The value of information in growth of your business is immeasurable. It is the lifeblood of freight and logistics business where cohesion in work process is crucial for sustenance and growth.
The nature of your business demands a great amount of collaboration and communication within and without the organization. With many moving parts, interdependency of various departments and involvement of multiple outside agencies day-to-day operations may become chaotic.
Technology offers the much needed support to ensure smooth operations but it can help you only when you have an understanding of how to leverage it to your fullest advantage. A mish mash of technology to manage different aspects of operations can spell disaster for the business.
What you need is a single cohesive solution that encompasses every aspect of your business. A logistics ERP solution is a step in the right direction towards this end. It helps you collaborate within the organization and outside with business associates and involved agencies. Most importantly, a logistics ERP solution becomes a repository of data that enables you to have transparency across the organization and empower management to make informed business decisions.
Easing information flow
Freight forwarders and logistics companies are required to manage complex shipping requirements which involve large sets of data including location, weight, size, origin, destination and content, generated by different entities involved in the movement of cargo. There is also accurate and timely information that has to be presented to border authorities.
An ERP solution eases the information flow by facilitating management of these large sets of data and prevents repetition of data entry presenting the information in a digested manner for further use and analysis.
Real-time, historical information
Simply having large sets of data scattered across the organization is pointless and of no practical use. Data of the organization and other sources should be present in a single repository and available on demand for consumption. An ERP can provide historical data as well as real time data from on-going shipments. With reporting tools in place, managers can extract crucial facts from the vast repository swiftly. With quick access to real-time and historical data, you can use your time more efficiently to analyze information and make better decisions. For example, an operations manager can look at historical data to find solutions to current problems or prevent repeat of previous mistakes. He can use real-time information to prevent any potential issues that might delay movement of shipment.
Customer intelligence
Information can lead to transparency and better customer service. Timely notifications can be used to keep customers updated on their shipment status and real-time tracking can be offered. Reports generated using data in an ERP system helps you discover customer behaviors patterns allowing customer profiling. This inside knowledge can turn into direct profit for a company by leveraging existing data on consumer habits to retain valuable customers. You can also get insights to understand which customers are more profitable in terms of cooperation and timely payments.
Using information to cut costs
Information helps you identify areas for cost savings. It helps optimize freight rate based on the time and effort invested and also negotiate better rates with carriers and service providers. You can achieve full coordination, collaboration, and visibility across the organization, thus effecting more agile and error-free work process. It can lead to streamlined workflow, reduced costs and optimized performance.
The ERP enables access to information that offers a huge potential for increasing operational efficiency, improving customer experience and creating useful new business models that can fuel business growth.