The first step in building successful and dependable logistics operations is to optimize internal management via logistics outsourcing. As companies seek to restore services despite disruptions, the need to build resilient systems is stronger than ever.
The supply of essential goods and services needs to continue uninterrupted, particularly in face of the current crisis. Efficient logistics management means staying on top of your delivery consignments with faster data processing and accurate paperwork. Smart logistics management is further contingent upon smooth backend functioning and the best solution for achieving operational efficiency lies in outsourcing your logistics processing.
Additionally, the best way to outsource logistics processing is to identify a trusted partner that has considerable experience and established processes for generating swift and accurate output. Outsourcing not just reduces your operations costs while providing high-quality output within shorter cycles times, it also provides scalable solutions for your expanding operations while eliminating the need to hire expensive internal resources.
Without further ado, here are 10 reasons why outsourcing your logistics processing is a smart idea:
1. Increased Focus on Primary Operations
Outsourcing your logistics processing helps bring about a significant transformation in your business workflow while streamlining everyday operations.
Outsourcing logistics data processing provides the speed and accuracy required to transport items to the right place while reducing shipment delays.
This, in turn, frees internal resources from manual tasks and shifts the core focus to primary shipping processes. Not to mention that data entry and the processing of shipping documents is no longer delayed or a pressing burden on your current staff.
Outsourcing further helps to establish an optimized process to handle invoices, shipping orders, bill of lading and more in an efficient and standardized manner. As you improve and expand your logistics operations, your outsourcing company scales up their services to match. Therefore, when planning strategies for further growth and business expansion, consider the benefits of outsourcing your extensive data and document processing.
2. Enhanced Back-Office Support
Delivering a shipment successfully entails more than just the physical delivery. Every completed shipment is tracked with essential documents that contain important details including freight rates, shipment destination, load confirmation and more. Regular shipping operations can accrue a high pile of paperwork that needs to be sorted, processed and delivered before the shipment reaches its final destination.
In-house documents and conversion drive up your costs as you need high-speed scanners and specialized software to generate electronic data. You will also need to employ highly-skilled people who are able to efficiently use these resources. Instead of driving up your costs, you can simply outsource these repetitive yet essential tasks to a partner that already has specialized resources to process both physical or digital documents.
ARDEM receives all physical, scanned and digital shipping documents and standardizes them while entering crucial operations data and making sure that the requisite paperwork is uploaded and shared in time for delivery. This improved bottom lines results in stability and marked improvement in operations as well as a marked increase in customer satisfaction.
3. Accurate Data Entry from Shipping Documents
While data entry from shipping documents may sound like a tedious process, streamlined data entry and processing can actually help you harness the power of data. Extensive data analysis provides actionable insights for smarter decision-making while helping you identify problems and eliminate redundancies.
So, then is mere data entry enough? For data to have an impact it needs to be entered accurately. At ARDEM, we employ double-key and compare data entry with programmatic data validation routines to ensure data accuracy. Accurate data further helps find discrepancies in billing, confirms verification for bill of lading, and helps you make better logistics management decisions.
4. Freight Bill Processing
Processing freight bills swiftly and accurately is another important yet cumbersome task that needs to be outsourced for accurate processing. This document plays an important role in logistics operations as it helps define the scope of services offered and the charges applied.
Outsourcing your freight bill processing helps eliminate errors like incorrect pricing and amounts, double billing, overcharges, wrong freight rates and overdue invoices, among others.
ARDEM processes all freight bills by employing stringent quality checks, automation and industry expertise to shorten cycle times and ensure greater efficiency. The high-quality data that we produce provides you with an overall view of your revenue streams and helps in cash flow management. Another important process you must outsource is freight bill auditing or freight accounting for process improvement and greater clarity.
5. Optimizing Load Confirmation Statements
Another major benefit of outsourcing logistics processing is timely delivery of processed load confirmation statements.
Load confirmation statements are essential for completing a delivery as they help confirm and record that the specified product quantities for a particular shipment have been delivered successfully and on time.
These documents also contain other important information including order numbers, zones, locations of pickup, fuel costs, and contact information. All this data needs to be entered accurately, especially as the volume of shipments and load confirmation statements increases.
ARDEM has the capacity and extensive experience to process these vital documents, having assisted companies struggling to manage their increasing volume of load confirmations. We have further partnered with several logistics companies for load confirmation, fulfilling requirements as intensive as processing a hundred load confirmation statements in a single business day.
6. Bill of Lading Processing
While they may be quite similar to freight bills, bills of lading are distinctive and important in their own right.
A bill of lading specifies the final agreement between the supplier, the carrier and the receiver of goods. In case of any disputes in the future, a bill of lading acts as a legal document and can be used to fight off irrelevant charges or bring other parties to hold up their end of the agreement.
Therefore, these documents must not just be processed with care but also indexed and recorded properly for protection against future liabilities.
ARDEM offers advanced document processing services along with database creation for processing and recording your bills of lading.
7. LTL and FTL Freight Forwarding Processing
LTL (less than truckload) and FTL (full truckload) offer ways to maximize benefits from both full and small shiploads. However, these creative solutions need to be supported by efficient freight forwarding services for effective management and distribution.
In fact, freight forwarding services extend beyond specialization in arranging storage and shipping of products. Most freight forwarding companies or third-party logistics partners offer an extensive array of services that include: inland tracking, preparation of shipping documents, arranging storage, negotiating freight charges, freight consolidation, cargo insurance, and filing insurance claims.
Freight forwarders further use their own set of documents including in-house bills of lading along with other essential shipping documents. All this paperwork needs to be processed carefully and the data has to extracted accurately for operational efficiency.
8. Cost-Effective Solutions
While outsourcing enhances and optimizes data and documents processing for an optimized workstream, it also does so at a lower price and reduces your cost of operations.
At ARDEM, we can confidently claim that our logistics and supply chain management services bring about an immediate reduction of 30% in your current expenditure. We further implement quality conscious processes to improve productivity and the quality of logistics data for faster approval, shorter payment cycles and efficient cash flow management.
9. Flexibility and Competitive Agility
Want to learn another major advantage of outsourcing your logistics processing? You do not have to pay a fixed cost of internal resources. Your processing costs are variable, depending on the volume of orders received while staying lower than what you would have paid to process these transactions internally.
The competitive agility is bestowed by the increased visibility of your shipping data and order details that help you map out an effective plan to expand your operations. The ability to scale up knowing that your processing requirements will be met further empowers you to expand operations.
10. Continuous Improvement
An outsourcing company doesn’t just help you digitally transform those processes but also improves them continuously to discover the best ways to manage everyday logistics data better.
This means creating fast and effective solutions backed by advanced automation solutions and updated workflows to create advanced solutions for maximizing ROI. Our team of quality engineers and software developers constantly analyze and optimize processes.
Are you still wondering whether you need to outsource your logistics processing or which logistics processes should you outsource? Get in touch with us today!