Purchasing transport services is a critical factor when it comes to saving costs, increasing supply chain efficiency, and delivering better service. To take the headache out of requesting and managing transport and freight tenders, AEB has added new features to its ASSIST4 Transport & Freight Management solution. At the core of the software are comprehensive simulation features that simplify the comparison of competing forwarder tenders, making the process of selecting the right transport partner faster, more transparent, and highly convenient.
How can transport and freight tenders be managed efficiently? How can companies quickly and easily determine the applicable shipping volume? And what’s the simplest way to compare tenders and identify the transport partner that offers the best fit?
The answer to these questions can be found in AEB’s ASSIST4 Transport & Freight Management software, which has now been extended to include features for tender management. The solution helps to request, manage, and evaluate tenders, making it easier to find the right transport partner to meet a company’s specific needs.
A typical scenario for ASSIST4 Transport & Freight Management is the search for regional carriers: The solution helps right from the outset when it comes to negotiating new contracts for one or more transport partners or finding a new service provider. Users can process legacy data from live shipping systems or even enter their own forecasts. This data then forms the basis of the call for tenders and can be saved to separate documents in ASSIST4 Freight for electronic submission to the respective carriers.
One special benefit of ASSIST4 Transport & Freight Management: The software is capable of comparing incoming tenders with different zones, weight scales, price elements, and surcharges – and can generate a ranking of the most attractive proposals at the click of the mouse. The software can break down the results into smaller areas (e.g. country and first digit of postal code) to help the user assess whether it makes sense to split deliveries among multiple carriers. Companies can also use the simulation feature of ASSIST4 Transport & Freight Management to run various scenarios and analyse developments. Which tender is the most cost-effective if certain conditions such as service type or shipping point change, for example, or if a key customer with a large transport volume is factored out?
Another benefit: the solution brings clarity and transparency to the entire tender process. The software lets users store as many documents associated with the tender process as they wish – all in one central location. This means the system tracks and can display the status of any tender at any given time. It’s also easy to identify open tenders or documents, and a search feature helps to locate any document later on.