As businesses around the world are becoming more and more automated, organisations have begun to rely increasingly on computer systems that are cloud-based for not only the storage of information but also a lot of the manual work that used to be handled by employees. When talking about freight forwarding as a business, the implications of automation mean that there can be a significant enhancement in the profit margins. Apart from this, businesses who proactively look at adopting automation successfully, also gain a competitive advantage.
Hence, if you are currently considering the addition of a freight forwarding software to your IT infrastructure, here are three main features that you need to know about:
- A Freight Forwarder Software Includes Quoting Capabilities That Far Exceed Standard Computer Networks:
All kinds of quoting can be handled by a freight forwarding software. Since it can help in automating much of the process, quotes can reach customers much more quickly, which saves up on a lot of labour time. Since efficiency is of the essence for all shipping companies, when you look at the competitive industry today a freight quote management software helps in lowering expenses which makes it much more easier to be able to bid lower than the competition.
One can directly create air and sea freight quotes into the freight quote online and rate management system, and it can even facilitate the request of customers to quote from their own IT systems with the help of integration. It also has added advantages that may include capacity for ad hoc quotes, email templates for quotation request or even one-click shipment generation. The truth of the matter is that faster quotes help in increased business generation, which makes a freight forwarding software add value to your business from the moment you install it.
Another advantage of a freight quote software that often ends up being overlooked, is that it can help you in streamlining international shipping quotes. Since your email history generally contains all the quotes, the system can be updated rather quickly with the help of automated processes. In fact, you can put in all costs and desired profit for air, shipping or even trucking rates and build it into the system.
- A Freight Forwarder Software Includes Built-In Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems:
A lot of freight forwarder software have wizards that help users set airway bills, house or master shipment, etc. These wizards can also help customers set up airline communications – along with managing sales pipelines, tracking and also for the measuring of conversion rates. In fact, CRM for logistics companies can help in managing all sorts of business opportunities through a single dashboard.
In present-day time freight forwarding CRM can log everything ranging from calls to emails to meetings. All the interactions are generally stored away in the dashboard’s activity area. There is also a document management function separately that can create records of all the paperwork that is incoming and outgoing automatically. The CRM for freight forwarders can also generate email notifications along with a dedicated contact management systems that make it so much easier in documenting internal as well as external communications. Another nifty feature that is present in the CRM is restricting access on the basis of user credentials.
- Profit Analysis Features:
It is the well-known fact that freight forwarding is a cutthroat business, hence managers need to be aware of the fact whether their profits are healthy or not. To this end, freight forwarder software are generally equipped with cost as well as profit/loss analysis capabilities. Freight forwarding accounting is actually quite vital to monitor finances across the organization, which means that you will need accounting software for freight forwarders that can look at Data for profit per shipment along with reports that can analyse the improvement zones of the company or even when the profit margins seem to decline due to some issues.
Thus keeping in mind these three key things, you can begin to look for the right freight forwarding software solutions for your business. Of course, there are providers that offer additional features as well as a variety in terms of price and capabilities. ShipThis provides you with cloud-based freight forwarding software solutions that are state of the art. We can look after your freight forwarding, transportation management, logistics accounting, etc. and can provide you with customized software solutions that will suit the needs of your organization. So contact us today for a free demo.
