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Logistics Software

Freight quotes quotiss

What’s in Those Freight Quotes?

Automation & Digitalization, Digital Freight, Logistics Software, Sales Automation / By

In freight forwarding, transparency in the sales activities has never been the case. The complexity and volatility of freight rates significantly limit the visibility into what’s going on in the commercial organization on a daily basis.

Usually, the management team doesn’t know how many freight quotes have been sent today, this week, or this month. And there is no way to check. It is almost impossible to monitor the margins applied to ocean freight and local charges in the quotes. The sales manager must rely on the data that comes from various sources, the information is unstructured and often biased.

This lack of transparency is also an issue for sales reps themselves – they have to search for freight rates in various files and emails, and there is no clear record of what rate has been offered to a client. This is a waste of time and resources, and it often leads to lost business opportunities.

 

Transparency of Sales is Essential

 

The importance of having transparency in sales activities is crucial for any business. The key to gaining control of the revenue is to have real-time access to sales performance. The live data stream is invaluable in spotting changes in trends and picking up on issues before they become a problem.

Also, studies show that when employees know their performance and have an instant overview of their KPIs, they improve their work. Focus, motivation, and accountability come when teams can see where everyone stands in just a glance.

Transparency in freight rates can be achieved in the organization when both pricing and quoting are done via the same platform. A platform where all freight rates and quotes are stored, in the most structured and most proper visual way, accessible from anywhere and anytime. Quotiss software provides such a platform for the freight forwarders.

 

Visual Sales Performance

 

Quotiss software stores freight ratesheets, local charges, pricing guidelines, customer database, and an archive of freight quotes. Quotiss enables sales teams to generate perfect freight quotes, which can be emailed to customers directly thanks to the full email integration.

Quotiss dashboard is a powerful visualization tool. It provides an analysis of freight rates history per carrier, client acquisition data, freight quotes stats per person or per team, average margin history, etc.

Quotiss dashboard puts your commercial KPIs and critical metrics together into an artfully designed and intuitive display. Data is updated in real-time. It allows setting goals and opens opportunities for immediate feedback and action. Everyone in the company is on the same page when it comes to sales performance and pricing guidelines, enabling better communication and collaboration across the teams.

By switching from Excel to Quotiss software, you can automate the sales activities and get access to the sales performance analysis, in real-time. There will no longer be a need to manage a number of complex freight ratesheets in Excel. Most importantly, your commercial data will stay secure!

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

SaaS Software as a service

Logistics Software as a Service (SaaS)

Automation & Digitalization, Logistics Software / By

The massive growth of startup communities all over the world is one of the global trends nowadays. Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing, cloud technology – startups disrupting traditional businesses in ways no one could have ever predicted. It is happening now, and either you are aware of it or you are part of it (otherwise you would not be reading this).

“Fully 80 percent of the products and services being consumed today are different from those that were being consumed five years ago. And five years from today, fully 80 percent of the products being used will be new and different from those being used today”, says Brian Tracy.

 

Logistics Software – a Product or a Service?

 

A product is a physical item that people purchase to own it. Once you own a product, you have all the rights to use it as you wish, until it finishes, breaks, gets lost, etc. A service, as The Economist defines it, is something that “you can’t drop on your foot” – which is technically not always true, think of all the digital products, like e-books, for example. Service is an economic activity between a provider of the service and a buyer, where a buyer does not get to exclusively own it.

Software is a non-typical example. It is a digital commodity, yet for years it’s been treated as a physical product. Corporate software license deals can cost millions of dollars, paid in exchange for a single CD. Very expensive CD. For this reason, new business models have been born, and they spread like wildfire.

 

What Is SaaS?

 

SaaS stands for ‘Software as a Service’, Salesforce.com is probably the most famous SaaS. The model is so successful, it extended Salesforce’s reach far beyond its status as a CRM application provider and challenged many of the traditional enterprise software vendors.

Historically, companies were required to buy, build, and maintain their IT infrastructures despite exponential costs. SaaS gives companies an alternative. Now, they can plug in and subscribe to services built on shared infrastructure via the Internet. The SaaS model has flourished in recent years because of the many benefits it offers to businesses of all sizes and types.

 

Benefits of SaaS

 

Software as a Service has a lot to offer. If it’s used properly, it can help your business save money, time and human resources.

  • SaaS is easy to use

SaaS applications are available from any computer or any device – anytime, anywhere. Because most people are familiar with using the Internet, SaaS apps tend to have high adoption rates, with a shorter training period.

  • Lower costs

SaaS applications are subscription-based, which means lower initial costs. Having the SaaS provider manage the IT infrastructure means lower IT costs for hardware, software, and the people needed to manage it all.

  • Painless implementation and upgrades

Because the SaaS provider manages all updates and upgrades, there are no patches for customers to download or install. The SaaS provider also manages availability – all you need as a customer is a web browser and internet access.

  • Seamless integration, customization, and scaling

SaaS companies with true multitenant architectures can scale indefinitely to meet customer demand, including customization if required. Plus, many provide APIs that let you integrate with existing ERP systems or other business productivity systems.

 

Is SaaS Right for Your Business?

 

For newly established companies it’s almost a ‘no-brainer’ to quickly deploy a collection of SaaS business applications and pay for them with a monthly subscription, rather than invest in IT infrastructure and technical support. Probably the biggest problem for small businesses is the enormous amount of choice that’s already available in the SaaS market.

Larger businesses have a different set of problems to deal with when it comes to SaaS, mostly around integration with existing enterprise software (which can be already locked with costly contracts). Still, enterprises looking to expand into new regions, or adopt new ‘social’ business processes, may well find that SaaS is the most cost-effective way to go.

 

SaaS = Innovation

 

Innovation is everywhere; it can be hard to keep up, but that is part of the fun. New products and services are released every month, and they challenge the way business operates today.

SaaS applications are setting the stage for a new era of IT, and the biggest advantage of all is how quickly they can be re-shaped and re-purposed by a constantly changing business environment. The possibilities are endless for what lies ahead.