Freight forwarder partners management system

When it comes to managing partnerships, it’s highly recommended that the forwarders use a freight forwarder partners management system.

Because forwarders act on so many touchpoints is extremely important to keep an organized process in all of them.

After all, finding forwarder partners is one of the most time-consuming tasks inside a freight forwarding company.

Either looking for new freight partners or searching for current forwarder partners in the spreadsheet collection most forwarders have. 

I think it is safe to say that one of the most challenging things inside a forwarding company is keeping track of all partnerships. 

That is why the forwarders have been looking more and more for freight management software.

Challenges of forwarder management that you can improve

The challenges of freight forwarder management are one of the biggest ones in the industry.

Handling a large amount of partners around the world is not an easy task for forwarders.

With the many partnerships and the range of services offered by the forwarders, management can be challenging.

Especially when you don’t have a management tool to assist your freight forwarder in keeping track of all the processes. 

Managing is not a strong suit of the freight forwarder industry, and that is what makes the whole process harder and slower.

Main management challenges faced by forwarders:

Handling a great amount of information

During a business exchange between freight forwarders around 300 emails can be exchanged for 1 simple cargo to be moved. 

In 300 emails a lot of information is received and can be confused, which can lead to mistakes and that can slow the cargo movement. 

All the accompanying shipment information requires a lot of attention.

Especially because each country has different rules and regulations on how they accept cargo and documentation. 

Once you are dealing with a new partner in a new country you must ask everything about regulations and documentation so nothing gets delayed. 

However, if you are dealing with an old partner the smart thing to do is to keep a record of all the previous documentation and regulations.

This way you can speed up the process. 

Investing in management software will help your forwarder company keep track of all the information about your partners.

Besides that, will also give you the power to make quicker decisions.

Complexity of operations 

As we mentioned before within one business exchange with a forwarder partner 300 emails can be exchanged.

Not to mention the phone calls, the lack of information on the websites, etc, all of this makes the logistics process slower and harder.

Investing in technology and automating the process is the best way to start simplifying the forwarder’s operations. 

Many software solutions for freight forwarders will help improve the performance of the business, resulting in customer satisfaction, efficiency, and speed. 

Last-minute quotations

Having last-minute quotations can delay the work process when you don’t have any options to quote.

The same applies when you have the options but don’t know where to find their emails, phones, or websites. 

Being prepared for last-minute quotations is important in a forwarder company, due to the amount of time that they happen. 

That is why your forwarder should keep track of all the potential partners you may need in these situations. 

Keep all these potential last-minute quotes partners gathered in one single place.

If possible one that their information will always be available and updated to you and your team.

What is a freight management software?

Before we get into how to choose a freight forwarder partners management system, you first need to understand what one is.

In recent years, new technologies have played an important role in all business sectors. 

Forwarding companies can, through technology, stand out among their competitors by optimizing their business processes, improving their performance, and managing their freight forwarder partners.

As the software company, Magentrix Corporation, explains, PRM has emerged from a trend of companies needing better communication and higher productivity with their partners. 

PRM (Partner Relationship Management) partnership systems are one of those technologies that allow the forwarder to manage all of their company’s partnerships and interactions with current and potential partners.

What can you do with a freight forwarder partnering management system?

Freight forwarding partnering systems help forwarders to centralize, optimize, and streamline communication inside the company, along with the quotation processes, and the decision-making. 

The more consolidated the information of your partners is the faster your team can work on it.

By using a freight partnering management system, forwarders can:

• keep track of all current forwarder partners and potential ones; 
• know which freight partners to consider for a service;
• create their own personalized logistics network; 
• save time looking for freight forwarder partners to quote;
• make faster decisions inside the freight forwarder organization.

The main goal of these logistics software is freight forwarding process improvement.

With a freight forwarder partners management system, forwarder companies don’t need to be glued to numerous spreadsheets.

What are the benefits of freight forwarding partners management software?

Software for freight forwarder management will benefit forwarders on many levels.

As mentioned earlier, the main benefit is to centralize, optimize, and streamline the process of finding forwarder partners to close a business. 

However, there are some more worth mentioning:

Better knowledge of forwarder partners:

Each freight forwarder is different, they offer different services, have different characteristics, offer different prices, and so on. 

That’s why it is so important to keep track of all this information, or better yet keep all this in a single freight forwarder tool. 

Once you have all the information you need consolidated it will save you a lot of time.

Better and faster communication:

As mentioned on the last topic, having all the important information of your freight partner consolidated in a logistics management system, eliminates the need to go back and forth between the many emails you have exchanged. 

So, if you are used to doing business with a freight forwarder partner you will just need to confirm with them their data, leading to faster and more efficient communication.

Better anticipation of the forwarder needs:

During a business negotiation, you will understand exactly what your forwarder partner needs from you. 

If he needs a specific document to go with the cargo, or if the cargo has to go in a certain way, and so on. 

Once you know all your partner’s details, when you close another business with him you can anticipate exactly what he needs, just remember to confirm the info first.

How do I know if I need to use a freight management system?

The main goal of this kind of logistics software is to improve the freight forwarder partnering process. 

Through a freight forwarding management system, companies don’t have to get lost in a collection of spreadsheets, for example.

The topics below are some signs that indicate when you should consider a freight management software solution:

If you are having trouble managing your partnerships

If you are managing your partnerships in your email, in spreadsheets, in your head, or even not registering at all you should consider a freight management system.

Especially because as the volume of business grows the amount of information also grows and things can easily get out of control. 

If you don’t know which partner to quote for each country

Not keeping track of which partner will best serve your freight needs in that country can mess up the quoting process.

Consequently, it can impact your freight forwarder’s sales.

If you are losing important information for your operation in the middle of email exchanges

You should note how much your team needs to chase your partners to manage the business and collect crucial information for the partnership’s progress.

Again, a high volume of business can quickly turn this workflow into something unmanageable.

If you need to request the same information from a partner you have already worked with when making a deal

Repeatedly requesting the same information and sending the same material is a big waste of time. 

Communicating effectively with all your partners is not a simple task.

Therefore, complementing this initiative with a freight management system can optimize your internal processes and workflows.

If you need to check with your superiors or others who you should quote

It’s very easy for some information to get lost along the way if you have to keep going back and forth to check who to quote for each service/country with your superiors. 

If all members of your team were able to look at your partner’s list by themselves, not only would communication be improved, but decisions would be made faster.

How to choose a freight forwarder management system

Now that you can identify whether you need to use freight forwarding software in your company, it’s time to choose which one best matches your needs.

With so many new tools in an already crowded space, the challenge becomes choosing the right freight management software for your company. 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer: while most partner programs follow the same best practices, the freight management software you choose should reflect a variety of factors specific to your business.

To help you make the right decision, let’s dive into our list of questions you should ask yourself before choosing freight management software: 

Does the tool meet our requirements? 

When choosing a freight management system, make sure that the tool you are considering is aligned with your company’s goals for organizing and optimizing the sales and partnering process processes.

How easy is it to use the PRM system?

With all the partner management software available, it’s important to choose one where your team will have no trouble quickly registering new partners and managing your partnerships.

Is the PRM system intuitive for our team to administer?

You don’t want to be waiting for support every time you need to make changes.

Therefore, make sure that the freight management system you select can be maintained by you. 

Sales managers should be able to maintain and update the system themselves.

Is the product headed in the right direction?

As the freight partner management space continues to grow and change, you need to know if your chosen solution can keep up with the market. 

Changing platforms can be expensive and time-consuming, so it’s important to understand if the product is headed in the right direction.

Parnity’s freight forwarder partners management system

If you have come this far and are sure that your company needs a freight management solution, let me help you with that.

Parnity is a digital logistics network with an add-on feature of freight forwarder management it’s CRM for forwarder partners – called MyPartners.

We even like to call it PRM = Partnering Relationship Management, due to the importance of managing forwarder partners. 

It’s a new solution in the logistics market that allows you to manage your forwarder partners most intuitively and effectively.  

Parnity’s PRM tool is the perfect solution for freight forwarders to stop using spreadsheets and start improving their management.

With Parnity’s partnership management system, you can organize your current freight partners through a CRM board by country, modal, service, quality, or … whatever you want (really!).

You can also view your partners in one place and choose to view them in a single list or divide them into country lists. 

By sharing your CRM board with your whole team, everyone will be aligned as to who they should quote for each business operation. 

Can you imagine the increase in productivity of having your whole team on the same page?

Moreover, Parnity eliminates the need to spend hours looking for new partners. 

Find a forwarder in Parnity’s search in a lane you haven’t developed yet and add it to YOUR partner list. 

Using the freight forwarding management software, your team will make faster and better decisions with complete and visual information. 

Click here to start using Parnity’s management tool.

To sum up

See how easier your life can get using a freight forwarder partner management system? 

Keep in mind all the benefits it can bring to your forwarder business: 

• saving time when looking for your current forwarder partners; 
• better visibility of your partners and their information; 
• faster decision-making;
• team alignment;
• and much more.

Using freight forwarding management software your team will be making faster and better decisions with complete and visual information.

To start using Parnity’s management tool click here.