How Can Carriers Get Maximum Value From Their Data?
Within the freight and logistics industry and, on a larger scale, the supply chain, carriers remain an integral part of the shipping process. Despite their invaluable place as key supply chain players, carrier companies struggle with a host of challenges that threaten their business longevity and security.?
In a post-2020 landscape, consistent unpredictability in the global supply chain has become the norm. Supply chains are under constant pressure thanks to strained and terminated shipping routes coupled with evolving shipper expectations for speedy shipment services.?
This pressure has created an immensely competitive environment for carriers, who need to respond to incoming price requests swiftly to secure deals. Unfortunately, thanks to a combination of tools, technology and teamwork, carriers are losing out on both deals and margins, impacting their bottom line.?
Unstructured data is undermining the productivity and profitability of carrier enterprises across the board. Thanks to internal inefficiencies, they’re not able to unlock the inherent value of their data.?
Just How Much is Unstructured Data Costing Carriers?
The problem with unstructured data is not the data itself - it’s the way that carriers are aggregating and managing this data.?
Although carriers have set up digital touchpoints that act as entry points for incoming unstructured data, in the form of emails, PDFs, documents, submission forms and spreadsheets, they ultimately become segregated silos that segment and prevent carriers from harnessing this data effectively.?
A lack of centralisation and automation means that carriers have to manually analyze, translate, correct, complete and structure high volumes of incoming price request data that are unstructured.?
This takes time, manpower and resources and ultimately leaves carriers in a conundrum: either turn away a certain percentage of incoming deals, costing them business and preventing them from scaling, or continue to hire more staff to manually process data and generate buy prices, which keep driving up overhead costs endlessly.?
No matter their decision, carriers are left short-changed and can’t enhance their revenue one way or the other.
Unlocking Maximum Value From Your Data
If carriers want to unlock the highest potential value from their data, they need to rethink how they work with unstructured data. Speed, simplicity and accuracy are the silver bullets necessary to harnessing your data’s value and utilising it to create accurate, optimized buy prices with better routes and rates.?
By instantly structuring incoming unstructured data, no matter the language or format, carriers can effortlessly take incoming price requests and generate swift buy prices that are agile and competitive.?
Instead of spending hours manually researching, emailing and contacting third parties to find various routes that match the price request and generate rates with good margins, carriers can instantly find ideal routes with optimal rates. This allows them to scale their output without sacrificing accuracy or quality of service. Data centralisation and automation allow for full visibility of operations at every level.?
The question that remains is: how exactly can carriers transform their unstructured data from a roadblock into a powerful tool for ongoing success?
How Can Carriers Obtain the Data They Need?
Digitalization is an important first step in reforming outdated manual processes and operations - but, as we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s not enough to give carriers the agility they need to extract the full value of their data.?
Carriers need to invest in a robust data centralization and management platform that harnesses the power of AI, machine learning models and predictive analytics.?
An intuitive platform like Stargo gives carriers the capabilities they need to get maximum value from their data by turning it from unstructured to structured in a few clicks. By using Stargo, carriers can:
Conclusion
Depending on how they choose to manage it, unstructured data can be the biggest obstacle or most powerful business asset for carriers. Investing in an all-in-one data management platform like Stargo will give you the means to take on more business, generate more accurate buy prices, close more deals and drive greater revenue while keeping operational costs and overheads minimal.?
If you’re ready to learn how Stargo can boost your margins and drive ROI, book a demo with us.?