Today, advancements in information technology have given freight and logistics companies access to before unimaginable volume of information. The advanced technologies such as IoT, RFID, Automatic Identification (Auto ID) technologies and others have made data gathering easier and this information can help them to take a look at their business at a granular level and make use of the information for crucial planning and strategic decision making. Availability of large volumes of information and reporting tools which can retrieve, analyze, transform and report data for business intelligence.
The Freight Forwarding industry is an excellent example of how business intelligence can change the way of doing business. The use of business intelligence for decision making is of high importance in the industry due to its interdependency of processes and involvement of third parties. A Freight ERP software solution accumulates a variety of data on a daily basis. Using this data to retrieve required information using powerful reporting tools available in the ERP has helped numerous freight and logistics companies improve decision making process.
Tool for optimizing operations
A Freight Forwarding Software Solution or a Freight Forwarding ERP Software for Freight Forwarders can provide historical data as well as data from the day to day operations. With reporting tools in place, managers can extract crucial facts to analyze and make better decisions. For example using key performance indicators or KPIs to monitor the performance of a variety of business critical parameters is an essential benefit of information reporting system.
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.
Using customer insights for customer-centric decisions
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 identify customer business patterns, 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.
Decision to evaluate performance
Reports from Freight Forwarding Software 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 ERP gives the management a multidimensional view of the processes of the company which empowers the management in informed decision making and help them guide the company towards robust growth.