Panth Transport Limited: Digitizing Bulk Logistics

On 2 January 2018, V. K. Benugopal reviewed the company’s performance for the previous quarter. He thought about the challenges he had faced during the quarter and was convinced that time was running out to make things right. Benugopal took charge as chief executive officer (CEO) of Panth Transfreight Limited (PTL) in July 2017 and was entrusted with the responsibility of streamlining logistics operations for Indian Steel and Power Ltd (ISPL). He was also tasked with eliciting a cost savings of 10% from the existing logistics costs. From the very beginning, Benugopal made critical changes in how logistics operations were managed at ISPL. He centralized operations and contracts, and changed the freight-finalization process from destination-wise freight to a region/state-wise freight concept. He created an information-technology portal to allow for a digitized billing process, and implemented a vehicle-tracking mechanism. These changes created unrest among employees at the plants and confusion among transporters, which resulted in declining operational performance. Benugopal was anxious as he considered his circumstances. Did he do the right thing by implementing so many changes at one time, or should he have made these changes gradually and checked system readiness?

Education system readiness to switch to a remote mode of work: pandemic lessons reflection

The article actualizes the problem of the education system readiness to switch to a remote mode of work based on research and reflection on the lessons of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020; it substantiated the need for digitalization of the educational process through analysis of trends in the development of education and training using information systems; disclosed approaches to the methodology of digitalization of education in such areas as digital didactics, digital transformation, digital education, digital ecosystem; the concept of «readiness for activity or action» is defined, a theoretical analysis of the organizational, motivational, psychological, material and technical, normative readiness of educational organizations and participants in educational relations for activities in the new conditions of distance learning is provided; it describes the results of a study of the readiness of regional education systems, educational organizations, participants in educational relations (teachers, students and their parents) to work in adistance, remote mode; disclosed research methods (online survey, analysis of websites of educational organizations, study and generalization of experience) and the data of the results of the study of normative, material and technical, informational, organizational readiness, the education system for a remote mode of work, the readiness of teaching staff for new working conditions, as well as the readiness of families of students to study in self-isolation; examples of the best practices for organizing the activities of schools and families of students during the period of the forced transition to distance learning, including forms of rapid response, targeted methodological support of educational organizations in the region, psychological assistance to children and parents in the process of transition to new digital relationship; identified and generalized problems, suggested ways of solving in the near future.