“eCommerce is the biggest driver of change and growth in the transportation industry. We have never seen a market more chaotic and challenging than the one we are in now.” - FedEx Ground’s CEO Henry Maier, 2015 Keynote Speech, University of Rhode Island’s Supply Chain Management Forum
What business today is not an eCommerce business? At some level, every business uses the Internet to buy or sell something. However, if you are in the business of delivering goods via parcel, you are increasingly challenged to do it cheaper, better, and faster. Analytics deliver actionable shipping insights that can be realized through tight enterprise controls.
Make Intelligent Shipping Decisions with Data
Tens of thousands of shippers use carrier-supplied shipping systems or a smorgasbord of third-party shipping systems at different points in their operation. Shipping data is trapped in those disparate systems. Normalize and store this data in a single repository to get a complete picture of transportation activity across the enterprise. This allows for the big-picture and micro-level analysis of transportation spending patterns, productivity, carrier performance, audited invoice data, and other trends through dashboards and reports.
Analytics are the brains of enterprise shipping, whether descriptive (what did we do) or actionable prescriptive (what should we do). These insights power intelligent shipping decisions that will improve parcel shipping.
Control Shipping Across and Beyond the Enterprise
Point shipping solutions and multi-carrier shipping systems don’t address the range of usage and roles that need to be managed to realize cost-saving models and operational advantages. Employees in stores, offices, mailrooms, warehouses, and call centers have different shipping needs and being able to control what they can and can’t do is critical. Tailor role-specific workflows, configure connectivity to data sources and devices, and adapt business rules to support cost-effective processes is critical to shipping success. This tailoring of roles and rules should be extendable beyond the enterprise up the supply chain to suppliers and down the supply chain to third-party logistics and outsourced distribution centers.
It Takes an Enterprise to Control Parcel Spending
Please read our last article on enterprise shipping software, “Improve Parcel Shipping through Better Planning and Execution”, to learn about:
- Carefully planning parcel shipping to meet the new normal of tight order to delivery windows
- Enterprise shipping controls that need to take place from ordering through to returns
Download the “It Takes an Enterprise to Control Parcel Spending” eBook to learn how to improve transportation planning, execution, and decision making across your extended enterprise.