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Faced with ongoing supply chain crises, shippers are desperate to get a leg up on their logistics. We see more and more how global conflicts like the war in Ukraine, labor issues like the potential of a strike during negotiations on the West Coast, and other socioeconomic factors impact supply chains around the world. You've likely experienced some of that strain at your company.
Shippers have to adapt to major changes like these at any given time, and as the market size for global supply chain analytics increases (valued at $6.12 billion in 2021 with an anticipated CAGR of 17.8% between this year and 2030), it becomes clear that proactive visibility is essential for a crowded logistics marketplace. This way, shippers can be proactive rather than reactive in response to logistics crises.
Armed with real-time visibility, shippers become proactive in response to whatever changes may occur. This is because proactive visibility gives them the ability to prepare for changes in the supply chain and track them as they occur, allowing them to ready themselves or prevent concerns in advance.
Parcel shippers have a lot of tools and technology at their fingertips that allow them to gain more real-time visibility and thus become more proactive in response to global and market changes. These are some of the capabilities that give shippers access to more helpful information.
An automated tracking system provides parcel shippers with automated, real-time visibility regarding shipments, such as information on delays, milestones, and deliveries. This is incredibly helpful information that is revolutionizing logistics for both shippers and customers.
Through these systems, you gain real-time visibility into the location of shipments at all times. This helps shippers better manage their supply chain. You better understand when the parcel will arrive, and real-time data helps enable accurate and efficient delivery.
Shippers are able to make sure customers receive orders within the anticipated framework, and they can update customers along the way to create a better experience. In addition to improving customer satisfaction in this way, automated tracking systems also benefit companies by optimizing inventory management and reducing costs. As a result, companies are able to increase their efficiency, reduce waste, and improve their bottom line. Of course, these are desirable benefits for any company.
Real-time visibility is created through parcel shippers tracking various markers of the shipment process and having immediate access to that information. This capability is proving invaluable to parcel shippers. It allows you to track and manage packages from when you ship them until they arrive at their final destination. Along the way, shippers can identify delays and proactively respond by resolving issues as they arise. By responding efficiently to problems, you can further cut down on delays.
Improving real-time visibility creates important benefits for parcel shippers. It cuts costs for companies by creating a more efficient and optimized supply chain. In addition, you are able to provide superb customer service and create higher satisfaction, as you can share real-time information with customers so they stay on top of the status of their packages. As more parcel shippers and carriers offer this option, it becomes even more essential to stay on par to meet customer expectations.
When parcel shippers are able to create more accuracy with deliveries, they become more reliable, develop an optimized logistics process, and create cost savings. Accurate delivery information allows shippers to plan better. They can minimize delays and disruptions in the shipment and delivery process.
Of course, improved delivery accuracy creates a better experience for customers as well as for the company’s operations. Customers receive their items when they should, which creates satisfaction and reliability. In addition, better accuracy gives shippers a better understanding of customer needs and preferences, which helps inform decisions going forward about delivery operations. When customers receive the items during the agreed-upon window, this cuts down on various concerns like returns, extra customer service, and extra shipping costs.
While proactive visibility is invaluable for parcel shippers, implementing it and managing it comes with challenges. Here are some hurdles and what can be done to overcome them.
First, you need to implement new systems that allow you to gain visibility. This takes an investment of resources, including ongoing resources to manage the process. For logistics professionals to implement improved visibility, you first need to thoroughly coordinate and communicate with multiple stakeholders. These include carriers and third-party logistics providers.
Since the logistics industry is so fragmented, it tends to be a challenge to track goods and services across the entire supply chain, including when there are different modes throughout transport. While it’s possible to gain increased visibility, it’s not an easy task for shippers.
Another challenge is found in collecting data from different systems and then integrating and analyzing that data. These are steps that are needed to gain a comprehensive view of the logistics process, but it’s not an easy process to carry out, especially because data tends to be separate and incompatible.
It's not as easy as working with transportation visibility platforms. Instead, partnering with expert visibility providers can take away the challenges of implementing new systems. You can have your visibility needs handled by best-in-class logistics professionals, taking implementation and data tracking off your plate and allowing you to relax about the visibility process.
A key problem with tracking data to use for increased visibility is that raw data is useless. You can collect and track data, but then what? You end up with large amounts of data from separate transportation systems, departments, and parties. The data is often incompatible and without context. Some of it is not relevant or helpful at all.
This is when your team needs the skills and technology to render raw data into actionable analytics. This is how to optimize operations through data-backed decisions. Expert guidance from a parcel visibility provider like Intelligent Audit can help with this process. Your provider can take the raw data, normalize it, and analyze it to share actionable insights with your team that provides true visibility. Otherwise, raw data will create more confusion and uncertainty than visibility.
When shippers aim for more real-time visibility in logistics, another challenge they tend to face is when the data analytics that they gain through improved visibility are difficult to share. But when you partner with a cloud-based parcel visibility provider, you can solve this problem. This allows you to easily share actionable insights across different logistics channels toward the ultimate goal of optimizing operations. All parties who need access to the relevant analytics and insights gain that improved transportation visibility conveniently through the cloud.
Having proactive strategies is better for logistics than using reactive ones, as shippers need to stay a step ahead to manage exceptions. Otherwise, you can end up wasting a lot of time and other resources to solve problems after the fact, which can also make you less reliable to customers and partners. Also, it's essential to be ready for the next global or societal change that will inevitably impact supply chains. Real-time visibility in logistics is the way.
Proactive strategies are enabled by proactive visibility solutions. You can implement solutions to improve visibility and thus be more proactive, yet it’s challenging to implement and manage these solutions in-house. If it makes more sense for your company, consider handing off this process to a parcel visibility provider like Intelligent Audit.
By proactively tracking and monitoring the flow of goods and services, businesses can ensure orders are delivered on time and reduce the risk of delays and disruptions. Having proactive visibility enables businesses to find potential exceptions in the supply chain so they can immediately address them. This improves efficiency and customer satisfaction. These are great benefits that proactive visibility can provide for companies and their customers.
As your parcel visibility provider, Intelligent Audit offers real-time parcel shipping visibility, without your company having to invest in this process. By working with us, shippers gain access to more than 20 years of expert industry experience that can help guide logistics decisions.
We offer relevant logistics services that include live tracking through application programming interfaces (APIs), expert-driver freight claims management, and intuitive analytics. Among other services, we also provide expert data aggregation and analytics so shippers can best use the data they track and gain real visibility through helpful insights.
Find out how Intelligent Audit can specifically support your company’s goal to increase visibility. Start a conversation with Intelligent Audit today.
Set up a call with one of our experts to discuss how Intelligent Audit can help your business uncover opportunities for cost reduction and supply chain improvements through automated freight audit and recovery, business intelligence and analytics, contract optimization, and more.
