A
leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. In every
organization, leaders are expected to be astute decision makers in order to
guide the organization towards greater achievements. Historically, even the
greatest decision makers relied heavily on their experience, knowledge and wit.
Today, advancements in technology have helped them to take a look at the facts at
granular levels to make crucial decisions. Availability of large volumes of
information and reporting tools which can present the required facts are
helping both strategic and operational level decision making.
The
Freight Forwarding industry is an excellent example of how information
reporting can change the way companies do business. In this industry, the use
of information based decision making is of high importance due to
interdependency of processes and involvement of multiple parties. An ERP
solution accumulates a variety of data on a daily basis. Using this data to
mine required information with help of a reporting module has helped numerous
logistics companies improve decision making in many ways as mentioned below -
1.
Effective usage of available information -
Today,
Freight Forwarders manage massive flow of goods and at the same time create
large sets of data. Every day the details of millions of shipments like
location, weight, size, origin, destination and content are tracked globally.
Data generated through day-to-day operations, when stored and exploited fully,
can provide insightful inferences. The outcomes have huge potential for
increasing operational efficiency, improving customer experience and creating
useful new business models that can drive revenue growth.
2.
Decision making based on Real-time and historical information -
A Freight Forwarding Software or an ERP Software for Freight Forwarders can provide
historical data as well as data from the production line. With reporting tools
in place, managers can extract crucial facts from a large amount of data at a
rapid pace. 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, a sales head of a company can look at historical data to find the
trends in the sales cycle and find out which ones are going to affect the
business. Based on this information and its comparison with the current stage,
a course of action can be defined that will help improve sales.
3.
Performance measurement -
Using
KPIs to monitor the performance of a variety of business critical parameters is
an essential benefit of information reporting infrastructure. Keeping track of
key parameters such as Sales forecasting KPIs, Transportation KPIs, Warehousing
KPIs etc. allows business managers to fine-tune operations towards service
improvement and cost saving objectives. A few examples can be as follows -
%
of Sales vs. Target
Warehouse
Turnover (by cost)
Freight
Volume by Trade Lane/Destination Port
Cargo
Volume
On-time
deliveries
Delays
4.
Customer Intelligence -
The
ultimate objective of any business is providing the best service to customers
in order to drive profitability. Maintaining existing customers through
satisfactory service is as important as acquiring new ones. Reports generated
using data in an ERP system helps Freight Forwarders to discover patterns
within customer behaviors, offering greater visibility into what customers
want, when they want it and how they want it. This inside knowledge can turn
into direct profit for a company by leveraging existing data on consumer habits
and maintaining valuable customers. A 3PL company can apply customer insights
to understand which customers are more profitable in terms of co-operation
& timely payments.
5.
Identify areas for cost cutting -
Reports
from Freight Forwarding Solutions help in
enhanced supply chain management with the effective use of the available data.
Investment in such a system can pay for itself by helping decision-makers
identify areas for cost savings. For e.g. Freight Forwarders can use reports to
measure vendor performance and perform vendor comparison to select the best
vendor for any particular shipment. Historical reports can help them to
optimize the Freight Rate and in turn, better negotiate the prices.
With
Informed decision making, Freight Forwarders can achieve full coordination,
collaboration, and visibility, so they can streamline workflows, reduce
expenses, and optimize performance and service. A Freight
Forwarding Software gives the management a multidimensional view of the
processes of the company which empowers the management to be better decision
makers and more effective leaders.
For more info on Logistics Software go to www.softlinkglobal.com
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