Automated workflows, optimized business processes and real-time data visibility have enabled Fracht’s people across the world to spend more time doing what they love - providing high quality solutions to their clients.
The Fracht Group is one global family who are united in their commitment to deliver strategic and innovative solutions to their clients, says Ruedi Reisdorf, CEO, The Fracht Group.
“In our company, people come first. We care about our people, and we care about our customers, because these two things are the most valuable assets of our company.”
Headquartered in Switzerland and spanning more than 115 offices across 40+ countries, The Fracht Group (Fracht) is an international freight forwarder and an industry leader in providing general and specialized logistics solutions.
As a privately owned company, Fracht relies on the local expertise of their people to adapt promptly to customer needs and make hands-on decisions efficiently.
“We give our local people all the strengths and responsibilities to run the company as if it was their own”, says Mr Reisdorf.
“This is especially motivating for them because they’re able to strategize and execute their own ideas, whilst staying true to our global vision. This benefits the entire Fracht Group, as we can replicate successful strategies and implement them in any of our country offices.”
Lionel Tristan, Managing Director, Fracht France, says “The way Fracht approaches management is different from other companies. Our CEO gives us the autonomy and the accountability to make the best strategic decisions for our country, and this allows us the freedom to execute initiatives in our own time and at our own pace.”
Making local decisions gives Fracht an agility and a quickness in the everyday decision-making process, giving them an advantage in the marketplace.
Michel Scheuble, Director, Fracht Australia, says that this local approach removes complicated reporting structures and ultimately allows the business to better serve their clients.
“Everyone understands that local decision-makers generally know the local requirements much better than someone sitting overseas.
“This approach enables everyone to have a voice and influence outputs about local solutions, and that really starts from the local operator on the ground, all the way up to top management and the owner of the group.”
Global collaboration to achieve a global vision
Fracht Australia led the way when it came to implementing CargoWise as their core freight forwarding platform.
In the early stages of adopting the solution, their main priority was to create a paperless office environment and digitize their processes. According to George Koutroulis, Director Fracht Australia, CargoWise has now completely transformed the way they operate.
“We’re almost at the stage now where we can’t go back to the way we were working before. It’s such a refined process where all our business rules are in the workflows, and we can really pick up on any errors in advance, before anything happens.
“It’s freed up people to do more important things, such as bringing better solutions to our clients or coming up with new ideas that add more value to the business”, he says.
Having experienced first-hand the powerful capabilities and benefits that come with using CargoWise, Fracht Australia jumped at the chance to showcase the value of the software to their colleagues around the world.
“Being an early adopter of CargoWise and being familiar with its capabilities made us realize the global potential of CargoWise, and our experience allowed us to talk to other offices about the benefits of adopting this solution”, says Mr Scheuble.
When Fracht USA realized they’d outgrown their old operating system, they were able to tap into the deep knowledge and experience of their Australian counterparts to roll out CargoWise.
“The management team in Australia are very comfortable with the system and have had great success with it over the last two decades, so it was an easy decision for us”, says Reiner Wiederkehr, CEO, Fracht USA.
Regina Cross, Executive Vice President of Operations and Compliance, Fracht USA adds, “Our international colleagues gave us a lot of confidence. Particularly Fracht Australia, having used CargoWise for so many years, they’ve been through many iterations of the system. They really started to communicate not only to the US, but to the other countries, how much of an advantage it had given them.”
Real-time visibility, detailed financial reporting and improved data quality have enabled Fracht USA to speed up their processes and make strategic decisions faster than ever before.
“We can look at the reports at any given day and within two minutes, we have the insights and the visibility we need to make major decisions”
This transparency has also reinforced trust with their long-standing clients, says Mr Wiederkehr.
“We have built relationships with some of our clients over decades, and CargoWise has enabled us to strengthen that trust because we’re honest, we’re transparent, and we deliver.”
Realizing they needed an up-to-date system if they were going to remain competitive, Fracht France followed in the footsteps of their international counterparts and implemented CargoWise in early 2021.
“We had discussions with our colleagues in Australia and the US who were already using the system, and we realized that the ability to work from a single global database would be a huge advantage for our business and for our customers.
“After just the first three months, the reporting and the KPI’s that we get from the software is providing us with accurate data that is enabling us to make more agile, customer-focused decisions.
“We also have the ability to easily share this data between each country, which was previously a much more complicated process”, says Fracht France’s Managing Director, Mr Tristan.
Continuing their digital transformation journey
There’s no looking back for Fracht now, as this is just the beginning of their digital transformation journey.
With improved productivity and efficiency and stronger client relationships, their sights are set on rolling out CargoWise across Fracht’s entire global network.
“We know that the more of our offices and network that are on CargoWise, the more efficiency we can gain as a result”, says Ms Cross.
“With CargoWise we will have the potential to have every country within The Fracht Group roll out the platform in the future.
“We know there is so much more potential to leverage CargoWise and expand into different modules, and we plan to do this as we work towards achieving our milestones”, adds Mr Wiederkehr.
In the meantime, Fracht’s focus is on tapping into the immense data provided by the platform to further influence business decisions and help them remain competitive.
“CargoWise provides us with so much valuable data that we'd need a whole team of people to really dig in and analyze it all. So we’ve started using a business intelligence tool to help us analyze that data in a way that makes sense for our business.
“This is also helping us continue to expand our integration with other countries, agents and partners, because the business intelligence that we're able to produce in the US, in Australia, and now France is something that our partners all over the world will want access to”, explains Ms Cross.
“Everybody says that data is the new gold, and that it just needs to be mined. And for Fracht, CargoWise is the mining equipment we’re using to find that gold”, concludes Mr Reisdorf.