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What Impact Does the Emergence of Technology Have on Optimizing Your Parcel Spend?

Rohan Sonawane on October 9, 2023

Due to rising technological advancements, the parcel industry landscape has changed in the last couple of years. Many consider this as a much-needed watershed moment for industry. Traditionally, as a shipper, you needed to focus entirely on the price and services that shipping companies provided, resulting in a one-dimensional financial load on shippers.

However, with modern-day technology, businesses can now shift their focus to customers and their demands. The surge of high-tech knowledge has also led to a rise in global competitiveness. Consumers’ need for a better, faster, more convenient, and cheaper way of life has enabled companies to leverage these demands and deliver higher customer satisfaction.

If a competitor begins offering one-day deliveries, you risk losing customers if you don’t do the same. This is where many enterprises deflate their margins because last-mile delivery is expensive. Whether you want to improve your margins or save on last-mile delivery, Parcel Spend Management is the key.

What is Parcel Spend Management?

In the era where parcel spending is getting more expensive and complicated with each passing day, Parcel Spend Management is a way of identifying opportunities and negotiating with your shippers to optimize your spending to bring you more savings.

The following are ways in which technology ensures that your parcel spend is optimized:

Parcel Contract Negotiation

When it comes to finalizing a parcel carrier, businesses consider many factors, like service, quality, and punctuality. However, arguably the most significant determining factor is price. Businesses need to control whatever they can to keep shipping costs from affecting their bottom line without affecting the customer’s wallet.

Parcel Contract Negotiation is one way to uncover hidden saving opportunities. Technological advancements enable companies to introspect shipping data and look for discounts. However, many companies lack the technology or the expertise to negotiate effectively. That’s where TransImpact, the parcel expert, comes to the rescue.

Granular Parcel Audit

Another benefit of parcel spend optimization technology is parcel audit. It enables companies to look for insights not derived from the naked eye. Today, there is no lack of data, which makes analysis easy, resulting in new avenues of negotiation with your carrier. Parcel audit technology can bring savings that lead to redistributing money into additional fulfillment centers or give insights into consolidating orders to reduce costs.

Visibility into Parcel Data

Gone are the days when gasoline was the only thing used to fuel businesses. In the rise of modern high-tech software, data is your new fuel, and those who can peek into their data and find accurate and real-time insights will succeed. Tracking your shipments, comparing rates, and managing shipments are just a few ways of harnessing the power of technology for shipping and transportation planning.

Improved Customer Experiences

The real reason behind the success of current advancements is the ease it provides the customers. Faster delivery, one-day delivery, and no-cost delivery are some ways companies are already offering customers. With the avid use of technology, companies can reduce time in transit, optimize routes, and provide faster service.

Conclusion

To remain profitable, businesses must optimize their parcel spending while simultaneously providing customers with better, faster, more convenient, and cheaper services. Parcel Spend Management is a strategy that can help businesses achieve this goal by utilizing technological tools such as contract negotiation, audit, data visibility, and enhanced customer experiences.

TransImpact, with its industry-leading technology and market expertise, has enabled businesses to save between 15-40% while negotiating contracts with the carrier. Over the years, it has saved more than $1 billion. Embracing Parcel Spend Management paves ways to remain profitable. Visit website to connect with parcel expert.

Supply Chain Control Tower: From Optimal Visibility to Data-Driven Insights

Rohan Sonawane on October 5, 2023

Present-day supply chains are more complex than ever before. As a result, supply chain leaders face various challenges, including high numbers of suppliers across the world and increasingly complex production assembly lines, resulting in multiple sales models and distribution channels. They also need to deal with the disruptive impact of demand volatility caused by many day-to-day challenges and large-scale political, economic, and natural events.

Steering this level of complexity needs a specialized tool that applies a powerful set of supply chain control tower abilities to all aspects of the supply chain planning and execution. These solutions deliver an executive-level view across the entire supply chain and provide a holistic view of operational data.

This blog post will explore the concept, features, and benefits of a shipping control tower and how it can be a perfect solution for businesses to access high-performance supply chain management.

What is a Supply Chain Control Tower?

The supply chain control tower is a single-view platform that delivers real-time visibility across the entire supply chain management process. It enables you to access a detailed view of crucial supply chain stakeholders, from trading partners to logistics partners.

The real-time visibility feature of an individual action allows users to gauge the business impact of any supply chain movements, enabling them to evaluate the best strategies moving forward. The control tower also allows businesses to leverage inventory data by using a combination of demand and supply visibility tools to optimize operations throughout the complete supply chain ecosystem.

Key Benefits of Supply Chain Control Software

End-to-end, real-time visibility:
With this solution working side-by-side with you, you can establish complete visibility towards your supply chain with a control tower that retrieves data from siloed systems to provide actionable insights into potential disruptions. You can access everything you need from a single personalized dashboard to handle any uncertainty efficiently.
Predictive decision support:
Effectively predict future disruptions and improve supply chain resiliency with intelligent alerts and real-time key business insights. Analyse the upstream and downstream impacts on your customers and prioritize your response.

Fraternized information sharing:
Optimal collaboration and well-managed scenarios across the entire supply chain with the latest and modern technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, can enable you to quickly respond to unwanted discrepancies and hone execution to boost your KPI performance.

How Can Control Towers Deliver End-to-End Visibility?

The recent global events, from the Pandemic to war, have provoked businesses to build a resilient global supply chain. As organizations start to reopen and excel, the day-to-day challenges faced by shippers and industry leaders are amplified by consistent demand and supply disruptions.

The need to respond quickly has been critical. To act effectively, businesses need real-time intelligence and actionable systems to help mitigate risks and disruptions.

This can be achieved by end-to-end supply chain management designed to optimize core vital supply chain functions. For instance, an efficient inventory control tower can give you crucial information about real-time situations and give you the extra edge to respond in time to avoid significant damage.

When backed by machine learning and artificial intelligence, a supply chain control tower enables a wide range of visibility across departmental siloes and disparate systems, from raw material availability to the last mile of customer delivery.

This solution provides accurate, real-time, available-to-promise inventory to deliver effective decision-making and improved performance. This aids in predicting future vulnerabilities and discrepancies and understanding the impacts on your business, enabling you to respond more accurately.

Industries that can Utilize Supply Chain Control Tower Software

Healthcare:
Hospitals lost almost 10% of inventory value due to misplaced items. Supply chain control software aids in protecting inventory investments, increasing efficiencies, and enhancing the quality of maintenance by ensuring you have the vital lifesaving equipment and other medical supplies you need at the right time and place.

Manufacturing:
One of the key industries in the supply chain is manufacturing. A lot of money goes into the making of every product. Without accurate forecasting and planning, you end up with an inconsistent inventory and miss out on sales opportunities. Supply management software gives you the right number of accurate predictions for optimal future sales strategy.
Grocery:
With efficient inventory management software by your side, you can manage overwhelming demand and ensure the availability of goods by monitoring and meeting a consistently increasing range of potential disruptions. Keep your shelves stocked with just the right amount of inventory.
Industrial:
Meet all the service level agreements while optimizing the amount of inventory you hold. Get complete visibility into service parts by SKU and other systems to help ensure essential products are in stock to meet customer demand.

Transform your Business and Access End-to-End Supply Chain Management with TransImpact

Supply chain control towers are rapidly changing how supply chain networks are managed and how they influence strategic business outcomes. In today’s age, a control tower is vital for companies to move towards streamlined and efficiently orchestrated supply chain optimization. TransImpact’s supply chain management software delivers complete visibility into your supply chain processing, enabling you to access improved decision-making and increased profits. To explore more about our solutions, book a demo or talk to our Expert.

Naïve Forecasting in Supply Chain Management: Pros and Cons

Rohan Sonawane on September 6, 2023

The supply chain is a constantly evolving ecosystem. From order fulfillment to adequate lead time, everything is becoming streamlined via advanced technology. Given the growing implementation of newer technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, the supply chain is becoming increasingly effective and accurate in delivering products on time. But there are still some contemporary techniques that remain effective. One of these is the naïve forecasting method. In this blog, we will explain the pros and cons of naïve forecasting and how it is still relevant in today’s supply chain management.

What Is Naïve Forecasting in supply chain?

Naïve forecasting is a plain and simple approach to forecasting that relies on your company’s historical data. In simple terms, this method uses your previous year’s actual data as the current year’s forecasting data. This way, you can easily predict your future strategy based on your past data.

Pros of Naïve Forecasting

1. Simple and easy to implement

Naïve forecasting is significantly easier than other forecasting methods like single or multiple linear regression methods. It does not require complex calculations or specialized algorithms. People without much experience in forecasting can also perform this method.

2. Limited data is sufficient

This method is entirely based on historical data, making it a fitting choice for businesses with limited resources or those that have just started forecasting their operations. You can utilize this method efficiently if you have the data of your historical demand.

3. Easier to integrate

Due to its simplistic nature, naïve forecasting can be more easily integrated into your system than recent technologies, which take significant time to adapt because of their complexity. This method is easy to apply to abrupt changes in demand patterns. It does not take additional time to incorporate new data and adjust forecasts.

4. It can be an apt performance benchmark

Naïve forecasting methods can serve as a baseline for calculating the overall performance of more advanced forecasting methods. By comparing the results of the latest approaches to the naïve forecast, organizations can evaluate the added value of investing in complex algorithms.

5. Ideal for steady demand

In certain situations where demand is comparatively stable and not subject to sudden market shifts or seasonality, naïve forecasting in the supply chain can provide effectively accurate predictions. This is a great fit for businesses dealing with steady, consistent, and non-volatile markets.

Cons of Naïve Forecasting

1. Lack of precise forecasting

The most critical shortcoming of naïve forecasting is its lack of precise prediction. Since it can only extrapolate past data into the future, it does not account for seasonal variations, specified patterns, or external factors that can influence demand planning. As a result, it tends to execute poorly in unpredictable and constantly evolving markets.

2. Inability to harness seasonal patterns

Naïve forecasting methods fail to capture seasonal market trends, a common characteristic of many products and services. These forecasting errors result in overestimating or underestimating future demand, which could affect your bottom line.

3. Not ideal for new product launch

Whenever a business introduces a new line of products, historical data becomes irrelevant, making naïve forecasting pointless. In such scenarios, depending on past demand data could lead to inadequate inventory and demand planning. This could result in missed sales opportunities for the new line of products.

4. More reactive than proactive

As naïve forecasting does not consider demand fluctuations and external factors, companies can end up reacting to sudden changes rather than proactively preparing for them. This approach can lead to increased lead times, inappropriate pricing, and dissatisfied customers.

5. No business insights into market influences

Naïve forecasting does not offer business insights into factors that drive demand. This could affect your company’s decision-making process and bottom line. Understanding essential information based on your data is highly critical in this competitive market. This is were naïve forecasting lacks dependency and accountability.

Final take

While naïve forecasting offers ease of implementation and simplicity, it can be limited and inadequate, hindering its efficiency in the complex and dynamic landscape of supply chain optimization. Businesses should clearly consider the scope and size of their operations, market situations, and quality and availability of historical data before implementing this method of forecasting.

Skillfully execute your demand planning strategies with TransImpact

TransImpact’s inventory management software provides end-to-end visibility into your inventory movements to reveal comprehensive information for improved decision-making processes. Our system can accurately report your inventory levels, so you avoid scenarios like understocking or overstocking.

How Demand Planning Software Enhances Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)

Rohan Sonawane on August 29, 2023

Demand planning software has become an essential tool for businesses to evaluate and navigate today’s fast-paced business ecosystem. Utilizing real-time insights and automation to learn future market conditions and streamline operations, sales and marketing teams can plan more accurately.

Without intelligent software to support demand planning strategies, organizations today risk being left behind, and their competitors are more than capable of operating at a speed and scale much faster than traditional and static planning methods.

Predicting future demand for your business is just a fraction of the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, but it plays a pivotal role in overall supply chain management. This article will explore how a demand planning platform is important for sales and operations planning.

Benefits of Demand Planning in Sales and Operations Planning

If your demand planning and your sales and operations planning are disconnected, you risk inadequate forecasting, reduced sales opportunities, high unsold stock levels, and many other supply chain forecasting–related discrepancies. This imbalance in planning processes can cause day-to-day problems that feel impossible to overcome. But, cloud-based demand planning software with a more flexible modeling solution can help immediately in this situation.

1. Improved transparency between siloed departments

Many businesses lack optimized supply chain management due to inadequate information access. This situation occurs when different departments do not share historical data with other departments, making it difficult for planners to evaluate future demand properly. When you merge demand planning software with your S&OP, you get a fully integrated supply chain and can access end-to-end visibility into your business’s operations.

Effective sales and operations planning can aid your decision makers in always making informed decisions about product supplies and demand. This can provide greater accuracy and transparency across the entire business, making it easier to utilize everyday information.

2. More informed decisions regarding demand and supply

A major benefit of connecting a demand planning platform with sales and operations planning is having access to an accurate view of your inventory stock levels, production, and overall supply volume. With this information in hand, business leaders can quickly adjust their supply chain to meet fluctuations in demand or decide what to do with supply discrepancies.

Without this key insight, you risk miscommunication across departments, incorrect estimates of customer demand, or lost revenue from not having the right amount of inventory on hand. A clear view of what is happening across the supply chain puts you in control. With demand planning software, you will always have real-time data to quickly respond to major market shifts.

3. Better understanding of sales and forecasting

Thriving businesses typically have the right demand planning software that enables them to quickly adapt to new market trends and ever-changing customer demand. Without it, a business’s ability to scale is stunted and its competitors gain an edge.

No matter what business you are in, someone else is always interested in grabbing your market share and providing the same product or service at a more affordable price. That is why it is vital to pinpoint simple business expectations with accurate forecasting.

Well-connected demand forecasting software allows you to make more informed decisions about products, delivering accurate performance data and better data visibility. With this, you can remain flexible enough to react to ever-changing demand.

4. Effective processing that enhances customer satisfaction

Running a smooth sales and operations planning process is not enough. You need to understand what your customer needs in real time. An effective demand planning platform enables you to access your inventory’s recent major market shifts, customer preferences, and slow-moving products. Once you get a hold of these valuable insights, you can work on your lead time, supply chain discrepancies, and product development to improve overall customer experience.

Remember, if your customers are not satisfied with your products or the products are not planned or designed according to their preferences and needs, they won’t think twice about taking their business somewhere else.

Streamline Your Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) With TransImpact

TransImpact’s Demand Forecasting Software delivers optimum access and comprehensive visibility into your supply chain. Our state-of-the-art technology enables our clients to better understand future demand for their products and make informed business decisions. To learn more about our solutions, talk to our experts or schedule a demo.

Maximize Your Cost Savings with Parcel Shipping Solutions in 2023

Rohan Sonawane on August 22, 2023

E-commerce businesses have drastically flourished as technology and customer experiences become more personalized. However, most companies face the dilemma of cutting down shipping costs to remain profitable or delivering high-quality shipping services to customers. This is where parcel shipping solutions come to your aid to effectively optimize your supply chain needs.

Shipping costs are a considerable expense for every business, but you may face issues when trying to save money because it will ultimately hamper your customer experience. Shipping costs can majorly impact your bottom line, especially in logistics and e-commerce. Thankfully, there are effective strategies that can allow you to reduce shipping costs without compromising on your service quality.

This article post will unfold some proven and practical ways to reduce shipping expenses and increase savings.

1. Access Complete Shipping Data Visibility

Most of the time, supply chain businesses do not utilize analytics because of data inaccessibility and inadequate data integration. They avoid making decisions based on the data due to poor confidence in data quality. The visibility of data starts with its quality. Data quality and it’s relevancy can be defined as data that fits its intended purpose and is validated and utilized accurately and timeously.

Without quality data, every KPIs, reporting, and analytics are unreliable. That is why you need efficient shipping software to accurately deliver comprehensive shipping data visibility to save extra shipping costs. With effective parcel shipping analytics, you can easily uncover opportunities, compare carrier performance, negotiate confidently, and more.

In 2023, you need an end-to-end analytics tool with optimum visibility at your fingertip. Actionable insights enable you to make effective decisions to improve operations, service, and overall performance. With a complete view of parcel shipping data, you can glean opportunities for cost savings and drive real ROI.

2. Optimize Product Packaging

As package dimensions and weight affect the shipping costs charged by carriers, it is crucial to make your parcel as small as possible. Do not forget that carriers take the dimensions of the packages very seriously while evaluating the shipping costs. Recently, carriers noticed losing money on large and light items. So, trimming down the package that fits and protects your product accurately is really important.

We cannot reduce the weight of our products, but we can slim down the shipping packages and their infills. To avoid paying more for the space the package takes up, there are three main considerations to keep in mind:

Use customized boxes for the products
Better fitting packages mean fewer infill materials
If it is possible, pack multiple products in one pack

For small businesses, it is vital to save as much as possible so that the best available option can be utilized. It is the best offer to deliver sufficient support for various products while enhancing cost savings.

3. Improve Post-Purchase Customer Experience

Customers expect clear communication and transparency during the entire buying process. The customer wants complete visibility from order to delivery and everything in between. Estimated delivery dates and shipping expectations are essential during the customer purchase process.

Parcel shippers must set clear expectations of shipment delivery dates and communicate all shipping exceptions, such as delays or any other discrepancy. Customers typically forgive businesses that maintain complete transparency. If delivery dates are not met properly, and there is a lack of communication, brand value can hamper, and customer loyalty will deteriorate. A parcel shipping solution can be advantageous to deal with this scenario.

4. Automate the Decision-Making Process

It is a given that 2023 will be a fast-paced business landscape. A powerful parcel shipping system to measure and monitor your shipping operations will distinguish success and failure. With the help of automated processing, thriving businesses can reduce non-value-added manual work and leverage predictive analytics.

Automation uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other upgraded technologies to make decision-making a well-planned and orchestrated process. Automated parcel shipping analytics follow predefined business rules to enhance productivity and efficiency.

Decision-making backed by automated parcel shipping systems is best applied to predictable, manual, and repetitive tasks to reduce human efforts and errors. This solution analyses your historical data and provides accurate reporting so that you can make optimum decisions and save costs on your shipping operations.

5. Diversify the Multi-Carrier Option

Unsurprisingly, single-carrier parcel shipping is no longer advantageous for shippers. A diversified carrier mix approach is necessary for businesses to have an agile shipping strategy.

There are a few benefits of going for the multi-carrier option in 2023:

Reduced cost
Increased sales
Extra agility and flexibility
Mitigate risks
Effective delivery times
Improves operational visibility

6. Implement the Right Shipping Solution

With so many new options available in the market, it takes time to evaluate which solution fits your shipping operations.

In this situation, you always face the dilemma of where to start.

Start with a trusted technology partner that understands the significance of solving root issues and hidden insights.

Cloud-based automated solutions are packed with advanced integration capabilities to help shippers with effective shipping. Traditional systems are often outdated, siloed, and slow. Applying a cloud-based multi-carrier shipping software solutions suite enables businesses to analyze, automate, model, and audit their shipping operations efficiently.

Apart from modern technology, you deserve a team to stay focused and succeed. In 2023 get the data, advanced technology, and dedicated professionals to support your supply chain needs.

Do Not Get Surprised, Unprepared, and Scrambled – Apply an Agile Parcel Shipping Software

TransImpact’s Industry-Leading Parcel Shipping Solutions enable you to access complete visibility into your parcel shipping operations. Our brilliant solutions allow our clients to track their parcels and negotiate confidently with their carriers. Do not let carriers take advantage of you. Enable a parcel shipping system to better understand the hidden insights and make better business decisions. To understand more about our solutions, talk to our experts or book a demo.

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Its Subset Machine Learning (ML) on Demand Forecasting and Inventory Planning

Rohan Sonawane on August 22, 2023

What does it take to increase or supercharge demand for a product? A global pandemic, a gigantic financial crisis, or a famous advertising campaign? The correct answer is that it’s not up to you. The reality is that today, your supply chain can change on a dime. Thanks to the paradigm shift in consumer buying behavior, predicting purchase patterns has become complex.

Post-pandemic, the world has embraced e-commerce, making supply chains busier than ever. Long queues in stores are things of the past; your customers now need products delivered to their doorstep as soon as possible. More than anything else, now the chaos is all about maintaining sufficient inventory and not losing a client because of stockout, or not overordering and then having to manage bloated inventory.

Predicting demand is challenging; you never know which social media trend can boost or lengthen the demand for your product. This is the exact point at which the traditional forms of forecasting become unreliable. Businesses are unsure if they can trust the historical data-based prediction approach or go with whatever their gut suggests.

The quandary has been resolved by an algorithm-based prediction method known as machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence. AI/ML-enabled demand planning software gives you the most accurate prediction. However, according to a Gartner survey, only 45% of supply chain businesses employ machine learning.

So, what does AI do differently that makes it so desirable for companies? Well, for starters, AI analyzes the patterns of all your data sets and uses them to predict future occurrences or demand. It also tracks every segment of your supply chain, from when a product sells to how many products are sold in a particular time frame, from identifying when stock will run out to keeping tabs on which products are not performing well and may need a push.

Here are some of the other ways AI will impact demand forecasting and inventory planning:

1. Improving automation and reducing the possibility of human error

The preciseness of your demand forecasting software depends mainly on the data you feed it. There are numerous sources from which businesses collect data and feed it into an ERP. It is a tedious job to consolidate all the data into a spreadsheet and then try to understand the patterns and predict demand. Ultimately, it will be highly error-prone and deviate from actual numbers.

Using AI ensures proper data consolidation and interpretation. It saves you days that can be further utilized in planning. It also automatically updates the data in the ERP by integrating with your data sources, which reduces the likelihood of errors.

2.Automatic update purchase for replenishment

These days no business can anticipate when and from where a small factor can disrupt the demand for their products and services. During these unpredictable times, it’s essential for companies to adapt to the fluctuations and create ordering plans for products. Using AI will help you respond to ad hoc requirements with proactive planning. Along with its subset machine learning (ML), AI improves your forecasting.

3. Work towards eliminating understocks and stockouts

The trick of the trade for demand forecasting is to enhance inventory management. Businesses aim to order just the correct number of products, which fulfills the manufacturing requirements, so they are not running out of stock or spending resources on managing excess inventory.

AI enables you to analyze demand and supply in real time, ensuring optimal inventory management and an optimal purchasing plan.

4. No historical data? No problem!

Many people assume that to get precise technology-based forecasting you need to have piles of past data. Not anymore; with AI-powered demand planning software, you can now achieve accurate forecasting even for newer products. Machine learning (ML) uses forecasting models of similar products to predict, and when new data comes in, the models update automatically.

5. Mastering demand and supplier unpredictability

Most of your inventory management depends on your suppliers and their lead times. Uncertainty is the norm now, so a typical lead time of 15 or 20 days (about 3 weeks) can easily lengthen to 40 or 45 days (about 1 and a half months). These changes disrupt supply chain forecasting. AI-enabled software takes into account lead time changes and revises ordering plans accordingly.

In the end

Demand forecasting and inventory planning are probably the two most essential operations in any supply chain. Still, companies rely on traditional methods of prediction. To gain a competitive edge, you need to bet on today’s technologies. Artificial intelligence is not the talk of the future anymore. It is helping your competitors to provide customers with a pleasing experience. Demand Planning Software powered by AI has become necessary for businesses to make intelligent decisions and devise long-term plans.

Leading The Game Ahead: The Latest Trends in Parcel Shipping Solutions

Rohan Sonawane on July 21, 2023

Technology and innovations are the lifeblood of any industry, and parcel shipping is no different. That’s why keeping abreast of any recent trends and developments that could potentially impact on your business is essential. The parcel shipping industry is changing at a faster pace than ever. New innovations, tendencies, and technologies are constantly evolving.

To stay relevant and ahead of their competitors, shipping businesses must understand the gravity of the latest trend in the parcel shipping solutions industry. They must remain diverse enough to accommodate the possibility of major market shifts and changing customer demand because people won’t take long to migrate somewhere else where improved delivery services are affordable.

With technological innovations and constantly evolving customer expectations, the parcel shipping industry is persistently changing. In this blog, we will undertake the latest trends in the shipping business that are shaping and revolutionizing the way we send and receive parcels.

1. Enhanced Visibility and Tracking

With the boom of E-commerce, customers expect real-time tracking and transparency throughout the entire shipping process. An efficient parcel shipping system incorporates GPS, RFID, and barcode scanning technologies. These latest technologies enable businesses to track their parcels more effectively. With the help of these techniques, shippers can reassure their customers with accurate estimated delivery times and real-time updates, reduce customer bounce rate, and improve customer satisfaction.

2. E-Commerce Rise and Last-Mile Delivery

The exponential growth of e-commerce has been a driving factor behind the evolution of parcel shipping solutions. As more customers prefer online shopping channels, the requirement for effective last-mile delivery solutions has increased. Businesses are investing in more innovative solutions, such as autonomous delivery vehicles, drones, and smart lockers, to ensure the last leg of the shipping process. Same-day and next-day delivery have become customers’ most favored options, pushing parcel shipping service providers to optimize their operations and enhance delivery speed.

3. More Focus on Reverse Logistics

Unfortunately, product returns are unavoidable in almost any industry. You can’t make everyone happy. However, optimizing your reverse logistic process with effective parcel shipping software is always better.

Product return can be a daunting task, and no organization owner wants to deal with more returns than orders. Customers always seek a service provider who can offer them a seamless return process without contacting them. That’s why every business owner should recognize reverse logistics is a major future trend and should consider it very seriously.

4. Prepare for a New Risk Event

Nobody wants to be unprepared when disaster strikes, most notably when you are a business owner with customers to look after. An unexpected situation in business can occur out of the blue, especially in high-stakes situations. Problems like these can stop production and affect shipments coming out. So, essentially, parcel shipping analytics drills down your historical data and provides you with clearer visibility into your shipping operations. With the support of this knowledge, you can make better decisions and avoid risks in the future.

5. Sustainable Parcel Shipping

Environmental sustainability has become a primary concern for many consumers and businesses. Responding to the immediate concern, the parcel shipping industry is accepting greener practices. By prioritizing sustainability, parcel shipping systems contribute to a greener future and resonate with environmentally conscious customers.

6. Intelligent Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming the parcel shipping industry. Automated sorting systems can manage large volumes of packages, reducing manual labor and improving efficiency. Machine learning algorithms analyze shipping data to optimize route planning, evaluate delivery delays, and identify potential future bottlenecks. AI-powered shipping software provides valuable insights into customer preferences, enabling businesses to determine their shipping strategies accordingly.

7. Smart Parcel Allocation

With the help of technologies like AI, shipping businesses can enable intelligent allocations of shipments to save time and speed up last-mile deliveries. Such shipping software solutions use accurate geographical data and real-time traffic information to sort out shipments logically to your last-mile delivery partners, enabling more work in less time.

As the parcel shipping system is automated, you don’t have to worry about repetitive tasks like mapping routes and allocating work, as technology will process these functions for you more efficiently and accurately, keeping human errors at a minimum.

All in All

The parcel shipping business is evolving effectively to meet the demands of a digitized world. The latest trends in parcel shipping, such as e-commerce, last-mile delivery, enhanced tracking and visibility, sustainable practices, and reverse logistics, are reshaping the way shippers utilize technology to their benefit. As technology constantly advances, we expect more lucrative innovations in this space, ultimately leading to faster, more efficient, and more reliable deliveries of your parcels. Embracing these trends will empower businesses to stay ahead of their competitors and deliver their customers an exceptional shipping experience.

TransImpact is a leading Parcel Shipping Solutions provider. We have empowered our clients to effectively manage their parcel spending and parcel contract negotiations for decades. To understand more about our solutions, call our experts or schedule a demo.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Transform Supply Chain Management

Rohan Sonawane on July 10, 2023

In recent times, supply chains have become considerably more challenging to handle. Longer and highly interlinked physical flows reflect the increasing complexity of the product portfolio. Market volatility, which the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified, has raised the need for flexibility and agility. And increased importance of the environmental impact of supply chain management is triggering the optimization and regionalization of flows. Because of this scenario, businesses and decision-makers have become more stringent on supply chain digitization.

Supply chain optimization solutions based on artificial intelligence are expected to be potential instruments to help businesses face these challenges. An integrated end-to-end perspective can convey the opportunities and constraints of all business operations, from procurement to sales. AI’s capacity to analyse vast amounts of data, understand relationships, deliver optimum visibility into operations, and support better strategic decision-making makes it a potent game changer. However, getting the most out of these solutions is not just a matter of technology; organizations must take adequate steps to harness the full potential of AI.

AI has revolutionized recently, developing into a robust tool for various business applications. Below, we will observe how AI can be utilized and improve the optimization of the supply chain.

Efficiency

Managing a supply chain is all about efficiency. Because of the interconnectedness of the supply chains, delays or issues in one part of the network have sizeable impact on other parts of the network. AI plays a tremendous efficiency advantage over humans and even other computer-based systems, enabling you to take care of any issues as quickly as possible.

Data Management

One of the most time-consuming aspects of supply chain management is going through and effectively categorizing or logging data. The supply chain produces vast amounts of data and observing and incorporating this data into your demand planning and forecasting software can be a hefty task. AI-powered automated technology does this repetitive task for you and takes the pressure away from your hand, leaving almost zero human error possibilities.

AI is comprehensively trained in data retrieving and responding to vast data pools with processes like a machine and deep learning. An AI system learns and becomes more refined, faster, and more intelligent at processing this data.

Reconfiguration

While every organization hopes to develop supply chain efficiency to avoid potential discrepancies or inconsistencies, the reality is this part of the company’s operations can be anything but smooth. An AI in supply chains can take a broader view of the complete operations to find ways to optimize them by consolidating multichannel suppliers of a particular product into one provider or by identifying faster or cheaper ways of delivering materials between two or more networks.

Demand Forecasting and Capacity Planning

Supply chains undergo different stresses related to delays, backups, the breakdowns of one or more parts in the chains, unexpected demand, and so on. AI systems help provide improved prediction tools for future customer demand and capacity planning for the supply chain. This can make it easy for a business to efficiently add capacity during busy times. An effective demand planning software powered by artificial intelligence technology can accurately provide you with precise reporting, enabling you to make better strategic decisions for your supply chain business.

Inventory Management

Handling seamless inventory processing is one of the most vital factors for maintaining a healthy supply chain planning. Effective inventory planning involves keeping accurate track of which products are coming in and going out of your inventory, what products are performing well in the market, and what products are slightly shifting into the slow-moving products category.

When the latest technology, like machine learning, is merged with a complex business network like inventory optimization, it becomes more value-driven and precision-based – allowing you to make more profits and save costs on your inventory handling.

Reduce Costs and Encourage Safety

AI in the supply chain management can help to improve inventory optimization by reducing inconsistencies. When inventories are better managed, it is considered that both workers and materials experience better safety. Some AI solutions can even automate specific perspectives of traditional work performed by humans, further enhancing safety by keeping human interference at a minimum. AI systems have the capability to work at a faster pace and without errors for a much longer time than any human could. This enables them to help reduce costs.

We have just explored some of the artificial intelligence’s essential roles in growing the supply chain ecosystem. Other than this, there are a few more areas where AI stands out and contribute more effectively:

Marketing and Sales: More Unified and Accurate Pricing System
Procurement: Comprehensive Data Integration with Suppliers
Planning: Risk Adjusted End-to-End Margin Optimization
Logistics and Distribution: Dynamic Optimization of Routing and Costs
Production: Agile Production Planning and Scheduling

An Industry-Leading Solution for a Thriving Supply Chain

TransImpact’s Supply Chain Management is a state-of-the-art solution that enables our clients to access complete visibility into their inventory optimization. Our agile software empowers you with accurate, precision-based demand forecasting to deliver best-in-class customer experiences, save costs, and improve profits for your business. To explore more about our solutions, contact our experts or schedule a demo.

Parcel Spend Management Software: Challenges and Benefits of Parcel Spend Optimization

Rohan Sonawane on May 19, 2023

The capacity to analyze and track parcel spend is more crucial than ever. The costs related to moving parcels from point A to point B can be quickly and effectively controlled and monitored with intelligent parcel spend management software. Shipping more packages is an excellent sign of growing sales, but without careful monitoring, shipping costs can slowly eat into your bottom line. As it turns out, eight out of ten businesses overspend on shipping by an average of 15-20%. With UPS and FedEx both announcing record-high rate increases for 2023, there has never been a necessary time to examine your company’s shipping costs.

With costs rising due to the constantly changing business ecosystem, even the most sophisticated businesses are overpaying to get the extra edge, but they are just leaving money on the table, seriously affecting their bottom line. Carriers are raising the stakes with continuous rate hikes, policy changes, and complex billing systems. In this informative article, we will delve into the challenges businesses face related to their parcel spending and why you need to connect your business with parcel management services.

Challenges Associated with Parcel Spend Management

Optimizing parcel spending poses challenges for businesses, including:

Inadequate Data

Carriers don’t regulate pricing or maintain transparency. Instead, they independently negotiate contracts with every client, keeping you in the dark about your competitors’ spending. Relying on your own operational KPIs and conventional methods is not enough when you do not fully comprehend the complexity of your contract, how pricing is set, or whether there is room for cost savings. Negotiating lower shipping rates based on your previous contract may seem like a go-to strategy, but if your rates are too high to begin with, you are not getting best-in-the-business pricing. An optimum parcel shipping solution provider working side by side with you might be helpful in this scenario.

Lack of Resources

You may be charged with unwanted accessorial surcharge fees or be eligible for audit rebates you are unaware of. For instance, carriers often make sizable pricing changes before the contracts are termed out. They may also create upcoming surcharges, add fees, or adjust prices on surcharges that are not covered in your contract. When a business ships thousands of parcels daily, it is unrealistic to manually audit every parcel invoice. Most organizations lack the time and resources to monitor invoices and surcharges and observe errors or overcharges manually.

Lack of Expertise

Do you have relevant expertise to effectively analyze a parcel contract, or which elements are negotiable where you can save costs to support your bottom line? Anyone can negotiate savings of 3-4%, but if you are not well-versed in parcel contract negotiations best practices, then you are most probably leaving money on the table. If you are looking for a regional carrier for your small parcel shipping, then you are selecting from thousands of options. That is why you need brilliant parcel spend management software to empower you with complete parcel spending visibility to leverage cost savings and better decision-making.

How an Industry-Leading Parcel Shipping Solution Provider Helps

1. Monitoring Invoices for Errors and Overcharges

Small billing errors eventually add up to significant amounts if they are not caught on time. Outsource invoice monitoring to a solution provider that utilizes automated technology to comb your invoices for service level failures and money-back guarantee opportunities and automatically claims your savings.

2. Negotiating Better Contracts Even Without Changing the Carriers

Changing carriers can cause some major discrepancies among various operational levels of a business. An industry-leading parcel management solution provider can enable you to save costs without even changing your existing carriers. Look for a solution with deep industry experience to analyze carriers’ proposals, compare them to best market pricing, and empower you with the leverage you need to negotiate effectively.

3. Diversifying Your Parcel Carriers to Maximum Agility

In today’s world, you need a perfect blend of shipping carriers to maintain operational flexibility. For example, contracting carriers from various locations can overcome regional challenges, such as supply chain disturbances, labor shortages, and severe weather events. An expert parcel delivery management system can help you optimize spending with your current and future carriers’ service providers and help negotiate contracts and pricing.

4. Actionable Insights to Make Data-Driven Decision

An expert parcel spend intelligence solution that provides data and analytics tools allows you to access detailed, real-time visibility into your shipping spend. Spot trends and monitor KPIs to find areas for more savings and help analyze the bigger picture and make data-driven decisions.

A Solution That Delivers

Optimizing shipping costs is the key to keeping customers happy and costs down in these uncertain economic times. TransImpact’s Parcel Spend Management Software provides end-to-end visibility to maximize your parcel spending strategy and save costs. Our industry-leading experts with vast experience in parcel contract negotiations help our clients save unwanted surcharges and excessive mid-term fees. So, in simple terms, we are in the business of delivering good news to our customers. To understand more about our solutions, talk to our experts or schedule a demo.