Digitization and ITs for Freight Forwarders, a must do to mantain todayʼs competitiveness

Today's world spins around globalization and trade, where buying and selling products is part of everyday life. Therefore, it is understood that each product has a whole story behind it, from its production and transportation to reaching the hands of its user. In this sense, it is thanks to the freight forwarder that the merchandise arrives properly at its destination.

Freight forwarders or cargo agents are those who organize transportation and offer international logistics services to clients, exporters or importers in a custom way, and attend to specific needs. They are basically in charge of managing and coordinating all transport logistic operations for the companies that hire them, being the intermediary between the company and all the services this one requires; so that the merchandise arrives to its final destination correctly.  (Faena, 2020)

This is a regulated and complex service, with various and comprehensive logistics and freight transport tasks. All this is impossible to do in a profitable and efficient manner without an advanced management system adjusted to the characteristics of the company.

In order to supply this market with wide-ranging services, deal with the instability of the demand, include an elastic logistic and fulfil all the tasks entailing this labor sector, one of the main keys is to use new management technologies. Logistics management and/or warehouse management software must be available, obtaining and using Big Data and information technologies (IT), also having process automation.

In the freight forwarding and logistics industry, a freight forwarder can remain competitive, only if it is ready for the adoption of innovative digital solutions.

It is necessary to review and adjust the software strategy and capability of your current technology solutions to keep up with evolving customer expectations due to the boom of digitization in the freight forwarding industry and the demand of customers for a better experience.

Freight forwarders still using legacy systems have limited visibility into what is happening on their network. When this happens, tracking becomes more difficult as goods move from one destination to another. This lack of oversight and visibility inherent in legacy systems limits freight forwarders' ability to respond to market changes and customer demands.

That is why it is important to have a system of logistics management software, adjustable to the characteristics of your business and with an active and updated administration.

A digital system for freight forwarders automates processes such as data entry, budgeting, analysis, invoicing, and other accounting functions. Some of the main advantages are (Mundo Marítimo, 2021):

• Transparency and visibility: Freight forwarding software provides forwarders with company-wide visibility and enables them to collaborate effectively across teams and markets and obtain data insights. Freight forwarder customers benefit from reliable shipment visibility.
• Operational and financial control: The software that provides analysis helps forwarders understand what is facilitating results and what is affecting profits, so they can make the best decisions for the business. It allows forwarders to track the speed of shipments delivery to understand what is causing delays and compare forwarders performance to make the best decision for future shipments.
• Warehouse management automation: It increases logistics flexibility and ensures installation scalability. Optimal stock levels can be predicted at each location with warehouse management systems and big data. In addition, a warehouse management program is crucial so that the logistics manager has enough data to make good decisions.
• Costs optimization: Task and process automation through a software system enables real-time management of regulatory and customer compliance, and helps reduce costs in the process, resulting in cost savings. Data and reporting analysis can help forwarders keep costs under control and protect margins. All these processes favor the reduction of total costs.
• Business growth: A freight forwarding software can help smaller forwarders compete on equal terms with larger ones. For small and mid-sized freight forwarders that need to compete with larger or digital competitors, a freight forwarding software platform can deliver operational efficiencies, the necessary visibility, and the agility required to grow revenue and deliver better customer service.

By automating these tasks, freight forwarders can avoid expensive mistakes and focus on other elements of the business, such as expansion, relationship building and customer service.

A fundamental task to incorporate innovations in the cargo transport activity is to identify the trends that mark the path outlined to the development of the logistics industry.

These trends are particularly focused on the customers, their demand for prompt deliveries or planning orders that meet details or special requirements. Based on this challenge, we now move on to a very important point, the relationship with the client, which guarantees the business profitability in a long term.

At Zeus4 we have experience working together with companies dedicated to freight forwarding management and other logistics activities. In the same way, we are strongly linked to Magaya and its wide range of logistics solutions, to the point of presenting an integration between one of the best CRM system platforms, Zoho, and Magaya's application for supply lines and transportation.

If you are interested in this integration, or want support to find logistics systems and resources that suit your company or project, you can consult us or request a demo on our Zeus4.com page.