What is Beyond Digitalizing Logistics?

Digitalization in the freight forwarding and logistics industry is in full swing. Logistics service providers are stepping up their digital transformation game with digital freight platforms. The digital platform is opening a whole portfolio of new opportunities that can connect all the stakeholders across locations and enable secured data exchange among them. The long-term effect of the freight digital platform can be immense. However, how much you are adapting to the digital transformation is going to decide your secured position in the market for years to come.

So what are the challenges that are pushing the current freight forwarding industry toward a digital platform?

Freight and logistics operations involve several stakeholders, including shippers, transporters, carriers, customs, warehouses, agents, and many others. All these stakeholders are in the continuous process of exchanging data and documents. This exchange of documents makes the entire process very slow, cumbersome, time-taking, and repetitive.

Global shipping involves multiple parties from across countries and the exchanges of data are often prone to error and theft. The inaccurate and wrong documentation many a time leads to delays in customs and penalties.

Thus, the blockchain-enabled digital platforms are converging and helping a co-dependent but highly fragmented global network of logistics service providers evolve into more integrated, connected, and automated networks.

How digital platforms are helping freight forwarders overcome today’s key challenges?
The benefits of digital platforms stretch beyond the normal offerings of any freight software. Freight digital platforms collect different pieces of information from different software, and enable you to store, receive and retrieve information on a single integrated portal.

Digital Collaboration: The freight digital platform facilitates the smooth exchange of data with your carriers, ports, customers, banks, and suppliers and better collaboration. The fluidity of data exchange gives you complete visibility and real-time updates.

Process optimization: With a digital platform, you can take your business to the next level by using hyper-automation to eliminate repetitive tasks. The time and resources saved by replacing the repetitive tasks daily help reduce costs and impact the bottom line.

Improved customer service: On a digital platform you get better data insights that help you understand your customers’ needs and cater to their requirements, thereby elevating the satisfaction level.

Easy data accessibility: When you work on a digital platform you can access real-time data from anywhere whenever you need it. All the stakeholders involved can process, capture, edit, and share data to collaborate and make use of the information as and when required.

Increased Productivity: By unleashing the potential of data, you and your team can devote time to the more important things, thereby increasing productivity manifold.

Reduced Infrastructure Cost: One of the major benefits of the digital platform is that you only need to pay for the resources that are needed and used at a given point in time, thus reducing the overall spending on the infrastructure.

Data Security: On a comprehensive digital platform data is securely stored and is only available to only those who have the permission to access as defined to capture, access, configure or edit. Thus, your data is never compromised and mitigating any potential risks to your data.

Digital freight platforms are driving the transformation. So, one thing for sure to stay relevant in the current digital forwarders competition and meet customers’ needs in a technology-centered world digital freight platform is the future. Today the forwarders that are not afraid of digitization are going to secure leading market positions for years to come.

Originally Published in Portcalls Asia Magazine

https://www.portcalls.com/what-is-beyond-digitalizing-logistics/