Jeena’s digital leap: Modernising a 125-year-old logistics legacy with Salesforce

Jeena & Company, one of India’s oldest logistics firms with a 125-year heritage, is undergoing a sweeping digital transformation in partnership with Salesforce. In this exclusive conversation with Dataquest, Jeena’s leadership and Salesforce India share how they are reimagining customer engagement, empowering the workforce, and modernising legacy processes while staying true to the values that have sustained the company for over a century.

A legacy of early tech adoption

Jeena’s relationship with technology stretches back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the company was among the first freight forwarding firms to move from paper-based systems to digital operations. Instead of buying ready-made software, it built its own systems to meet the exacting standards of detail and efficiency it demands. As Ayesha Katgara, Director and Head - Transformation Office, Jeena & Company  points out, this philosophy has shaped Jeena’s evolution: technology is never treated as a cost, but as a strategic investment that ensures the company can serve its customers better and stay ahead of industry shifts.

When it comes to technology partners, Jeena’s decision-making goes beyond product capabilities. Ayesha says the company looks for cultural and ethical alignment, strong commitments to data security and privacy, the ability to integrate seamlessly through APIs, and a clear return on investment. Every choice is evaluated through a simple lens: will this make us more efficient and deliver measurable benefits to customers?

Fostering customer experience at the core

From Salesforce’s perspective, the logistics industry today is built around customer experience at every touchpoint – from acquisition to service delivery and loyalty. Deepak Pargaonkar, VP – Solution Engineering, Salesforce India, notes that customers expect visibility, reliability, and responsiveness across every service channel. The engagement with Jeena is designed to be collaborative, meeting them where they are in their transformation journey and helping them progress at the right pace.

From spreadsheets to a 'Modern CRM'

Before Salesforce, Jeena’s CRM setup was “non-existent,” in Ayesha’s words. The company relied on Excel sheets, email threads, and manual coordination, which slowed down decision-making and created inefficiencies. Now, with Salesforce Sales Cloud, Jeena is improving sales visibility and enabling faster, more integrated engagement across its logistics network. Sales teams have real-time insights at every stage of the deal cycle, helping them close deals quicker, improve conversion rates, and tap into recurring revenue opportunities.

With Salesforce Customer 360 providing a single source of truth for customer data, Jeena can personalise outreach, deepen customer engagement, and lay the foundation for future-proof operations. These intelligent, connected, and AI-ready workflows are transforming how teams work, making engagement more strategic and boosting motivation across the sales force.

Mankiran Chowhan, Managing Director & SVP – India, Sales & Distribution, Salesforce, described the collaboration as a crucial step in combining Jeena’s deep industry expertise with future-ready technologies. “The logistics sector faces increasing demand and a constantly changing supply chain, making real-time visibility more crucial than ever,” she noted. “By leveraging our platform and the power of AI-led transformation, Jeena is modernising operations, streamlining data, expediting decisions, and creating more connected experiences for its customers.”

Managing change in a legacy organisation

Ayesha acknowledges that change in an organisation with such a long history inevitably meets resistance, but sees it as a journey. Leadership provides the direction, but employees at all levels contribute through workshops and feedback loops. Understanding why some people still prefer older tools like Excel often reveals process gaps that can be addressed, making adoption smoother.

Deepak agrees, adding that transformation in legacy organisations also depends on ecosystem readiness. Customers, partners, and regulators may need to upgrade or open their systems to achieve true end-to-end digital integration, making API readiness and interoperability crucial.

Co-innovation for competitive edge

Salesforce’s approach with Jeena centres on co-innovation – using the company’s rich organisational data, shaping its AI strategy, and building capabilities that create competitive differentiation. The aim is to enhance customer service through improved insights, faster workflows, and potentially new offerings that set Jeena apart in the market.

The first phase of Salesforce rollout to 20 users has already sparked enthusiasm. During training workshops, sales managers were particularly excited by the ability to view consolidated data, drill into volumes and gross profit, and access actionable insights with a few clicks. The improved visibility has started to influence how teams plan and execute their sales strategies.

A digital transformation playbook for CXOs

Ayesha’s experience has crystallised key lessons for other leaders undertaking digital transformation. The first, she says, is to set clear and realistic timelines for implementation. The second is to secure buy-in from the people who will use the systems every day – without that, even the best tools will fail to deliver their potential. And the third is to evaluate AI critically, not emotionally. “Don’t adopt AI just because it’s the trend,” she stresses. “Adopt it because it can deliver meaningful returns and improve the way you work.”

The road ahead

Over the next year, Jeena’s focus will be on achieving full adoption of Salesforce and completing its ERP build (part of its larger IT mandate beyond Salesforce), with AI layered into processes where it can deliver measurable value. For Salesforce, the next phase is about helping Jeena leverage its organisational data for sales excellence, enabling better collaboration across multiple stakeholders, and enhancing the customer experience through advanced analytics and AI-driven insights.