Financial system brings oceans of savings for shipping company

The transportation of goods can be a logistical nightmare -- especially where first world and third world infrastructures merge to create daunting areas of uncertainty. But there is a solution, says global shipping company Cargosuite, which has installed a financial system which not only bridges the digital divide, but has realised operational savings of up to 40%.

The system, which is based on Microsoft Great Plains eEnterprise software installed by Microsoft Great Plains specialists Datasmith, bridges the gap between economies of varying levels of technology, by creating an easy to use, almost paperless environment with streamlined real-time automated processing and messaging. More importantly for an industry battling to maintain profit margins, Cargosuite has seen massive cost savings and an increase in efficiency of between 30% to 40%.

Cargosuite CEO Barry Fourie is delighted with the system, which has bridged the gap between First and Third World technologies by allowing users to access the system without having to be online.

"We`ve been able to reduce the traditional back office costs associated with the movement of goods and so pass these savings on to our customers," said Fourie. "There were several challenges to face, including the low rate of Internet connectivity in many African countries, integration of financial and operational systems, user acceptance as well as bandwidth constraints."

Microsoft Great Plains created a Web-based connected community -- or business system of e-commerce enabled partners -- for Cargosuite using eEnterprise because of its speed of database, SQL server database, platform scalability, and application robustness while providing open architecture and ease of integration to other technologies. The software integration began in September last year and the system was deployed in February 2001.

The impetus for the solution, said Fourie, was the gap for a sophisticated Web-enabled solution in the shipping environment, as well as the opportunity to maximise the synergies of the "clicks and bricks" within their e-community.

"Relationships are created between service providers, customers and carriers through the Neptune system, which is built on a Microsoft platform to meet the challenges of being a highly distributable, highly available, Internet solution," said Fourie.

Neptune is Cargosuite`s Web-based application that facilitates the global shipping process. The back-end financial functionality requirements have been achieved by integrating the Neptune system with Microsoft Great Plains financial applications developed by Datasmith.

"In essence, the benefits of investing in such a dynamic systems are cost and time savings achieved though increased efficiency with real-time financial processing, enhanced customer service, automated and streamlined business processes and a reduction in manual errors while facilitating ease of use," says Fourie.