As noted by Shopify, businesses are searching for new ways to succeed in an evolving delivery economy, with e-commerce sales expected to crest $5 Trillion in 2022 and reach a staggering $6 Trillion by 2026. Yet, growth isn’t isolated to e-commerce. Change is occurring everywhere in the industry. However, shippers still struggle to handle the growing tech stack of solutions for managing their supply chains. Regardless, they must find the right capacity and at the right price, but then again, even if the rates are right, is it setting shippers up for underutilization across their other commitments?
The solution to these problems isn’t desperate carrier expansion or unsustainable incentives among network partners; instead, the solution to any risk is for businesses to do more with the assets already under their control.
By utilizing an integrated technology platform with high-tech features like tracking real-time vessel events, allocation management, and exception resolution, businesses can find the capacity they need for all their ocean contracts.
But before a business decides to pursue a partnership with a digital infrastructure platform, it must understand why this technology is vital to its daily operations. By considering a few criteria, businesses can easily decide whether or not such software is suitable for their logistics.
Businesses increasingly use more than one carrier to meet logistics demands. Though using multiple carriers can provide businesses with flexibility and cost-effectiveness, this strategy can easily result in misallocation of freight and, eventually, missed deliveries.
Complete digital infrastructure and software maintain a detailed, ongoing analysis of a business’s freight assets and help to decide which load goes to which carrier. Businesses can take advantage of their entire carrier network without sacrificing organized operations through an intelligent, easily integrated logistics software provider.
The goal of allocation management software can be simplified to one word: decisiveness. Decisiveness means having visibility and acting on that visibility in the right way, in real time and on-demand. Businesses using multiple carriers–all of which rely on different software platforms–often lack the decisiveness to shift volumes between carriers strategically.
With allocation management capabilities inside an integrated technology platform, businesses can assess operations and make meaningful decisions. With intelligent and unified software, shippers, carriers, and NVOCCs can strengthen their relationships and improve overall network performance.
While Excel is a revolutionary business tool that’s allowed businesses to shed cumbersome spreadsheets and fax machines, it’s not the end-all-be-all of logistics technology. Multiple carrier codes referring to multiple carriers mean that mix-ups are easy, if not inevitable.
Times change, and so does logistics technology. Switching from Excel to a tech-enabled digital infrastructure helps businesses better organize allocation and maintain performance and contract management—all through an easy-to-use software interface.
The past few years have been stories of endless disruption and readiness strategies. But the market pendulum always returns. This natural flow of logistics means that the technologies in place for high-volume, high-stress events might not live up to their promises when lulls occur. Rather than trying to find the right solution to radically increase volume, the trick is to understand what’s actually happening.
Businesses need up-to-date data to manage any allocation strategy, and they must find ways to manage operations effectively even when the sky isn’t falling. That might include cutting costs in areas of over-utilization and better managing resources that are already paid in full. Still, those functions can only occur in real time if the various users in your organization can update and access such data around the clock.
A team is only as strong as its communication. This is true across all industries but bears particular relevance to logistics. Without accessible, accurate communication of data and an evergreen view of the organization, businesses are doomed to misunderstandings that can quickly result in misallocation and missed deliveries.
With an integrated technology platform, businesses can access and easily share the data their teams need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and changes within their supply chain. Centralized communications and a trusted, shared system of record creates a truly integrated allocation strategy that reduces manual workloads and boosts network performance.
For businesses trying to stay competitive in a crowded marketplace, the decisiveness afforded by an easily integrated allocation management software provider is a must-have. With NYSHEX, businesses can access the real-time visibility they need to meet today’s most pressing logistics challenges head-on.
Request a demo with NYSHEX today, and see what the future of logistics can do for your business.