According to CargoSmart, the products are designed to help shippers, consignees, and logistics service providers increase supply chain visibility and improve collaboration.
Exception Management automatically detects exceptions to expected shipment plans and alerts customers about key events so that they can quickly adjust their logistics arrangements.
Milestone Assignments lets customers assign shipment-related tasks to their supply chain associates who can then update the status of the tasks directly into CargoSmart.
The products manage the mass of customers’ multiple-carrier shipment information, while allowing them to spot changes to expected shipment plans and improve workflow management.
“CargoSmart has traditionally been known as an ocean shipment management portal that provides standard functionality and facilitates data sharing between customers and their multiple carriers. CargoSmart now offers the shipping community advanced, on-demand logistics management services that improve customers’ supply chain visibility and workflow management,” said Joe O’Brien, director of business development, CargoSmart. “
Exception Management automatically manages customers’ multiple-carrier shipments while providing visibility to exceptions, allowing customers to focus their attention on more critical activities in the shipment cycle. Customers establish rules and criteria in CargoSmart for how shipment events are planned and what constitutes an exception. CargoSmart generates shipment plans that plot the expected milestones for a shipment based on customers’ parameters, helping them discover shipment problems sooner and avoid or minimize costly delays. If a delay occurs in the shipment cycle, Exception Management alerts designated recipients about the exception and automatically updates the expected times of the downstream milestones in the shipment plan.
Exception Management includes over 40 standard milestones that are updated by ocean carriers. Customers can create their own unlimited number of user defined milestones. User defined milestones are events that customers create around their internal processes, based on the standard milestones. Early exception detection allows customers to resolve shipment problems and to minimize costly delays. Examples include reducing costs by avoiding detention and demurrage charges, avoiding late documentation submission fees, and implementing lower cost contingency plans when receiving earlier notification of shipment plan changes.
The Milestone Assignments product allows shippers and consignees to assign tasks to co-workers and logistics service providers, such as brokers and forwarders. It also allows logistics service providers to assign tasks to associates within and outside of their companies. The third-parties are automatically notified when a task needs to be done, and can update the status of the task directly into CargoSmart. Visibility to both changes in shipment plans and shipment-related tasks help customers keep their processes flowing and spot disruptions to help minimize transportation management costs and reduce the risk of late shipments.
