The days when shippers bundled their transport orders and handed them over to a freight forwarder and left the processing to them are over. The respective shipping and logistics managers are increasingly becoming “managers of their service providers” who need direct access to the transport status for production or their own customers at any time. “With our CargoSoft TMS software solution, we have developed a tailor-made and easy-to-install solution. The connection to the upstream SAP system means that the relevant orders can be transferred directly to CargoSoft’s SCM/TMS solution and status information can be fed back,” says Schierenberg, outlining the concept.

Many interfaces – newly implemented: WebCargo

Of particular interest to shippers are CargoSoft’s many international connections to other players in the air, sea freight and customs sectors. These include standardized interfaces to ports, transport companies, freight forwarders and tracking service providers. This network is constantly being expanded. Schierenberg cites a new cooperation as an example: “By using WebCargo, the user can in practice request current prices from airlines, make bookings and integrate the data into the order directly from CargoSoft’s TMS system.”

Own data sources for transport decisions

From discussions with representatives from industry and trade, Schierenberg learns that small and medium-sized businesses in particular are looking for software solutions that can be implemented quickly and cost-effectively. “This is the target group for which our solution, which incorporates a great deal of logistics know-how and development expertise, is particularly well suited,” confirms Schierenberg. It enables logistics and shipping managers to make their transport decisions on a solid basis from their own data sources without being dependent on third parties. In practice, this means that service providers and partners can be connected directly and can then be selected depending on the route, mode of transport and type of goods. Status information can be viewed in a bundle, regardless of which connected data source it comes from.