UK-headquartered Metro Shipping takes digital innovation seriously. Established in 1981, the business has been a paperless forwarder since 2005. Growing from a team of six people in the UK to over 300 globally, and with a second data center in India, Metro provides resilient and adaptable solutions that connect shippers to their entire supply chain.
Grant Liddel, Managing Director at Metro, has been with the company for 13 years, and with the wider group of companies for 35 years.
“We’re extremely agile, with very fast decision-making processes – that’s the culture of the business. We really spend the time to understand how our customers work, and their aspirations within supply chain and logistics. It’s all about a collaborative approach, partnering with them and working beyond just moving their manufactured items, products, or components. We’re part of the overall strategy and planning process with our customers.”
Grant explains that rapid business expansion, customer requirements, and office openings across the UK and overseas meant they had outgrown their legacy IT system.
“We needed something that was multifunctional, multilocation and that protected us for the future with continued expansion, and high speed of digitalization and technology development. These were drivers for us to look at a new system to meet our needs.”
When evaluating available systems in the market, Grant notes that CargoWise was already being used successfully in different parts of the larger group.
“The ability to cover all different modes, as well as different functions of the business was equally important. A lot of the other software that was available was very much either sea freight or air freight focused. There is a really good balance with CargoWise.”
Bradley Darkes, Systems Manager at Metro says moving to a cloud-based solution was an important step.
“CargoWise is cloud-based, so this really allowed us to exploit that because part of our growth was opening offices across the UK and India. The functionality CargoWise offers compared to our legacy system is significant. An added benefit is the Productivity Acceleration & Visualization Engine (PAVE), which enables automated workflows.”
Streamlining customs brokerage with CargoWise post-Brexit
The implementation of CargoWise coincided closely with the timing of Brexit in 2020, giving Metro the opportunity to pivot into a new revenue stream – customs brokerage.
Natalie Frost, Brokerage Manager, explains that Brexit introduced complexity to what was once a more straightforward process.
“What was a very easy process of moving goods around the EU prior to Brexit, became more complicated with the need to complete customs entries for all our European movements. We needed a software solution that was able to cope with the huge volume of declarations we would be completing once Brexit happened.
“The customs module of CargoWise gives us multiple benefits, automated data and workflows, entry creation, integration with tariff information within the system, and information prompts – all of this helps speed up the process and ensure data accuracy.”
Natalie also emphasizes the importance of correct classification to minimize risks and penalties.
“With classifications linked to tariff information in CargoWise, it provides additional certainty. Little warnings that highlight you may need to enter extra information or use a specific tariff code are really helpful. It allows the team to be confident.”
To support the implementation of CargoWise across the customs brokerage team, Metro introduced PAVE and used visual boards to track tasks. Triggers for automation were also developed, enabling the electronic movement of data from customers to Metro, which was then reviewed and automatically transmitted to the UK Customs authority.
CargoWise has also allowed the Metro team to offer more tailored solutions and unique SLAs to their customers.
“With the accuracy and speed that we get with the system, we're able to provide declarations to clients quicker than some of our competitors. The reporting functionality also allows us to give our customers monthly reports on monthly spends and other key KPIs that we would not have been able to produce as easily,” says Natalie.
An opportunity for learning and development
Sophie Moss, Project Manager, explains that the go-live of the customs module was a learning curve for the business.
“It was a new team, with new software – but it worked perfectly because they could approach it with fresh eyes. We were able to implement automated documents, automating entries and billing. Once Customs was completed, then we started the rollout across the rest of the business.”
At Metro, training and development are seen as crucial to business success. With all CargoWise learning content now available through the WiseTech Academy online training portal, Sophies says it made it easier to find specific learning material.
“We put a lot of time and effort into our training plans, testing workshops, and making sure our people were supported and comfortable with the system, rather than just doing a switchover. The implementation of PAVE also helped highlight tasks for people in a very visual way.”
Bradley emphasizes that the phased rollout approach was critical in getting the entire business unit engaged from the start.
“It’s so important to keep people involved and engaged the whole time. Once we were ready to roll out a business unit, we focused heavily on training. Every business unit had bespoke training to make sure individuals had the training they needed to do to do their job – whether it was invoicing, sending an electronic booking message to a carrier, or anything else.”
Efficiency gains across the business
Metro’s dedicated CargoWise systems team works closely with the business improvement team, continuously looking for new ways to improve efficiency and team productivity.
“We won't rest on our laurels because WiseTech doesn’t rest on theirs. There’s always new functionality and we’re constantly reevaluating our business and making sure we're maximizing the use of the new functionality, and our people are as efficient as possible,” says Bradley.
“We’ve implemented accounting including receivables, payables, and the cashbook module, and are also now using the Customer Relationship Manager module to log opportunities. Next steps for us are about maximizing our use of PAVE. We want to automate as many tasks as possible.”
Natalie says the business is finding new ways of doing things in CargoWise all the time.
“Every month we come up with something new that we can improve or change to make it easier, more efficient.”
As an example of increased efficiencies, she adds, “A declaration that is 400-500 lines long, which previously could have taken an operator up to three days to complete, now takes a maximum of two hours.”
Customers are also benefiting from improved data. “It’s not just a report showing what shipments they've moved; it also includes when they moved, how much they paid, and when clearance took place. The level of detail we can provide to our clients because of CargoWise has improved significantly.”
With the help of automation, Metro has been able to take on new business and increase transactions without increasing headcount. “If we look at efficiencies, we can say that the automations, workflows, and functionality of CargoWise have saved us around 10,000 hours of work over the year, equivalent to about seven full-time staff,” explains Sophie.
Grants notes there’s always potential for even greater efficiency through CargoWise. “If we’re using 75 percent of its capabilities now, that still leaves another 25 percent of efficiency that can be unlocked. And that's without considering future developments or applications.”
Growth and expansion on the horizon
When it comes to a successful CargoWise implementation and employee adoption, Andrew White, Strategic Project Director, has three key tips.
“First, don’t skimp on your implementation team. Ensure you allocate enough resources for the task, as there’s a huge amount of work involved. Second, train your people. Do not leave it to the week before you go live to suddenly roll out the last-minute bit of training. You have to ensure that you train staff correctly and you give them the time to be trained properly. And last, test, test and test.”
Growing the business and maximizing efficiencies and productivity are the driving force at Metro.
“Our number one goal is to grow the business as quickly as we possibly can, but in a controlled way. An open system like CargoWise will allow us to do that. CargoWise links us into the other parts of the world, we are all part of the one system. Utilizing the system in the best way possible is going to be a big focus over the next 12 to 24 months,” concludes Andrew.