eForwarding opens the door to digitalisation

3. Mai 2017

Press release

eForwarding facilitates the entry into the digital age

eForwarding facilitates the entry into internet forwarding

CargoSoft develops a comprehensive online booking portal for logistics companies

Bremen/Hamburg, 3 May 2017 – Whilst retail sales channels continue to merge, the logistics industry remains largely divided between traditional and internet forwarding companies. As a result, established forwarders face a huge pressure to go digital. The Bremen-based software company CargoSoft has identified this demand and developed eForwarding, a software solution for digital booking platforms that forwarding companies can easily integrate into their supply chain management.

CargoSoft, a subsidiary of the Hamburg IT service provider DAKOSY, offers through its software application eForwarding a quick and easy way for traditional market players to enter into the digital age. “By using an online booking portal, forwarding companies gain an additional and future-orientated distribution channel for their services”, explains Dieter Spark, who is one of the three Managing Directors at CargoSoft along with his colleague Henning Goedecke. The new product enters the market just at the right time. As decision makers from the global forwarding industry gather at the trade fair “transport logistic” in Munich, Spark and Goedecke take this opportunity to present eForwarding at this leading industry event.

According to the two Managing Directors, it is about time that forwarding orders become digitalised. As e-commerce proves to become ever more popular, many shippers do not want to wait for two or three days until a quotation finally arrives by phone or email. The new platform facilitates a quick process of just a few minutes and furthermore adds to more transparency in the market.

Open to all modes of transport

The design of the online platform can be tailored to the individual needs of any forwarding company. For Goedecke, it was particularly important to ensure that eForwarding caters to the different requirements of various business models: “The module is open to all kinds of bookings, from general cargo to full shipments, whether by sea or air freight, truck, CEP services or rail. The combination of different transport modes and the illustration of the entire transport chain including pre- and on-carriage is possible as well”, he adds.

This high level of flexibility applies also to the graphic design of the booking portal. eForwarding has been designed as a white label product and is thus able to adopt the respective corporate design of every individual company. 

Creating a user-friendly interface was crucial for the team at CargoSoft, which is why the transport booking process consists of three simple steps only:

  • The online price query as the basis of the booking
  • The creation of the transport order via the booking portal
  • Worldwide tracking of the shipment through the online portal 24/7

Integration into TMS

What makes the new software module stand out is that it has a lot more to offer than just a neat interface, as Goedecke and Spark illustrate: “The booking portal is part of our sophisticated transport management software (TMS). By offering an integrated system we are able to mirror comprehensive value added services in an automated way. For example, this can apply to customs clearance and special requirements for temperature controlled goods or hazardous cargo”.

In comparison, new generation internet forwarders mostly focus on offering solutions for full container loads. “However, this part of the business makes up only a fraction of the forwarding business”, emphasises Spark. “This is why these platforms really start to get interesting once a forwarder is able to offer the majority of its service portfolio digitally”.

CargoSoft, a leading provider of software solution for logistics companies, is very well equipped to offer digital solutions. Its booking platform is based on technically mature products, which benefit from years of development and have been tried-and-tested by hundreds of customers.

Multi-channel – all sales channels under one roof

With its integrated approach eForwarding offers a true multi-channel solution. „No matter which sales channel the customer uses to book its shipment with the forwarder, the transport management system comprises all data for this transaction“, explains Goedecke.

Both large enterprises as well as small and medium-sized forwarding companies are among the key user groups of this new software solution, as Spark and Goedecke have identified. Prior to the development of eForwarding they had liaised with both existing and potential customers to identify the demand for this kind of product. The result was clear: The industry is urgently looking for digital solutions.