eCargo

In this issue

• 2009 Numbers
• Latest product release
• Upcoming features and improvements
• Planes, trains and automobiles (and trucks and boats)
• Did you know...

2009 Numbers

Numbers can be quite useful and informative sometimes, here are some eCargo numbers from 2009:

• 417,569 freight consignments created
• 28 million m3 of product moved
• 46,557 shipping containers exported

Our 2010 numbers are shaping up to be even bigger.

Latest product release

Very shortly you will receive an updated version of eCargo, which will include the following:

Booking Reference & Container Number Quick Search

Based on customer feedback we’ve added two new fields to the quick search function.

Ability to edit completed deliveries

Nominated administrator users will be able to edit completed deliveries. This will help business where there is a lot of incorrect data entered for dates, times and quantities.

Enhanced rates search

Searching for freight rates will become much faster with the added benefits of:

• Searching for rates from a selected zone to any zone
• Finding the cheapest rate for a particular route
• Searching on multiple product types

Upcoming features and improvements

The following new features and system improvements are in the pipeline:

Void Invoices

Being human we all make mistakes, so it’s good to have an option to correct our mistakes. Very shortly we’ll be releasing a new function allowing invoice administrators to Void invoices that have not yet been marked as paid.

Simplified freight cost calculation error messages

In an effort to simplify the often complicated process of managing freight charge exceptions we’ll be releasing a number of enhancements in this area. Firstly we’ll be changing the freight charge error messages to plain English. No longer will you be expected to interpret what ERR_MAP_FROM or ERR_RATE_CARD actually means.

Planes, trains and automobiles (and trucks and boats)

You may be surprised to know that the eCargo team is not all just about bits and bytes, there is some high octane unleaded running quietly in our blood. We like things that are big and go fast, and the more complicated and technical the better. Here are a couple of stories that caught our eye this month:

Online TV channel for car mad fans

There is now a web TV channel, Torquetv, which offers kiwis a place to go for all things automobile. From live streaming of new vehicle releases to motorsport viewers can watch what they want when they want, for free! Click here for more details

Boeing 747-8 freight liner

Boeing’s largest plane ever built, the 747-8 freighter, has made it’s first ever flight. The 76 meter long plane is 5.5 meters longer than the 747-400 Jumbo, and will cost you about $US301million. However if you’re an airline company you might be able to negotiate a bulk discount. Click here for more details

Did You Know..?

This month we return with a new tip in the 'Did You Know..?' series:

Ever had problems connecting to eCargo?

Have you ever had problems connecting to eCargo or any other external website and wondered is it just me or is it down for everyone? Well here’s a useful site to help you answer that question: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/. Go to this website and enter the website you’re having problems accessing, eg www.ecargo.co.nz, and it will tell you whether the site is up or not. Hint: If you can’t even get to this site then chances are its you!

As with any provider of software we receive a large number of requests from our customers for new features and system improvements. We try very hard to implement many of these requests, and tend to focus on the ones that provide benefits to all our customers.

There are challenges in providing customised solutions to a customer when everyone uses the same software, such as keeping the user interface clean and simple without cluttering the screen with a plethora of options.

In the interests of keeping an open dialogue with our customer base I thought it would be useful to share a little bit about what we are working on for the coming year. This is certainly not a roadmap, and we'll still keep a few little surprises to ourselves, however this will give you an idea of the core areas we are planning to deliver on this year.

We can summarise our key areas as follows:

• Enabling you to better manage the exceptions that occur in freight movements
• Streamlining the process of managing your freight rates
• Administration of your master data

Exception management

I dream of a world where a consignment always has the correct volume and address, the carrier always delivers in full on time and there are never any invoicing errors. This of course is a pipe dream, systems such as eCargo most definitely reduce errors through system integration (reducing manual data entry) and process automation (reconciliation of freight invoices) however the process will always start with someone keying data into a system.

Your freight management system needs to provide you with the means to identify, manage and correct the exceptions that will always occur. We'll be delivering a number of improvements in this area to help you better manage these exceptions while still leaving an audit trail of actions and changes.

Some examples are changing a consignment's details after it has been confirmed as delivered, the ability to void an invoice or being able to delete an invoice line prior to its approval.

Freight rates management

Maintaining freight rates can be a considerably complex task. Rating models can have such things as multiple tiers, carriers, minimums and maximums, full loads, management fees and different product types, add onto this fuel surcharges and you have room for a lot of error when making changes to these rates.

The current process of maintaining your rates in eCargo via a master spreadsheet and bulk upload can become problematic when making many small changes. We mistakenly believed rates were changed once or twice a year, how wrong were we !

In light of this we'll be bringing to you more features to make small and large changes to your rates directly in eCargo, whether it be deleting a single freight rate, or updating the entire rate table with a CPI change.

Master data administration

We are really taking a push approach this year when it comes to developing new features for managing master data. It's your data to manage, therefore we aim to give you the means to better manage data relating to your users, customers, carriers, products and rates.

Of course all of these new features would be pointless if we couldn't provide a system that was available when you needed it, and ran as fast as required. So we'll also be delivering a number of performance and reliability improvements through upgrades to our servers.

At eCargo our philosophy is to make the freight management process as simple as possible. We do this by hiding much of the complexity of moving freight, and providing an easy to use system to manage freight movements and costs.

A key component of simplyfying freight management is visibility, not only visibility of freight movements, but also visibility of freight costs. 

As a freight purchaser, can you comfortably say you have full visibility over freight costs, actual and accrued, at any point in time?

If the answer is no, then you are not alone. After years of providing freight management solutions we understand that many businesses have limited visibility over their freight costs. They usually rely on rough accruals and the receipt of invoices from freight suppliers after the fact.

Transportation costs are now a large component of manufacturer's expenses. These costs are regularly affected by changes in fuel and compliance costs, as well as base rate changes, changes in freight provider and changes to the manufacturer's distribution model.

Without a good understanding of current freight costs a business will find it difficult to forecast future costs, and understand the impact of changes to their supply chain.

Full visibility over freight costs requires an understanding of the following key components:

• What has moved
• What it cost to move
• What has been invoiced

Having the knowledge of all three elements in an online tool such as eCargo becomes very powerful. You will have more control and visibility over one of your business' single largest expenses . Whether it be for road, rail or sea eCargo lets you manage your freight costs in a single system, providing instant analysis of current transportation costs.

In this issue

• Our new team member
• Latest product release
• Upcoming features and improvements
• Did you know

New team member

We are pleased to welcome Julia Reynolds-Smith to the eCargo team. Julia will be working closely with our customers and development team to constantly improve the overall customer experience of our business applications and support processes.

With a wealth of experience in the IT industry Julia has previously worked as a Consultant/Business Analyst for a number of ERP system vendors. Julia brings a strong customer focused approach to the team, and will champion the rights of our customers to have access to simple, easy to use systems.

Latest product release

You asked for it – and here it is. After feedback from our freight invoicing users we’ve released a whole lot of changes in this area.

Credit and reissue invoice lines

You can now more easily raise a credit against an invoice line and choose to reissue the charge using either the current calculated freight charge, or a manually entered charge. This allows you to correct issues where the wrong freight rate has been applied or the wrong volume was dispatched, and show very clearly on the reissued invoice line what the correct charges/volume are.

You can now also choose to raise a credit now and reissue the charge at a later date.

Comments on invoice lines and invoice PDF

Comments entered against invoice lines will now appear in the invoice PDF file created in eCargo. Details of the original invoice number credited will also be automatically added to the comments of a credit & reissue invoice line. This provides clearer information to your customer or supplier and reduces the amount of queries around why these changes have occurred.

Additional details on invoice export to Excel

We received a number requests to add additional information to the CSV file created from the Export CSV invoice function. We listened and added the following additional fields:

• Quantity, unit of measure and rate; values used to calculated the base freight charge
• Movement date of the consignment; the actual pickup date used to determine which rate to use
• Fuel Surcharge; additional charged added to the base freight charge

Rates export to Excel

Freight rates can now be exported to Excel for detailed analysis. If you do not already have access to this function please contact your eCargo administrator or eCargo Support to be given access.

With these values included customers can now better reconcile individual freight charges with details in their own financial and management systems.

Simpler reconciliation of invoice lines

Invoices which have lines that have failed reconciliation are now highlighted in red, and clearly indicate to you what the next steps are to reconcile the invoice.

Improved layout of invoicing screens

General layout of invoicing screens has been improved to provide faster access to the information you need.

Upcoming features and improvements

The following new features and system improvements are in the pipeline:

Upgrades to servers to improve performance

New web servers are due to be rolled out to deliver improved system performance and more hardware redundancy – that means less time waiting for things to happen and less chance of a single hardware failure causing a system outage.

Improvements to rates management

It’s time for an overhaul of freight rate management in eCargo. As our customer’s requirements become more sophisticated we need to provide simpler ways for these rates to be managed. A series of improvements have been designed and will be rolled out over the coming months in stages. If you have any further feedback or ideas on this area please contact us, we’d be happy to show you our planned improvements.

Did You Know..?

This month we return with two new tips in the 'Did You Know..?' series:

Use tabs in your web browser to run eCargo in MULTIPLE screens to save time

For those invoicing users frustrated with having to flick through many different screens to resolve a rating issue, did you know you can open multiple eCargo screens in your web browser at once by using tabs?

To do this Right Click on a menu option and select ‘Open Link in New Tab’. This will open the selected page in another tab within the same browser window, do this for as many different pages as you commonly need to visit. [Note you will need Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2 or greater to support tabs]

..and there's more

While we’re talking about tabs, use the CTRL + TAB buttons on your keyboard to flick through the open tabs in your web browser.

Carter Holt Harvey, via its logistics solutions arm Lodestar, have selected logistics company NZL Group Limited as the preferred freight manager for domestic road freight activities.

CHH is one of New Zealand's largest road freight accounts, and the appointment has come following an extensive evaluation of the market.

Read full article here.