Imagine a world where 3PLs and freight forwarders can do business with little to no interruptions.
Business is booming. Freight is being moved. Communication is fast and clear — no more silos. Individuals can combine their own expertise with technology. Visibility is transparent from beginning to end. And at the end of the day, all of this success trickles down to the freight forwarder’s customers.
Everyone is winning.
When it comes to booking and warehousing, those processes have historically been antiquated throughout the industry. But new freight forwarding technology is coming out to help eliminate these issues for freight forwarders and 3PLs alike.
That imaginary world doesn’t have to be imaginary.
Given the large amount of commercial documents and invoices that must be presented to customs brokerage and government-regulated entities around the world, the lack of technology has resulted in a fragmented industry, according to Amna Shah, senior consultant at AHS Consulting Inc. Data entry off of these documents has become incredibly mundane and occupies a tremendous amount of company time.
“All these forwarders have been required to sit around and do this manual data entry,” Shah said. “Before you had your CSV [comma separated values] files that you could upload or your OCR [optical character recognition] technology, people were just manually keying in this data.”
It’s no secret that freight forwarding organizations know they need to add technology and digital tools to their operations to stay competitive, according to Julian Alvarez, CEO of Logixboard. It has become clear that spot solutions won’t serve forwarders or their clients’ needs for long.
Until the pandemic, generally speaking, no one knew freight forwarders existed. They didn’t know how their stuff got to them, according to Shah.
“In 2020, everybody started focusing on freight forwarders because they didn’t have toilet paper,” she said. “That’s when they all realized, ‘Hey, we get our toilet paper through the freight forwarding industry, so let’s do something about it.’ So now there’s a lot of investment coming through to freight forwarding — and technology is one of the biggest things.”
Now that awareness has increased and investments are being made, it’s time for forwarders to shift their focus toward seeking exceptional end-to-end digital shipping experiences that allow them to combine relationships and expertise with great tech, according to Alvarez.
“We believe this is the winning formula for their business and for their clients,” he said.
According to a FreightWaves article from Brian Straight, “Historically, [companies] have provided this customer experience through customer service reps. And historically, this was sufficient. However, entering the Amazon Effect, [now] consumers expect instant information, real-time visibility, real-time delivery data, full transparency, 100% consistency and total predictability.
“[Today] it is increasingly imperative that companies provide an experience where the customer feels welcomed and engaged with your brand, while all of their core needs are met [on-time service, damage-free deliveries, access to the right data at the right time, etc.]”
This holistic customer experience can often be achieved by consolidating technology.
The biggest issue, according to Shah, is that many in the industry are all doing everything disparately. “Nobody is talking to each other,” she said.
Two companies might have technologies that they’ve done really well with that should be able to connect with one another, but they can’t because they’re working in a disparate environment — almost competing against each other.
“And they’re not competitors. They know they’re not competitors,” Shah said. “They just don’t want to share their secrets. This is one of the biggest challenges in the industry. If you’re not collaborating jointly on what your issues are, or solving them together, there’s never going to be a solution for it.”
Simplifying processes through the consolidation of technology can eliminate silos and bottlenecks that have been ever present amid the rise of new technology in the industry. While it’s important to streamline processes, choosing the right technology that allows each process to communicate with another is equally important. Otherwise, chaos can erupt.
According to Alvarez, Logixboard considers consolidated tech to mean “an end-to-end, single-pane-of-glass solution — one login, with everything you need in one place.”
To combat industry issues, Alvarez’s company is launching a new product — Logixboard Bookings and the Product Inventory Visibility feature — this quarter.
“We have been placing our efforts and focus into offering an exceptional end-to-end experience for not only freight forwarders and brokers but their customers as well,” Alvarez said. “By bringing bookings and warehouse visibility together with our core product that offers document management, communication management, container and vessel tracking, and analytics and reporting, we’re taking another big step toward consolidating tech for forwarders and shippers.”
Logxiboard Bookings and the Product Inventory Visibility feature is made for freight forwarders to help take and maintain control of technology for themselves and their customers, thus creating a competitive edge for both the forwarder and shipper. The company’s overall hope is this new product will help solve the fragmentation of the freight forwarding process, creating a controlled, win-win situation for forwarders and their customers.
“This technology creates a differentiating factor for forwarders,” Alvarez said. “You can tie the tech to you with our product and be the go-to for your customers.”
It’s no secret that Logixboard fits the bill for a forwarder’s industry solutions. But whether through that or other innovation, forwarders should consider their processes and find consolidated technology that not only fits the business but also mitigates the risk of silos and empowers them as the “go-to” in the market.
“They should be seeking a wholesome solution to what’s out there in the market,” said Shah. “It’s high time. We need to embrace technology as an institution in the freight forwarding industry and face the challenges as they come. A lot of people are afraid to do things differently — that’s what holds them back all the time. I think there are a lot of fearless leaders out there, so this can happen, but somebody has to take a leap of faith.”
Alvarez offered advice to current forwarders in the industry.
“‘[Forwarders] need to, first, work with partners willing to help with the change management. This is critical to successfully adopting any new technology,” he said. “Second, they need to look at what solutions will provide the biggest impact on their ability to win new business and to scale. We’ve found that customer experience is usually a winner in the new business arena, so I believe that’s often a great place to start. Each organization has its own challenges, though, so there has to be an internal discussion.”