in those regions of the world that don’t have great reception,” Weijts said. “We really wanted a solution that had global range so we could reliably and effectively coordinate our operations, even in areas with poor connectivity.”

As COVID-19 affected more countries, Blue Yonder had to quickly transition to a work-from-home environment to maintain its operations while supporting its customers, many of which were deemed essential workers and were facing disruptions to their supply chains and increased demand due to the pandemic.

“A number of our customers were facing a multitude of emerging challenges such as demand spikes, transportation disruptions, and inventory and labor shortages, so we needed a solution we could use to coordinate our response to these challenges,” Weijts said. “We also needed to move all of our associates to a work-from-home environment without a loss of productivity or connectivity, and that was a significant challenge we needed to address.”

Enabling a frictionless user experience with Zoom

“Even before COVID-19, we were a global organization and have associates that are real ‘road warriors,’ ” Weijts said. “So we had to make sure that the communications solutions we use can adapt to changing business demands, from both internal staff and our customers. We needed one solution that could meet a lot of our requirements.”

Weijts and her team evaluated Zoom as part of their search and recognized the power of a unified communications solution featuring Zoom Meetings, Zoom Rooms, and Zoom Webinars on a single platform.

With all Blue Yonder associates now working remotely due to COVID-19, Zoom also helped maintain business continuity and aid in employee communications. Blue Yonder relied on Zoom to train employees on new product updates and help them better support their customers.

“Internally, we are also using Zoom for our monthly Associate Connection meetings with our CEO and leadership providing updates on the company and customers. Our sales team uses it to host educational webinars for associates about new products and customers/partners, as well as updated product features. Externally, the marketing team is using Zoom to put on webinars for customers and prospects about customer case studies and successes.”

Empowering the remote workforce

With Zoom, Blue Yonder created a communications infrastructure that could support both its employees working from home and its customers around the globe during COVID-19. As the organization continues to expand its use of Zoom, Blue Yonder is identifying opportunities to maintain a productive and effective team while working remotely.

“The eventual desire is to return to full office settings; however, we have identified opportunities to maintain a highly productive and collaborative work environment while continuing to work remotely,” Weijts said. “This includes additional integration with our on-site conference rooms that will enable us to more seamlessly engage in video conference sessions with our clients and associates – no matter where they are located.