How to choose a freight forwarder management system

Managing all the freight partnerships is not only one of the most challenging things in a forwarding company but also the reason why forwarders have been looking more and more for a freight forwarder management system. But do you know how to choose a freight management software?

Search for partners is certainly one of the most time-consuming tasks within the routine of a freight forwarding company. And?looking for new partners?on Google or in freight forwarder directories and logistics networks is just as challenging as searching for your current partners in endless spreadsheets.

That’s why maintaining an organized process is highly recommended for freight forwarders, especially when it comes to partnership management. Because think about it, have you ever imagined the size of the damage that an error in any cell of a spreadsheet can cause? And the effort it would take to find this error and fix it?

What is a freight management software?

Before we get into how to choose a?freight management software, you first need to understand what one is.

In recent years, new technologies play an important role in all business sectors. Freight 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 freight forwarder to manage all of their company’s partnerships and interactions with current and potential partners.

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 so that through a freight forwarding management system, forwarding 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 and consequently 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 progress of the freight forwarder partnership. 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. Even though communicating effectively with all your partners is not a simple task, 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 whom you should quote

It is very easy for some information to get lost along the way if you have to keep going back and forth to check whom 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.

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.

How to choose a freight forwarder management system?

According to Jay McBain, principal analyst at Forrester, ?“The PRM market is growing because more executive teams, as well as channel, marketing, and sales professionals, are recognizing the impact of third-party influencers to get new customers”.

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:?

1 - 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.

2 - 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.

3 - 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, so 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.

4 - 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.

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

Parnity’s freight forwarder partners management system

Parnity ?is a digital logistics network updated to today’s freight forwarding market that provides an additional feature, called MyPartners – a freight forwarder partnering management system. It is a new solution in the logistics market that allows you to manage your forwarder partners in the most intuitive and effective way.?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!) and therefore know what services your forwarding partner offers and how he can help you to facilitate the quoting process for your pricing team.

You can also view your freight forwarder 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 OWN partner list. And if you don’t know when to look for new partners, you can analyze your current partnerships through a Business Intelligence tool to help you make that decision.

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 summarize

Software for freight forwarder management can benefit your forwarding business to centralize, optimize and accelerate the process of finding forwarding partners to close a deal.?

However, when it comes to choosing the best freight management system for your company, you need to carefully evaluate your company’s specific needs to properly prioritize those needs and research your options.