Going beyond visibility: CargoWise Container Automation

Historically, knowing where a shipment was, where it was going, and when it was going to arrive was enough information to satisfy most customers.

That’s not the case today. Global supply chains continue to face capacity constraints, port congestion and labor shortages, along with general operating inefficiencies.

This pressure, coupled with a massive shift in consumer delivery expectations, has meant many logistics leaders are rethinking what visibility really means to them. True visibility isn’t about receiving lots of data – it’s about receiving the right data and making decisions where required.

Specifically, they want insights that can better predict key events and milestones, help identify resource requirements, and importantly, warn operators about potential disruptions before they occur.

Our Container Automation functionality has been purpose built to improve the transparency and resilience of containerized supply chains, to extract greater value and support increasingly complex logistics processes – here’s how:

Direct connections provide actionable, accurate data you can rely on.

The most reliable data comes straight from the source.

Container Automation takes data from multiple sources including 54 of the world’s top carriers – which account for over 90% of industry container volume, as well as advanced land-based and satellite AIS technology.

Importantly, all data is cleansed, standardized and consolidated into a single, meaningful data structure – to decipher numerous data points across multiple vendors.

The best software tools will tell what you need to know, when you need to know it.

The beauty of advanced ocean visibility functionality, such as Container Automation, is that it does a lot of the work for you.

Container Automation not only provides you with important ETD and ETA updates, it also gives you greater control over your extended supply chain for critical decision making.

With events flowing throughout the whole of the container lifecycle, CargoWise can automatically alert users when a milestone is set to be missed, at which point they can swing into action, advise impacted parties downstream in the supply chain, and plan contingencies.

For example, knowing how many containers are currently stuck at a transhipment port is great, but automatically receiving an alert to notify you if something is missed or nearing its deadline means you can better forecast timeline expectations and identify and amend repeated operational mistakes before the container gets stuck .

And if despite your best efforts, an event occurs beyond your control, CargoWise’s Workflow engine is a swift response method that enables you to take action before any cost is incurred by you or your customers.

True automations unlock the power of your people.

To enable and empower the world’s supply chains, we want to enable and empower your people to do their best work.

With every task, milestone, or trigger fine-tuned and configured into a Workflow, events can automatically fire (and be resolved) at any time, day, or night.

For example, if a critical shipment event occurs overnight, when you log on in the morning CargoWise’s Workflow engine will have alerted necessary parties so that appropriate action can be taken - without the touch of a button.

Whether it’s rescheduling trucks to come later, re-booking connecting transport, altering warehousing plans, or alerting customers not to expect cargo on the originally planned date, your operators will be able to spend less time on error-prone, manual processes, and more time delivering value for you and your business.

Manage shipments with speed and precision via a single platform solution.

Relying on multiple, patched together systems that don’t communicate with each other is a risk.

CargoWise is a single, secure system capable of retaining and exchanging your entire shipment data while offering a portal for all your trading parties to monitor and maintain their supply chain - providing standard connectors, simple status updates, and global visibility.

By digitizing and bringing as much relevant data together as possible on a single platform, you can get a vastly better view of what’s happening across your operations in near real-time, helping you make faster, more accurate and timely decisions.

A single platform software solution also means there's no configuration, mapping or maintenance required – and with all your end-to-end shipment data deeply embedded, you don't have to worry about plugging in (or paying for) any additional third-party platforms, and the data inconsistencies that come with them.

And as an out of the box solution, as soon as you create a job in CargoWise, your cargo will start being tracked.

At the end of the day, you need to be able to get accurate information into the hands of your customers as quickly as possible, or someone else will.

By leveraging the powerful automation options already available in CargoWise, it's easier than ever to implement data-driven, digital processes that improve visibility as well as operational excellence - without the need for additional software systems.

Are you ready to unleash the power of your data?

Learn more about CargoWise’s Container Automation capabilities, or request a consultation from one of our leading industry experts to see CargoWise in action.