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Over the past several months you may have noticed the name “Descartes Global Logistics Network” (or “GLN”) popping up in press releases, print ads, on business cards and in presentations. Perhaps your local relationship manager has already described the rationale behind the name but, just in case, let me take a minute to make sure it is clear. For the past several years we have been working to combine our Ocean, Air, Truck and Rail networks together to provide customers with a single source of global logistics information across all modes of transportation. With the amalgamation now complete from both an organizational and technology perspective, we decided to move from multiple branded business units (E-Transport, |
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TradeVision, TDNI, and TranSettlements) to one brand that speaks to our customers about what they can now accomplish on our unified, multimodal logistics network. We chose the name “Global Logistics Network” because we believe it is a very good description of the service we provide to our customers: one-stop shopping for the collection and dissemination of logistics information to and from your customers, suppliers and business partners. We hope you like the name and love the service - and will tell your friends and trading partners! The articles below are meant to give you a taste of some of the services available over the Descartes Global Logistics Network and demonstrate how customers are using the services to add value to their businesses. Hopefully in the few minutes it will take you to read the newsletter, you can get an idea or two about how you might make your organization operate a little more efficiently. If you do, please give us a call, and we would be happy to work with you to determine how we can add value to your organization. As always, if you have ideas about how we might help improve our service to your organization, please do not hesitate to send me a note at eryan@descartes.com. I would love to hear from you. Ed Ryan, GM, Descartes' Global Logistics Network |
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For many years Joe Pfender served as an executive for a large carrier while his brother Bob worked on the brokerage side of the industry. In 1996, they joined forces and launched Cargo Express, Inc. with the main goal of providing ocean and ground transportation services to small- and medium-sized companies. Due to their collective industry experience, the company quickly flourished and earned the respect of shippers and businesses worldwide: Cargo Express currently contracts with over 15 different shipping lines and operates in 21 different countries on six continents. Cargo Express has been using the Global Logistics Network to deploy new electronic communication services and technology to its customers, agents, and transportation providers for several years. “We have utilized Descartes’ services over the past five years to help connect our customers with their suppliers to electronically manage Purchase Order tracing and fulfillment as well as inventory replenishment,” says Joe Pfender, ”so when it came time to look for additional services to support our expanding business, we turned to Descartes once again.” Cargo Express has recently deployed Descartes’ Multimodal Track & Trace (MMTT) solution to provide |
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their staff and customers with access to the current status of all shipments within the supply chain regardless of the mode of transportation. Adding the MMTT solution was inexpensive and rapid to deploy because Cargo Express was already connected to the Descartes Global Logistics Network. Enabling the electronic message flow between Cargo Express and its trading partners was a simple process managed by the Descartes staff. “With all of our carriers already connected to the GLN, Descartes was able to take over the whole process and get us up and running in no time. By using Descartes’ technology we can rapidly deploy solutions that allow us to compete with the larger players in the industry without a significant investment of our resources.” Cargo Express continues to expand its deployment of the MMTT solution to provide enhanced services to its customer base while looking for the next technology to help them add value to their services. |
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Descartes’ Quality Monitor Improves Air Cargo Quality
New web-based benchmarking system helps to maintain the highest possible quality in forwarder’s communication with the air carriers. |
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Do you or your staff spend a lot of time checking on the status of each shipment from the previous day? With just one click, you can now see a list of the actual status of all shipments, with problem shipments highlighted. The new service can considerably reduce the time that you spend requesting the status of individual shipments and may save several hours of work every day. You need access to shipments on a daily basis, and currently you must access each airline’s system separately, one at a time. With Descartes’ Quality Monitor, you can retrieve the status of each shipment from a single website. And, if you are transmitting your house waybills to Quality Monitor, you can also use the house waybill number to check the status of a consolidation. Quality Monitor is also available to your customers, so they can retrieve actual status of any air waybill or house waybill issued by you from your own customized website. Quality Monitor’s “search” option allows you to display a list of shipments being rejected due to an error or exposed to a discrepancy (offload, short shipping, etc.) by one of the carriers involved in the transport. Shipment messages to an airline can be rejected for a number of reasons: |
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When these messages are rejected, you normally receive an error message from the airline, but frequently these error messages are missed by you or your staff. Quality Monitor makes sure that you are notified, enabling immediate correction of the error. When discussing performance with your airlines, what if you could have an accurate report showing the quality of each of your air carriers per trade lane? Quality Monitor prints reports that show the actual quality history of each airline, including the overall compliance per airline and per country. |
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Descartes’ Functional Acknowledgement Tracking System
Our new Acknowledgement Matching/Correlation Services provide our GLN Customers with an effective way to process ALL of the documents you send to trading partners and track to end delivery. |
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As messages move through the GLN to end delivery, most trading partners are able to return back the X12 997 or EDIFACT FUNACK (Functional Acknowledgement) as a “proof of delivery” that the specific message was received and processed (or not processed due to content error, should that be the case). In your own implementation of messaging, you probably receive back these 997’s, but due to time or system constraints, you may not be reviewing them on a daily basis for important non-delivery or data errors. Descartes is now able to automate the management and escalation of these Functional Acknowledgements on a pre-set and timely basis. With our Functional Acknowledgement Tracking System, we will track the original business documents being sent by your company, and can log the timely receipt of 997’s and FUNACK’s from the end recipient and correlate them back to their originating message. All X12 and EDIFACT originating business documents (PO’s, Invoices, Advanced Ship Notices, |
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etc) can be tracked to delivery along with receipt of an associated Functional Acknowledgement, and your trading partner’s performance in returning those Acknowledgements can be monitored by assigning time parameters for receipt of that Functional Acknowledgement. Configurable on-line reports are available that allow you to view compliance by your trading partners on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. E-mail alerts can be set by individual document type and specific trading partner, allowing management of exceptions and escalation of non-receipt or non-processing of business critical messages. Contact your GLN Services representative for more info, or e-mail Activations@descartes.com today if you are interested in discussing the details of setting up Descartes’ Functional Acknowledgement Tracking System in your organization. |
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Delivering Value through Workflow Management with Descartes Rate Builder
Rates drive supply chain decision processes and implementing workflow management tools to manage the rate-making process can provide immediate value to the bottom line. |
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As a leader in rate management products and services for over 16 years, Descartes is once again set to provide new solutions to the ocean industry. With the debut of Descartes’ Rate Builder Workflow Module, ocean carriers and NVOCCs can begin taking advantage of a tool that can effectively manage the creation of rates on a global basis. Descartes’ Rate Builder includes a robust workflow engine that supports global pricing commitments and manages the interaction during the negotiation between shippers, sales and pricing departments. By facilitating the rate negotiation from initial request through filed rate or agreement, not only is all data captured along the way to support the decision making process, but all stages are visible for the status of the request throughout its lifecycle. There is no more need to call your pricing department to see if they are working on your request, no more wondering if the sales person has sent your quote to the customer, and more importantly, no more calling around to findout if that quote has secured the business for your organization. Global sales, trade management and operations can now have real time visibility into the silos |
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that are present today in the rate making process. Gaining visibility and control across the global rate making process empowers decision makers to make informed, relevant and more profitable decisions. To make the process even simpler, Descartes Rate Builder supports commonly used business software, such as Microsoft Excel, to facilitate the implementation process throughout the carriers’ organization. Sales can easily communicate rate information with their customers through Excel files and then use those Excel files to create and update calculable contracts. This may equate to faster and more accurate quoting and rating of Bills of Lading, reduction in data entry errors and happier customers. If your company is an international transportation provider and is looking for ways to reduce costs and improve customer service, be sure to find out more about how Descartes Rate Builder can help deliver value to your business. |
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Copyright ©2005-2006. The Descartes Systems Group Inc. All rights reserved. |
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