No matter how well you plan your procurement strategy, spot buying will always be a necessary part of your processes.
But if you’re managing your spot buying on a separate platform or simply via email, you’re missing out on some significant benefits that will improve both your contract and spot strategy.
Here are the top 3 benefits to moving your spot and contract buying onto one combined platform that’s specialised for both types of procurement.
1. You can build a better data-driven strategy
In freight procurement, there’s a huge amount of data to manage which is often fragmented across different teams and files. So getting the right data insights into your strategy is extremely difficult.
Unifying your freight data on one platform ensures you can get a full picture of your global procurement processes and can analyse your results to continuously improve your strategy. However, all too often we forget to include out spot data in our analysis. And if you don't include your spot buying data, you won't get a reliable picture.
For example, if you’re analysing your annual procurement results without looking at your spot data, you could miss an opportunity to tender a lane that you're repeatedly paying spot rates for.
When you buy your spot and contract on one platform, the software automatically stores everything – so you never lose any data and you get a crystal-clear picture into all your shipping activities.
2. You won't waste money on unnecessary spot buying
Did you know that 65% of procurement managers have little to no visibility past their tier one suppliers? Given how large and complex supply chains need to be to move goods in today’s global market, it’s not surprising.
The complex contracts you need with different carriers for all your routes and lanes make it difficult for your team to find accurate current rate information. This means your team might not even be aware they have approved rates and end up paying extra for spot.
Integrating all your processes on the same platform ensures that this never happens again. When preparing a shipment, you can search in seconds to find if you already have rates in place for that route. And with today’s sky-high rates, preventing this human error can save you thousands on your budget.
3. You can buy spot – fast!
Spot buying should be fast. It needs to be fast. If you’re moving urgent goods, spot freight is usually the way to do it.
Your team doesn’t have time to manually trawl through current rates, dig into data on which supplier is the most reliable and manually request every carrier.
Using an all-in-one digital platform means your team can create spot requests in just a couple of clicks and then manage everything from the same platform they’re already using for contract. All your carrier information, from both historical contract and spot purchasing, is safely stored in the cloud, so your team can compare quotes and assess at a glance which offer is the best choice.
As the saying goes: ‘time is money'. So, save both using a fully integrated all-in-one platform.
Want to learn more about how SHIPSTA's contract and spot procurement platform can help your business? Book a demo, and one of our consultants will take you on a bespoke tour of our industry-leading software.
About SHIPSTA
SHIPSTA powers smart logistics procurement with a digital platform that connects shippers and carriers to ensure a frictionless procurement process for spot and contract buying, entirely online. It automates complex tasks, provides unrivalled visibility and supports fast data-driven decision making.
Designed and built by experts in logistics procurement, SHIPSTA is bringing transparency, automation and efficiency to the global logistics industry. It is used by some of the world’s largest companies to respond to market volatility, control freight costs and manage risk. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Mertert, Luxembourg and Hamburg, Germany.
