When talking about the production and supply chain management, freight forwarding occupies a strategic position. A freight forwarding company is responsible for the movement of goods produced from one place to another. Thus, it is a freight forwarder who ensures that the goods shipped have been successfully moved from the point of production to the final destination without any delay.
Freight forwarding, which seems to be a piece of cake today, was a tedious task at inception. However, the introduction of various technologies, including cloud-based freight forwarding software, like has helped the industry transform to a great extent.
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Best Software for Shippers
Freightview (https://www.freightview.com/):
Advantages : Easy-to-use TMS (Transportation Management System) with a focus on light truckload (LTL) freight management. It offers real-time freight quotes, shipment tracking, and powerful reporting analytics.
Recommendations: May be suitable for companies with a significant focus on LTL shipping.
Fresa Gold (https://fresatechnologies.com/):
Advantages: A web-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) system designed for freight forwarders. It simplifies transactions through bidding, bookings, accounting and documentation with intuitive features.
Recommendations: It may provide a less comprehensive suite for complex logistics scenarios than some larger TMS solutions.
Why has the industry shifted from manual to cloud-based freight software?
Freight forwarding earlier was a time-consuming job which required a lot of paperwork to be done for documentation of every single piece of information. The time that was spent on doing the paperwork constituted majorly the time that was devoted to make transactions a reality.
However, with the advancement of technology, and computers playing a dominant role, the transaction processes carried out eased. With the introduction of freight logistic software companies managed to do away with loads of paperwork earlier required.
This further expanded the capacity of small forwarding companies to expand their business by allowing them to handle a larger workload. When compared to the outdated legacy systems, cloud-based logistic software is capable of integrating across devices. It is able to aggregate data from various components of a freight forwardingsystem and pass it to all the stakeholders of a supply chain.
Furthermore, freight management software has enough room for providing practical and workable solutions. The process thus becomes optimized with increased efficiency. Also, cloud-based freight software allows monitoring on both the micro and macro scale.
The data provided by cloud-based freight forwarding software in real-time, making it accessible for the team involved regardless of time and location they are operating from.
Though shifting to a cloud-based freight software seems to be an attractive solution, many logistic service providers would not consider it in the first place.
Wondering Why?
Immediate adoption of cloud computing in logistics comes with a range of challenges which make companies sceptical about the shift. There are also considerable insecurities among the logistic service providers as to how secure it is over a cloud.
What challenges are faced in cloud-based freight software?
Companies considering migrating to cloud-based logistic software for providing solutions often face some common challenges that slow down the adoption. Even the companies already providing cloud-based supply chain solutions are in doubt due to potential issues.
One of the prime challenges of incorporating a cloud-based freight management system is uncertainty regarding the security and privacy of the data shared on the cloud. However, there are other challenges to the picture, which are as follows.
Common Challenges of a Cloud-Based Freight-Forwarding System
- Concerns over data security and migration: One of the major selling points of cloud-based solution providers is guaranteeing data security. Hence, companies should accept the fact that it is the responsibility of cloud-providers to ensure providing a secure infrastructure.
However, it is a shared responsibility of both the customer and the cloud service provider to monitor potential threats to data. Establishing preventive measures using AI-based fraud recognition systems, authentication control, and encrypting critical data is essential. Also, avoiding negligence on the part of customers can help prevent major data threats.
- Concerns over compatibility and integration: The biggest advantage offered by cloud services is their flexibility. Still, the company might face problems when combining various cloud software modules into one cloud-based platform.
Furthermore, there might be a potential issue related to the efficient integration of third-party services. Thus, a team of experts is required to establish a cloud infrastructure and for building a cloud-based logistic platform.
- Concerns over performance: Cloud-based freight forwarding software is always loaded with large chunks of data which in turn demands high performance. Concerns over reliable access to data from anywhere, including places with low internet connectivity are yet another challenge of a cloud-based freight forwarding software.
Latency in the transmission of required real-time data from multiple users might cause huge losses and hence holds room for improvement when talking about cloud computing in supply chain solutions.
How can companies overcome these challenges?
Freight forwarding companies are taking all the necessary steps to overcome these challenges.
Some of these steps include:
- Choosing the most beneficial cloud integration strategy
- Choosing the most suitable cloud scenario and cloud environment
- Carefully migrating and reviewing applications and servers
- Optimizing the resources to realize the cost advantage of the cloud infrastructure
How does Freight Forwarding Software Help?
Freight Software, help in making the job easier by offering following benefits:
- Quick processing support through AI and cloud computing
- Best CRM for logistics thatis proactive in handling all customer queries and needs
- A robust accounting module that cross-checks for errors
- A unique dashboard and live currency exchange rates for different currencies across the world
- Customizable web and mobile applications that can be set to suit your brand requirement
- Allows sending push notifications to customers regarding their shipment
Final Note
Cloud computing has undoubtedly become a new norm across several industries. In combination with artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing has the potential of opening new opportunities for the supply chain management. Furthermore, limited resources and increased demand can act as a catalyst for cloud adoption in the logistic sector.
Logistic companies can save on time, cost, and resources, along with efforts by building the right cloud infrastructure. However, expert assistance should be taken while developing the cloud-native environments from scratch and even for optimizing already running cloud applications in a freight forwarding company.
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