Effective IT solutions provide the edge for forwarding industry

“HIGH VOLUMES of relatively complex data processed accurately within tight time-limits.” This characterises the clearing agent’s challenge within the motor industry, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Eastern Cape with its concentration of motor vehicle manufacturers. This pressurised scenario however provides the opportunity for forwarding and clearing agents to leverage their IT systems in respect of both internal processes – service level monitoring, reliable disbursement control and file profitability analysis, for example – as well as the external interface of data between the various applications in use by the related parties in the supply chain, in the view of Core Freight Systems’ Jonathan Sims. “Pertinent examples of this include the output of data for the timely completion of MIDP returns, or the automated notification of Customs releases for vehicle delivery planning,” says Sims. The demand for sophisticated IT applications in the Eastern Cape is however not only restricted to the motor industry, he added. “Complex landed costing outputs requested by the pharmaceutical industry have also originated in this region. And from an IT perspective, the primary requirements remain the same for all industries. They want systems with both comprehensive existing functionality and the primary database design structures and appropriate technology to facilitate the flexibility to rapidly accommodate future customer needs as they evolve, irrespective of whether the agent or the importer/exporter is a small or large business.”