Management Dynamics, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand solutions for global transportation and supply chain management, today announced the availability of Rate Explorer 10.0. The latest release of Rate Explorer allows importers, exporters and NVOCCs to make increasingly complex ocean freight decisions based on cost and service tradeoffs to effectively manage ever-changing surcharges and potential congestion at port and rail facilities.
With Rate Explorer 10.0, the Contract Manager module has been enhanced to support sophisticated ocean freight optimization decisions. Now shippers or logistics service providers that are quoting rates for their clients can quickly compare alternative routings, with full bottom-line shipment costs, transit times, sailing days and carrier preference to find the service that best meets their needs. Rate Explorer takes the effort out of building these "what-if" analyses by constructing routings from multiple factors including outport arbitraries, valid port-port or bullet rates, and available inland moves that are either under contract or available in a carrier's intermodal tariff. By considering all routing options and optimizing decisions on cost, time and service, shippers can manage the impact of highly variable peak season pricing and capacity constraints.
The Quote Manager module of Rate Explorer has also been enhanced to offer NVOCCs greater visibility and control of their sales operations. Pricing policies, which define the pricing method and target margin, can be established based on groups of users or agents. These different user groups can then be assigned to certain regions, industries, or trade-lanes to ensure that the pricing policy is competitive in each market. Also, in the process of building a quotation, temporary rates can be constructed which, upon acceptance of the proposal, can be negotiated as a bullet rate. For pending rate quotes, a new management reporting tool is available to assess the impact of any current or planned change in the underlying rate, for example an announced GRI, and quickly communicate these changes to impacted customers.
"Rate Explorer 10.0 gives my customer service managers an edge when helping our shipper clients understand their routing options and pick a service that meets their required delivery dates and logistics budgets," said John Onorato, Chief Operating Officer of Triton Overseas Transport. "As we move into the peak season, the ability to quickly respond to our customers' ocean freight needs and optimize their shipment plans is invaluable."
"Logistics managers and service providers need better ocean freight optimization technologies to ensure that the cost and service objectives of their business are being met," said John Preuninger, President of Management Dynamics. "This latest release of Rate Explorer offers an unprecedented level of decision support tools to manage this complex mode of transportation."
Add a Comment
No messages on this article yet