More than ever before, ClearMetal is helping shippers differentiate the customer experience they provide in the supply chain, largely through our supplier and customer portal. While ClearMetal first began by offering global visibility for exception management and then expanded with dynamic transport planning for improved freight procurement and gains in on-this-day delivery (OTD), the importance for shippers to differentiate through a digital customer experience has only been growing.
It was for this reason that we developed our CDX Connect Portal that provides procurement teams with inbound visibility from suppliers and sales teams using a portal that enables customers to self-serve by receiving real-time status of orders and shipments in transit, globally. Today this is being used on the order of tens of thousands of times, enabling consignees to gain the reliable service expected from suppliers and enabling shippers to differentiate by providing the digital experience customers expect.
The value is tremendous as we see companies actually keep less buffer stock and shift order volumes based on supplier reliability, as well as retain revenue in a competitive and zero-sum market — not to mention seeing an increase in ratings from their customers based on the unprecedented digital experience they’re providing downstream.
Capacity will continue to be tight into 2021, no doubt. Shippers should be doing two things.
First, they should equip themselves with dynamic transport planning capabilities so that, rather than setting promise dates and procuring freight based on outdated transit tables, data intelligence can be used to determine the optimal mode, carrier, and routing for reliable delivery to customers and to procure freight more flexibly.
Second, shippers should provide their customers with portals that display real-time and accurate status of shipments in transit, so that even if shipments are delayed due to capacity constraints, customers are aware, benefiting from this enhanced experience, and self-serving (versus burdening logistics and customer service teams asking, “Where’s my stuff?”). ClearMetal offers its CDX Transport Planning and Customer Portal applications, respectively, to solve customer demands despite network capacity.