Facilitating pro-active management throughout the process

The complexity of project cargo logistics demands a comprehensive systems control, according to Sydney Ramoorthy, head of new business development at Core Freight Systems, a specialist software house servicing SA freight forwarding and customs clearing clients. “The nature of project cargo is characterised by the co-ordination of multiple time-sensitive shipments of generally varied cargo,” he told FTW. “This emphasises the need for an operations support system that assists the operator to comprehensively manage the status of each individual file – which is integral to the total project delivery.” Ramoorthy headlined ‘the imports indent management’ facility. “This supplies a mechanism to start managing shipments from the initial planning stage, with data flowing seamlessly through the subsequent forwarding and clearing steps. “Where required, the integrated ‘CoreWarehousing’ functionality provides for recording of cargo held by the agent pending further movement.” Ramoorthy stressed that this type of comprehensive reporting allowed for pro-active management throughout the process. “And,” he said, “when combined with ‘CoreQuery’, it allows the client to track the status of his shipment processing over the internet.” Add to this the use of the ‘CoreDocs’ module, and the operator can easily store electronically, and extract where necessary, any documentation pertinent to the shipment. This includes any scanned document or file received electronically. “For example,” said Ramoorthy, “email correspondence or even a picture of the cargo which may be required as a record of damages or commissioning on site.” If you want to add detailed accounting at the file level, he spotlights the ‘CoreFreight’ application. “This,” he said, “provides advanced disbursement and revenue controls, realtime credit control, flexible client-rates set-up and proven interfaces into general ledger accounting packages. It ensures that management has the financial control essential to operating a business, in addition to the traditional operational processing controls.” Core Freight Systems believes that its software will contribute equally to the efficiency of an import and export operator in the SA environment. “This,” Ramoorthy said, “irrespective of whether it is a project or general cargo application.”