Freight forwarders are failing to unlock the full value of one of the industry’s most powerful technology platforms. The average business uses less than 40% of CargoWise‘s available functionality, according to CargoWise Platinum Partner Cen Global.
The company has supported dozens of freight forwarders worldwide with implementation and optimisation projects. It says many operators leave valuable automation, workflow, data management and productivity tools unused, despite already having access to them.
In some cases, the company has encountered freight forwarders using as little as 10% of the platform’s capabilities. This comes despite investing seven figure sums into the technology.
Instead, many businesses using the platform are still relying on archaic manual processes. For example, they export shipment information into spreadsheets before reimporting it into the system. They also manually book shipments through carrier websites. Others rely on customers chasing updates over email.
Moving beyond basic shipment processing
Steve Cross, Managing Director at Cen Global commented, “CargoWise is an incredibly powerful platform. However, too many organisations still just use it to process a shipment, invoice the customer and move on.
“They’re failing taking advantage of all it has to offer. Specifically, the workflow automation, task management, milestones, customer communication, automatic rating or billing capabilities that are readily available to them.”
CargoWise lets freight forwarders enter data once and automatically applies it throughout the shipment lifecycle. This elminates duplicate administration while providing greater visibility over profitability, invoicing and customer service.
Cen Global says freight forwarders can typically improve productivity by between 20% and 40%, even through relatively simple changes.
Matching current technology
“The biggest mistake we see is companies implementing the technology, but not changing the way they work,” Steve continued. “Technology alone doesn’t transform a business. You need to redesign your processes alongside it to ensure it delivers the productivity improvements, efficiencies and return on investment it was designed to generate.
“That means looking at how work moves through the business, creating clear standard operating procedures, defining responsibilities at each stage of a shipment and using automation to remove repetitive tasks that don’t need manual intervention.”
Cen Global attributes this challenge to legacy issues and the unique demands of the freight forwarding industry. Lean teams struggle to dedicate the time and resources required to change established processes and learn how to maximise the technology in place.
“When businesses are stretched thin, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing things the way you’ve always done them,” added Steve. “Investing time in implementation will pay for itself many times over, which we’ve seen first-hand.”
Automation opportunities remain untapped
Freight forwarders often overlook automated workflows, milestone tracking, customer notifications, quotations, carrier bookings, rate management, contracts and CargoWise productivity tools.
“All of this information can be managed within CargoWise,” said Steve. “Customers can receive automated shipment updates, bookings can be made directly through the system, rates can be applied automatically, and staff can be redeployed to higher-value areas instead of repetitive administration.
According to Cen Global, making better use of the platform has become increasingly important. This comes as freight forwarders face rising customer expectations, tighter margins, growing customs and compliance requirements and ongoing recruitment challenges.
Steve concluded, “CargoWise gives smaller freight forwarders access to the same technology used by many of the world’s largest logistics providers.
“So those businesses that actually invest the time to implement it properly can not only become fundamentally better at what they do, but also remain lean, improve productivity and scale far more effectively than would otherwise be possible.
“The biggest challenge we see in the years ahead is that AI will only accelerate the gap between businesses that have invested in automation and those still relying on manual processes. Those that have taken the time to optimise their systems and processes will be best positioned to benefit from what comes next. Meanwhile, those that haven’t risk falling further behind.”
