Guest Commentary: More than Features and Functions – The Importance of Implementation in Selecting a Shipping Software Solution

If you are a global enterprise, then delivering your products to customers in a cost-effective manner, on-time and in adherence with local and international regulations is a critical success factor. And to operate at prime efficiency, you must incorporate shipment execution, logistics, global trade, global multi-carrier integration, trade compliance and shipment tracking as part of your business processes.

A key enabler to meeting your customers’ expectations is having an effective global shipping solution. Your solution requirements will depend on your industry; the attributes of the products you ship (e.g., weights, dimensions); where you ship to (domestic, international); and other factors. There are many shipping solutions in the market to choose from. But selecting the right shipping software that meets your functional requirements is just half the battle; the other critical half is implementation – i.e., deploying the software in such a way that it truly gives you a competitive advantage and doesn’t just become another piece of software in your company’s financial books as an “asset” but with no returns.

When it comes to implementing a shipping solution, here are some important considerations:

• Deployment options – Traditional on-premise or a software-as-a-service (SaaS) option. Look for a provider that can support both and also a hybrid model.

• Support for both centralized and distributed architecture – You can implement a different solution for each operation and/or geography or implement a single solution that spans the different operations and geographies.

• Integration options – Must support Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and other industry standard connectivity options like EDI, XML, HTTP, HTTPS, JMS, etc. for flexible and scalable integration.

• Certified integration with leading ERP software vendors – Standard connectors and adapters to leading ERP software is a must.

• Certified carriers and services – Supports all major parcel, TL and LTL certified carriers.

• Multi-country, multi-currency, multi-language and multi-regulation.

• Certified, integrated, and automated customs clearing – This is critical for meeting regulatory and legal requirements.

• Support and Ease of personalization – Must have a robust, non-intrusive framework to enable future changes to reporting, trade documents, labels, regulatory changes, etc. Having tools to self implement these changes will make you less dependent on the services partner.

In terms of selecting a well-trusted implementation partner, here are some things you should look for:

• Deep industry and product knowledge – Provide the support, resources and knowledge globally. It’s much more efficient when using one partner versus having to use many.

• Skills availability across all the regions – Local resource availability is the key.

• Must have a certified partner eco-system for less dependence on the implementation partner capacity constraints and for competitive regional consulting rates.

• Proven implementation methodology using best practices and a global project management approach to deliver consulting in all the areas of the product.

• Prescriptive value-based consulting and accelerated time to benefit.

Finally, there are some additional factors to consider that also go beyond features and functions, such as:

• New Carrier On-boarding – Software vendor partnering with key international/regional carriers for new services certification and support. This should be the key criterion to vet before selecting any shipping software.

• Ongoing Support and Maintenance – 24X7 global multi-lingual support, with clear and measurable Service Level Agreement and capability to support future growth into other geographies.

• Speed of incorporating regulatory changes – Global trade regulations are always in flux. The speed of incorporating the changes in standard product functionality should be clearly defined. Beware of getting these changes as customizations.

• Compliance, content management and support – Its imperative to have regular, automated and validated compliance data upload into your application to meet regulatory requirements. Fast turnaround of this data is very critical to your business.

• Support for standard printers to print Labels – Accurate shipping labels and manifest are two important documents that will enable you to ship your products out of the warehouse. Speed and support in churning out these in a high volume shipping business is paramount to your organization’s success.

In summary, a fully functional shipping software solution can help companies streamline their global trade processes to save time and money while ensuring regulatory trade compliance. The key is not just to select the right shipping software that meets all of your functional requirements, but also working with a well-trusted implementation partner who can help you achieve a faster return on investment and work with you long term to manage ongoing changes effectively.

Murli R. Shastri, CPIM, PMP serves as Precision Software’s Director of Technical Services. Murli has more than 22 years of experience in IT Industry with rich global experience in software development, support, services management, services delivery, offshore strategy planning, business development and offshore development centre management and perations. His background includes design, development, and implementation of QAD product solutions for large multi nationals, including project management of complex integration solutions.