Brisbane firm Siecap helps corporate clients service their customers faster

A Brisbane-based company with 70 employees around the country is devoted to making sure every online purchase is your “last best experience”.

Siecap founder David Irvine. Picture: Mark Cranitch

We are in what has been labelled the Age of Customer Obsession.

It’s an era where brand loyalty is not about a sentimental tie to a much-loved store or a product. Consumers instead judge companies and organisations on “their last best experience”.

And according to David Irvine, in a society that is increasingly time poor and demanding, a major determinant of this experience is the speed that products can be delivered into the customer’s hands.

Chief executive of specialist project management and advisory at company Siecap, Irvine says his business is increasingly called on to help companies with their supply chain and logistics needs to feed this customer obsession.

In an era of instant gratification fed by the internet, companies are aware that the need for speed is of the essence, especially the “last mile” in a supply chain where that piece of furniture, a suit for the school formal or bouquet of flowers is guaranteed to turn up in quick time on your doorstep.

“Customers evaluate a company from when they click onto their website to when it’s delivered to their home,” Irvine says.

“Companies are realising that notification, scheduling of delivery and ownership of that last mile until it gets into the hands of their customers, is something they need to own to keep at the forefront of their competitive environment.”

Born in Brisbane, Irvine moved to Wollongong with his family as a child. His first job was with BHP as a mechanical engineer where he drifted into the mysteries of the supply chain.

After a stint as a consultant he returned to Brisbane in 2012 with his young family to start Siecap which now has 70 employees with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Port Moresby.

Siecap founder David Irvine. Picture: Mark Cranitch

Irvine said Siecap “hit the ground running in 2013” and has racked up an impressive list of clients including Amart Furniture, BHP, Toyota, Caltex and Origin Energy

Irvine says the transformation of the supply chain space has been nothing short of “revolutionary”.

“What we’ve seen over the course of the last two decades or so is that Australia has gone from a strong and large manufacturing base to having more of an import model where products are being sourced from low cost countries,” he says.

“So businesses effectively changed from being a manufacturing type of organisation to a supply and distribution, hence the rise of supply chain discipline.

“At the same time technology has meant the loyalty factor has changed because of the way people consume products. It’s all about service. It used to be accepted that it might take a while for a consumer or business to get a product – now the expectation is to get it in a day or even be at your doorstep in a couple of hours.

“What we’re seeing in the online space is that customers are really driving that demand – to be given a range of choices and get what they choose as soon as possible..”

Siecap provides “cradle-to-grave” solutions to supply chain problems from strategy development, through to integration and operation improvement. Integral in establishing an effective supply chain is ensuring the availability of the product, the delivery to a customer’s doorstep and if things go pear shaped, ensuring a quick recovery.

The supply chain is wrapped up in technology which first created the challenge and also provides the solution.

Irvine says automation and digitisation have transformed warehouses from dusty labour intensive workplaces to efficient clearing houses at the touch of a button on a mobile phone.

And there is more to come.

The development and adoption of predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, driverless vehicles, the integration and orchestration of all physical and digital channels and the gig economy will continue the revolution.

Irvine says while Australia has made great strides in supply chain delivery we’re still playing catch up to the rest of the world.

He says while the US has single-generation supply chain behemoths like Amazon and Alphabet Inc (Google) in its top 10 largest companies, most of Australia’s top firms reach back more than a century.

“What we need to do is look how we innovate, how do we become more entrepreneurial and serve our customers better.”