Digitization in tender management is a concept that is becoming increasingly relevant to carriers and freight forwarders. By eliminating all the onerous and antiquated processes in tender management (such as spreadsheets with complex rate structures and hundreds of shipping lanes) and replacing them with digital technologies, carriers can benefit from massive efficiency gains and reallocate resources to higher-value tasks. The digitization of processes also enables the generation of new data, which can be used to gain a strategic view of business operations, plan resource and improve decision-making.
What are the drivers for digitization in tender management?
Firstly, digital transformation in logistics procurement is long overdue and there remain considerable inefficiencies due to a dependence on manual processes and disconnected systems. While technology has transformed many aspects of our lives, the tender management process has barely changed in two decades. Rate requests are still largely made using complex spreadsheets and responding to these is extremely time-consuming as well as prone to human error. With carriers working across thousands of spreadsheets and emails, they also lack a strategic view of processes and operations.
The pandemic is also making digitization a major priority for tender managers. With market volatility driving a surge in spot buying and carriers still largely dependent on manual processes for managing complex rate requests, they are under huge pressure and losing valuable opportunities for business. Digitization can save huge amounts of time as well as help carriers prioritise the most valuable opportunities based on historical customer data such as the rate of conversion.
And in a sector which is becoming increasingly commoditized, digitization also provides an opportunity to fundamentally change how you operate and deliver value to customers. As well as allowing tender managers to respond faster to rate requests, digitization provides an opportunity for shippers to automate their processes too, so they can save time, respond to market volatility and manage risk.
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, it 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.
