Software and Services for the Freight and Logistics Industry—Ocean Transportation

Large enough to carry several warehouses of goods in one journey, container ships are figuratively—and literally— keeping our economy moving. But as demand for goods and services has weakened, so traditional ocean transportation operational practices are being called into question. How can ocean carriers stay afloat in turbulent times while remaining poised for a rebound?

Accenture research shows that high-performance businesses in the freight and logistics industry excel at two key capabilities: the mastery of standardized processes and integrated IT. Companies that possess these abilities deliver returns to shareholders 50 percent higher than those of their peers. For ocean transportation organizations, revitalizing quote-to-cash processes and their supporting systems are critical components to increasing visibility and enabling better decision-making; essential ingredients to driving high performance.

For many of today’s container shipping organizations, riding the high seas of a stormy economy and their own often outmoded systems is putting an immense strain on operations. Yet by automating their sales and customer service functions, addressing capacity planning and execution and seeking out revenue optimization, ocean carriers can improve not only the service offered but also introduce a greater level of visibility that enables better decision making, higher margins and increased profitability.

With more than 4,600 container ships afloat around the world, container shipping organizations face a number of challenges to remain competitive and profitable, including:

• Greater need for inbound and outbound freight visibility and control on a global basis

• Ongoing revenue leakage resulting from limited accuracy on pricing and capacity

• Managing the continuous demand for IT requirements on aging legacy systems

• Manual processes and outdated/legacy systems that lead to weak customer response times/customer service

• Hardcoded rules and work flows in disparate systems make it time-consuming and expensive to react to changes in the business environment

Go to Software for Freight and Logistics home page to get further information.

Accenture is the right choice for ocean transportation organizations looking to reduce cost and increase profitability. Accenture combines the industry experience and know-how with practical product solutions to integrate ocean operations seamlessly. Customer driven software Built on a modern technology base, Accenture Freight and Logistics Software is engineered with high performance business processes in mind, capturing the business requirements unique to the freight and logistics industry. Our development methodology leverages decades of Accenture industry and technology experience which helps organizations lower implementation risk, scale fast and drive measurable business improvements.

Flexible deployment models
Organizations’ needs vary. Our solutions are modular and can be deployed as standalone components or multiple components introduced in phases. All modules integrate easily with existing business platforms and can scale according to your needs, including integration to external services. Hosted services are also available for those organizations wishing to outsource these functions.

Superior support
Our solution is enhanced by robust support and maintenance services including our 24x7 help desk manned by helpful professionals ready to resolve any application-related issues. In addition, you can count on assistance for logging, verifying and resolving data errors as well as periodic upgrades and updated documentation.

End-to-end services
With more than 1,600 experienced Transportation & Travel Services professionals worldwide, Accenture delivers value-driven solutions based on our deep industry experience and market-leading consulting, technology and outsourcing capabilities. Whatever your needs, Accenture is ready to help you adapt to changing market conditions at speed, increasing customer satisfaction while mitigating financial and change management risks.

Go to Software for Freight and Logistics home page to get further information.

Accenture brings together a powerful combination of proprietary freight and logistics software and end-to-end services that help ocean transportation organizations achieve high performance.

Our solutions address three key areas of need:

Sales and customer service
Accenture helps sales and customer service professionals with automated and self-service tools that support pricing, booking, routing and documentation processes.

Our solutions help companies to:

• Better leverage the skills of the sales team
• Improve service (offer self-service) to customers
• Remove tedious manual tasks

Operations planning & execution
Accenture helps planning and execution by aligning the processes around routes, capacity, costs, rates and pricing and providing integrated systems that enable optimal capacity utilization and higher profitability.

Our solutions help companies to:

• Gain greater visibility into inventory, cost and contribution
• Enable better decision-making and commitment to the customer
• Enable better cost and capacity control
• Drive higher margins and profitability

Finance
Accenture helps financial teams seeking greater control and profitability. Our solutions help companies to:

• Improve decision-making for large capital investments
• Enhance predictability

Accenture Freight and Logistics Software
Accenture Freight and Logistics Software is a fully integrated and industrialized suite of software modules based on a common platform. Our software helps organizations lower costs, increase revenue and optimize capacity by combining Accenture’s deep knowledge of freight and logistics with advanced business analytics and process management tools. Built on a modern technology base (Service-oriented Architecture, J2EE, Oracle database) with a solid development methodology, Accenture Freight and Logistics Software provides ocean carriers:

• Visibility to information at every point of shipment life cycle from order taking to post delivery—revenue, costs and contribution leading to better decisions

• Business process automation, real-time collaboration and rule enforcements to prevent revenue leakages, reduce costs/claims and enhance contribution

• Analytics employing tools that help maximize asset utilization through forecasting and systematic planning tied to real-time execution

Our modular design easily integrates to your existing business platform. So whether you prefer a standalone capability or a phased end-to-end deployment, our solution provides you the flexibility to meet your specific needs in a cost effective manner.

Our software modules include:

• Freight rates management
  Provides centralized accountability, traceability and consistent rate offer for quotation/bid requests and application of rates throughout the shipment life cycle, yielding greater control over decentralized and centralized pricing decisions.

  Benefits include:

  • Increased profitability with realtime collaboration and control over pricing decisions

  • Reduced revenue leakage

  • Increased flexibility and adaptability to changing market conditions

• Booking and cargo execution
  Offers sophisticated booking and inventory management capabilities across organizations allowing transparency to cost and contribution of all the services offered at the point of quotation and booking.

  Benefits include:

  • Reduced cost-to-serve
  • Increased profitability
  • Improved customer satisfaction
  • Increase “delivery as promised” indicators

• Dynamic route generation
  Provides real-time, dynamic cargo routing optimization while simultaneously accounting for complex constraints imposed by carrier business rules and government regulations.

  Benefits include:

  • Increased asset efficiency
  • Optimized shipment routes and cost visibility
  • Increased agility and responsiveness

• Freight documentation and execution
  Creates real-time control of freight acceptance and proactive alerts throughout the shipment life cycle and equips shippers and custom brokers to file shipment instructions online, issuing an appropriate Bill of Lading based on the business requirement.

  Benefits include:

  • Optimized capacity utilization
  • Reduced errors via electronic generation and delivery of manifest
  • Improved profitability via cost and contribution visibility

• Revenue management and optimization
  Optimizes cargo revenue based on dynamic economic evaluation of shipments at the time of booking across an entire network. Enables short-term pricing and medium-term capacity allocation and maximizes value of scarce capacity with optimal allotment planning.

  Benefits include:

  • Increased profitability through focus on contribution and use of system-calculated hurdle rates in quotation, pricing and booking processes.

  • Improved asset management via scientific demand forecasts

  • Ability to evaluate revenues and costs of strategic options such as changing ports, schedules or rates

• Analytics and reporting
  Provides sophisticated and powerful analytics and reporting capabilities that enable users from different locations to manage as a seamless team. The system supports the identification and tracking of shipments at multiple locations providing routing, documentation, inventory storage, fees and charges, third-party responsibilities, and security. It is an essential tool for high-level analysis, planning, and information management.

  Benefits include:

  • Improved visibility to key performance indicators

  • Enhanced analytics enable better profiling of customer behavior and market trends

  • Greater efficiency through better and faster information management

Go to Software for Freight and Logistics home page to get further information.

Learn more about Accenture Software.