How purpose-built technology benefits cargo operations

By leveraging built-for purpose technology, commodity companies can streamline their cargo operations by reducing costs, improving risk management, and increasing their competitiveness in the market.

Day to day, all commodity cargo operations teams use systems and applications to manage their physical portfolio. Often however, these solutions have not been purpose-built to manage the idiosyncrasies of commodity trading. To ensure contractual obligations are met and counterparties are kept happy, these solutions are mish mashed together and asked to perform a range of tasks they were not designed to do.

While this has been adequate to date, cargo management is getting increasingly complicated leading to more duplication, errors and ultimately lost value. The solution is built-for-purpose technology designed with the right features to meet the commodity industry’s specific needs.

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WHAT IS BUILT-FOR-PURPOSE TECHNOLOGY?

The term purpose-built generally refers to software that is specifically designed to meet the needs of a particular industry or profession.

When it comes to commodity companies, cargo operations face a number of industry-specific challenges associated with location (specifically the transportation needed to trade), timing (specifically storage needs), and form (specifically the processing raw commodities need to make them suitable for final delivery, consumption or manufacture). A built-for-purpose software tool will effectively manage these trade idiosyncrasies while protecting a portfolio’s current value, generating additional value and reducing a company’s exposure to risk and human error.

THE ADVANTAGES OF BUILT-FOR-PURPOSE TECHNOLOGY

By using purpose-built tools to manage their cargo operations, commodity companies benefit from a range of advantages, including: 

Better risk management: purpose-built technology provides real-time updates on the location of a cargo. This gives cargo operations teams greater visibility over their portfolio, and allows them to monitor their shipments and optimise their positions by identifying potential delays and problems.

Customisable dashboards: purpose-built technology offers users more relevant and often customisable dashboards. This allows companies to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) related to their cargo operations (data on cargo volumes, shipping times, and delivery locations for example), and enables cargo operations teams to identify areas for improvement and optimise their positions accordingly.

Automated alerts and tasks: purpose-built technology provides automated alerts notifying users of potential risks or deviations from established norms.

Software that monitors cargo movements for example, can provide alerts when a shipment is delayed or deviates from its planned route, which can help cargo operations teams take corrective action to minimise the impact. Likewise, specific key and master tasks can be saved in the system and provide the user with notifications and alerts when deadlines and key dates are approaching.

Easier to use: as purpose-built technology is designed to meet the specific needs of an industry, it’s generally easier and more intuitive to use compared to heavily customised systems, which can be complex and difficult to navigate.

Integration with other systems: purpose-built technology will often integrate with other systems – rather than look to replace your existing software it will slot into your existing data architecture, integrating with existing systems (Lingo, Endure and SAP, for example). This enhances existing systems and updates data across the organisation in real time.

Greater reliability: purpose-built technology is designed to meet the specific needs of an industry or profession, meaning it’s likely to be more reliable and stable than a system that has been extensively customised. Customising a system can introduce bugs and errors, and may also require ongoing maintenance to ensure that it continues to function correctly.

So should companies invest in off-the-shelf built-for-purpose software to manage their commodity cargo operations, or build their own customised solutions internally from scratch? Click here to continue reading.

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THE GLX GARGO SOLUTION

GLX CARGO is next generation software purpose-designed and built to manage all aspects of cargo management in real time.

The software’s modern tech stack and data hierarchy allows it to integrate with all existing systems, updating data across the organisation in real time. This allows commodity companies to better protect their portfolio value, improve value chain efficiency and manage risk more effectively.

GLX CARGO is validated by current leaders in the commodity industry and offers a range of flexible licensing options. To see how GLX CARGO can bring value to your business, get in touch at glxdigital.com.