Customer Case Study: Import Firm Improves Coordination and Visibility

Business Problem:

An Import/Export firm sources seasonal products from producers in China. As such, they need to manage the shipping, tracking, customs clearing and receiving process from shippers to the ultimate destination warehouses. The challenge of this process is to manage the communication of purchase order, shipping container and status data on a timely basis to the third-party participants involved.

Old Process:

Prior to SecureSheet™, purchase orders were entered manually on a spreadsheet and then emailed to the shippers in China. Shipment data was then periodically communicated back to the Import firm via email and recorded manually on a master spreadsheet kept at the Import company. This process was then repeated for data maintained by Freight Forwarders and Customs Clearing Brokers involved in the process. This master spreadsheet was constantly being updated and then being re-emailed back to all the parties involved. This process was characterized by slow communication of data between the trading partners and often resulted in poor accuracy of information.

New Process:

Now, with SecureSheet, the Importer was able to easily convert that master PO spreadsheet into a multi-user, web based application for all parties to share. This list now becomes the basis of a new "Booking Orders" transaction which then identifies the containers the goods are being shipped in. The containers are then track through the logistics chain from shipper to customs brokers to freight forwarder. Each party has access to the system through their secure email and can only see the columns of data necessary for them to do their task. They, in turn, update their information which becomes immediately available for the other parties to see.

Benefits:

By implementing SecureSheet, this customer has achieved significant process improvements for all parties involved in the logistics chain. Each group has access to the most current data thus driving to:

• Better fill rates
• Fewer returns
• Lower administrative costs for all parties