Freight Management Software in India

1. The Freight Management Software is a solution that carries out all the logistics services together in a single place. The service provider considers all the internal processes and builds the software accordingly to increase the profitability along with consistently delivering the service and value of the product. It considers all the services and shipping calculations and packs them together in a single service module to have simplicity in working.
2. The main agenda of Freight Management Software is to pack all the service programs to help the business to operate well.
3.  With the freight management software, the user will be accelerated and will be allowed to transform the logistics and supply chain strategies(Supply Chain Management Software) into competitive advantages.
4. The major three goals of the Freight Management Software; higher service levels, lower cost, and more capacity. Cloud-based transportation management software is a modern system that is consistent and repeatable usage devices. There are features to have efficient, effective, and expeditious coordination among the shippers, carriers, and freight payers that make sure that the products are delivered within the specified period.
5. The software allows professional logistic experts to manage the processes, speed, and consistency of results. It helps to have better service, lower costs, and better predictability. 

1. Before jumping directly to understand the meaning and working as well as benefits and features of freight management software, it is crucial to understand how it came into existence and why businesses started following it.
2. The freight management software evolved as freight brokers and with time the technology moved ahead and the acceptance of the cloud changed the entire game.       
3. The freight management software allows all the users to automate the learning and prediction process with its deep analysis and reports.
4. These systems were later designed to be sold to businesses where the business people can automate the processes and manage the freight rates and expenses. 

As discussed earlier, lower freight, lower costs, and improved access are the three major components to drive the logistics of the business teams. There are numerous reasons why businesses or shippers decide to hand over the freight management work to third party logistics departments to have a better management solution. With this, the logistics drivers remain the same but they work differently according to the business needs with which they work. With expansion and modernization, businesses are now moving towards the use of Freight management software instead of depending on third-party solutions. 

We have researched well and listed a few of the following points that usually for the businesses to move towards the use of freight management software. 

1. Modernization needs to use of new technology
2. Sufferings at the side of KPI
3. Increased overall costs of operations as well as freight
4. Seasonal spikes in the project prices 
5. Difficulty in managing the expansion
6. Changes in the business model, geographical areas, key personnel and many more. 
7. Maturity or health of business improves. 
8. Launching of new products or services. 
9. Managing the inbound freight with the outbound freight  

Many people tend to get confused with a different name such as freight management software, transportation management software, managed TMS, and others but at last, all resemble the same software helping to manage the freights of the overall business. 

The greater ability of software to deliver the freight to the correct destination at right time, in the right quantity, and without any damages makes it highly acceptable for the business units. The software help businesses to lower costs and report the issues that might seem critical to the business and for its profits.

The complex business supply chains have increased the need for getting the best possible logistics and strategies. As the businesses need to operate in highly competitive markets, and need to meet the buying requirements of customers with the help of freight management software.  

The software provides an efficient supply chain and helps the business to operate with limited inventories, tight delivery windows, just in time production, and meet the expectations of the consumer along with reducing the operating costs. 

There are numerous features of the freight management software but a few of the commonly found features are as follows:  

Real-time visibility

1. The modern complex and sophisticated logistics and supply chains have become more crucial than the actual shipment. Hence real-time visibility among all is a critical piece of working that leads to better and improved decisions and working. With the features of customer service and sales, the customers can be reports for when they can expect the shipments the timely pickups and the deliveries to meet the outline by the clients.
2. The software also helps to inform the service and sales departments of what goods they can expect for manufacturing or shipment. If any shipment is misplaced or failed, the details can be collected and checked with the help of failure detection algorithms. The electronic transmissions in the modern systems also help to check the mistakes even though all the shipments move as per plans.  

Strategies and analytics 

1. The freight management software also helps in determining the analytics and strategies for the logistics provider to make the work better and simpler. The software helps the users to collect the data within the software itself and operate on behalf of the client to analyze the details.
2. All the data can be combined with market data and industry knowledge to carry out continuous improvement and drive bigger opportunities for the business. The collected data also helps to answer a few of the questions such as knowing weaknesses, strengths, threats, and opportunities. It becomes easy to carry out a SWOT analysis on the logistics and supply chain.  

 Managing shipments and tenders

1. The management of shipments and tenders is the method to block and tackle the process of moving the transportation and freight management activities.
2. The main major components regarding tender and shipping management are load planning, order management, event and exception management, appointment scheduling and many more. The logistic provider needs to carry out all the required stuff at the same time.  

Outsourcing of the business activities

1. Mainly, freight management in simple terms can be defined as freight execution right from the tender till final settlement and motor freight carrier. The skipper’s inbound and outbound freight is managed by the logistics provider through the TMS to maximize their service quality with the least cost.
2. Freight management can be termed as a single unit but most of the businesses split the same in inbound and outbound freight management. But to get the best results, it is suggested that both can be carried out together with deep and transparent supply chains to bring in the most intelligence. The use of software allows businesses to have seamless logistics and the best supply chain ever. 

Expenses and forecasting management 

1. Forecasting is a two-way process where the shipper and logistics Software providers take the help to freight management software to work together and achieve the common goals and requirements. Both the units make sure that there stays enough freight capacity on both the origin side and destination side.
2. If they don’t find enough reporting, they decide a sketchy or capacity and let the freight management company decide and manage the same. The logistic providers have a competitive spot market capacity to generate current contract carriers and additional contract carriers.  

Manage claims

1. Freight management is also managing the claims even though it is a tough task. The freight management company is not the only one responsible for claims unless they perform something detrimental. The logistics provider manage the entire freight management process right from start till end.
2. The freight management software not only manages the freight and claim process but also supports the reporting and marketing of the same to provide better providers to reduce the risk of errors.  

Collaborate with the clients and network

1. With the features, the software puts together all the freight calculations to optimize the shipper’s supply chain as per the network trend to provide the best service and price.
2. The transport management system provides the features to manage the flow of data and information bringing all the components of the supply chain together such as freight carriers, customers, vendors, activities and much more.  

Strategic management and execution

1. It is to be understood well that freight savings, improved service and fluid capacity do not come through internal activities but require better strategic decisions and more focused targets. To save the freight expenses, well decided strategic plans need to be approached in the market along with including all the initial people such as stakeholders, inbound and outbound shipments and customers.
2. Another major ingredient is to benchmark yourself in the market through the freight consortiums saving millions of transactions comprising of billions of dollars spent throughout the year.  

Automated audit and payment

1. Payment of freight can be considered as a final step of the shipment’s cycle, but often the mistakes and errors made at this point are inconsistent and unavoidable.
2. Even the best companies fail to manage the auditing and payment processes and fail to pay attention to the freight bills that they should. 

Generation of reports 

1. One more time, data is considered as the most important element of the shipment as well as freight management system. The freight reports are generated as per the benchmarks decided by the company including the major factors such as behaviours of stakeholders, carriers in the program, execution of supply chain and other such activities.
2. The reports provide a detailed graph of which activities worked for the business and which need to be changed to meet the expected results. This continuous study help to take better and more strategic decisions for the business activities. 

Managing contract carriers

1. While carrying out daily executions, the freight management software follows the lane of contracts and services called waterfall tendering. At this point, the contract carriers are allowed to grab the opportunity of accepting and loading the tender as per the price and availability.
2. Under the execution of the shipment, the management side of the same equation and the shipper’s total volume and delivery requirements are analyzed through the transport management software to consolidate freight and modes of opportunities to get the best output. 

Getting appropriate software for your business unit is more important than getting software having more features. There are a few crucial points to be considered before selecting the software and getting it purchased and installed. Let us have a look over a few of such points:  

Trusting is a major part

1. The most important part of getting the best software is having trust in the software provider.
2. Having trust for an integral part of the business activity such as transport and freight management on the external entity can make the company feel a bit uncomfortable and hence selecting the software provider might get a bit challenging. However, the time spent on deciding and finding the best software and provider is repaid once you find a long term partner who is trustable and have a positive impact on the business activities.

Selecting software provider keeping future requirements in mind 

1. The current business needs might not remain the same in upcoming years. As a result, you need to select the software and software provider that can meet the future requirements and accommodate the things accordingly if you expand the business activities or add up new facilities in the same.     
2. It is suggested to select a provider who has facilities and resources to manage the future changes throughout the agreement. As none of the businesses like their growth slowed or affected due to the service provider who is not able to manage the same or keep up with the frequency of the shipment, it becomes crucial to select the provider accordingly. As a whole, it is crucial to understand and decide that the agreement must include the data regarding how the scalability will be addressed or supported as well as how the costs will be managed.  

Listing down the company’s requirements 

1. One of the best ways to start searching for business software is by listing the required features in the paper. It is always a good practice to evaluate the business activities and pen down the features that are required to fulfil the requirements.
2. It is possible to skip a few of the major features if they are not written and listed. One needs to consider the elements such as change management, freight management, competition, control level and others including the culture of workspace. Once all these are listed, it becomes easy to find the solution having all the features.  

Keep alternative ready

1. It is never a good idea to stick to a single software provider to have all the requirements fulfilled.
2. Every company must keep alternative options ready depending on the budget and feature requirements. Out of all, the best meeting software must be selected to get the expected output. 

Check reviews of past customers

1. It is not suggested to depend only on the details provided by the software provider. It is suggested to check the past projects of the provider and the review on the same by the other users.
2. The positive, as well as negative reviews, need to be checked well before finalizing the software and getting it for your business. 

The freight management software is connected to every aspect and element of the business unit and hence, it provides numerous benefits at the same moment. Let us have a deep insight into the benefits of using freight management software. 

There are numerous benefits of using the software and we will have a look over the major elements of businesses who get affected by the use of the software.  

Sales officer 

1. Sale is a part of the business that is mainly responsible to generate revenue and increase the company’s profit along with an increase in the market share and customers. Most of the sales officers stay worried regarding answering the calls to track down the order that is already sold but not delivered as per the expectation.
2. This question is majorly solved with the help of freight management software that manages everything with its systems and people of logistics to have an effective and efficient delivery of products through the sales channels with accurate reports right from pick up of a product till its final delivery. 

 Logistics managers

1. The freight management software helps the shippers to save their time, energy, and money by providing all the transportation network elements, technology, channels, capacity, and scaling of all the tasks in a single place. Hence instead of wasting the time of logistic managers in different activities across multiple carriers, they are required to focus only on a single thing that is software. 
2. With the help of software, the logistics people can easily perform the daily management activities along with strategic decisions both internally and externally to meet the competition in the supply chain activities in the market. 

CEO

1. Not only logistics managers or employees but also the CEOs are required to keep an eye over the product delivery mechanisms and the customer reviews.
2. With the help of freight management software, they can easily check the status of every delivery and review of customers in real-time and hence can save the time to focus on other major activities of the business.  

Chief Operating officers 

1. Generally, the chief operating officers are misunderstood by the people for their responsibilities and role but in reality, there are many responsibilities over them too. They stay responsible for all the tasks assigned by the CEO of the company.
2. The main role of every COO is to keep an active check over the operations and logistics as well as the supply chain of the business and select the top tier solution that can work as an invaluable asset. Their views need to be focused on the logistics department and need to manage every aspect and focus on delivering the products at right time and with no damage.  

CFO

1. The CFO-chief financial officers are also concerned the most regarding the business growth and so the transportation budget. The freight management software brings in the best technology to cover up all the activities related to people, network, knowledge, processes to deliver ROI and much more.
2. Within no time the invested money in the software is repaid by the software itself with appropriate management of the tasks. Once all the investment is repaid, the software continues to make profits for the business along with maximizing the flow of products and customers.  
3. On a whole, the freight management software is useful for every part of the business regardless of the position or department. Every person right from the owner, and CEO to the logistic employees get the benefit of using the software.

As per the researches and detailed insights, around 2% to 10% savings can be done with the help of freight management software in the transportation industry. The industry usually tends to spend a lot when the freight is not managed accurately but there is much more that can help calculate the savings with software.  

Do we know the basic savings that can be done with the help of freight management software but are we aware of all the benefits of using it? All the areas where savings can be done and profit can be increased? Let us have a look over all such points.

1. The benefit of the software starts right from the planning and optimization stage where around 3% to 12% savings can be done by analyzing the shipments, rates, and constraints deeply. By deciding optimal modes, rates, carriers and routes, a lot of expenses can be saved. 
2. At the execution step, around 2% to 5% savings can be done by accepting automated tasks and workflows. An even decision can be made for the rates, routing guide, and capacity as well as performance management to save more. 
3. At the point of settlement, around 2% to 5% opportunity of savings arises by accepting the methods such as self-billing, audit, freight, and payment. 
4. At the time of procurement, around 3% to 10% savings can be done by secure, durable, and capable rates along with reduced broker dependencies.  

The best part of the freight management software is the combination of inbound and outbound freight calculations that provide the highest savings and ROI. The best ROI can be obtained with such a combination of two freight under a single software and get a round trip utilization of the carrier equipment with the supply chain.

None of the software is always perfect, each part of the business have pros as well as cons and hence the same need to be discussed well. We researched well and collected the points stating the pros and cons of the software for the business model shippers that they need to understand before finalizing the software. 

The motive of discussing the pros and cons is not to scare every one of the software but to make everyone aware of the negative sides of the software too along with the positive flaws. These points explain how the logistics activities can be made light but at the same time, thousands of options can make you confused regarding what to select for the best results. As per the detailed insights of the research studies, around 60% of the business have already moved to the usage of freight management software for logistics and supply chain management. We have already discussed the benefits of using the software and hence most of the pros have already been covered and hence here we have a major focus on listing the cons of using the software 

Pros of using freight management software 

1. Reduced expenses and other costs of the business.
2. High use of technology leads to accuracy and efficiency
3. Better industry knowledge with insights and reports
4. Improved relations with stakeholders, customers and employees
5. Easy to accept changes
6. Better focus and scalability in the business activities
7. Easy to integrate the software with the key systems of the business
8. Quick solutions to the business problems
9. Easy to manage the risks 

Cons of using freight management software

1. Management of only a core business is not possible.
2. Businesses face a loss of control over the freight activities
3. There can be a misalignment of strategies and cultures
4. There are chances of having misunderstanding among the business relationships 
5. Sometimes there might arise the issue of integration 

Even though there are cons of using the freight management software, the benefits of using the same are more and hence it is suggested to get software for your business if it is related to the transportation or requires your sales and marketing unit to deliver the products to the customers.