Cost savings and increased efficiency are the benefits, says Cargosuite m.d.
Ray Smuts
MISSION accomplished.
Fifteen months of solution-seeking is over and Cargosuite.com, the new South African-based shipping organisation, is poised to become the IT backbone of the 21st century global trading community as it redefines the scope and standards of the total logistics offer.
Veteran shipping expert Barry Fourie, formerly of Safmarine, has gathered together a group of shipping and IT specialists with extensive experience of the global trading and transportation industry, their goal being to transform and improve the global shipping and customer service supply chain through technology solutions.
But there were a number of problems to overcome before the 'we are open for business' sign could go up, not the least being the African scenario where First and Third World economies and infrastructure come together.
Other problems were how best to use Internet technology, the integration of financial and operational systems, user acceptance, bandwidth constraints and the low rate of Internet connectivity in many African countries.
In order to find a solution, Cargosuite.com teamed with Datasmith, specialists in Great Plains financial software, and Idion, an IT solutions provider specialising in building e-commerce business systems.
The solution was to create a web-based connected community and business system of e-commerce enabled partners. Deployment of the software began last month.
Says a delighted Fourie, c.e.o. of Cargosuite.com: We now have an easy to use, almost paperless environment, with real-time automated processing and messaging. Most important, we have an overall cost saving and an increase in efficiency of between 30% and 40%.
Global implementation of the system planned over the next few months will positively transform the way the transport industry and businesses have traditionally operated, says Fourie.
Benefits include enhanced customer service, automated and streamlined business processes, real time financial and consignment processing and increased efficiency and productivity due to the systemisation of the business process.
Cargosuite.com's online services will include global freight services, insurance, cargo inspection, trade finance, order fulfilment, application service provision and customer-embedded technology.
It will do business in more than 70 countries around the world and Fourie expects that around 10% will be derived from South Africa.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
