Written by BSM Global

Lack of Space & Equipment

 = increased costs, stress and staff churn across global shipping and supply chain teams

Traditional platforms were not designed to cope with the rapid changes in data management. This is falling into manual and increasingly disruptive processes, requiring constant data updating, and reprocessing. The impact to global buyers and consignee is deeper uncertainty as to order status, ETA, unrecoverable expense, and the disruption to their teams, and ultimately, the end users of the goods in question.

Competition is mounting & the lack of visibility & control makes cash flow unpredictable. Reduced Shipping Line customer service & account support has further compounded this volatility & pivoted toward what technologies can best support teams to manage continual change. 

In this environment it is extremely important that teams have solutions that deal with the operational impact of this market condition. Fast thinking companies are future-proofing via digitisation with leading technologies, aligning with providers in a partnership to create a digital ecosystem across their global supply chain. These can be tailored and aligned, optimising standardisation where possible and catering to the nuances of a company’s supply chain.

Recommended Solutions and Functionally for an optimised GTM (Global Trade Management) platform sit outside of ERP’s. As a minimum this includes the following key aspects.

  • Ability to make space bookings electronically 
  • Seamless transfer of information to transport partners so they are aware of changes 
  • Ability to monitor the status of bookings and if booking confirmations not received easily change carrier nomination.
  • Visibility to all booking status
  • Have rate agreements aligned to bookings to monitor the impact and cost variations between carriers
  • Ability to move bookings across orders minimizing the amount of rework required by teams
  • Exception reporting to capture performance of carriers to monitor market status and future carrier selections 
  • Automated daily monitoring of carrier schedules and relationships to bookings 
  • Automated transport planning 
  • Automated packing plans highlighting the movements and impact on labor.

If you’re interested in discovering new ways to improve your organisation’s own supply chain or have additional questions on the application of cloud-based technologies, contact us today.