Archive for the ‘cost savings’ Category

Two way SMS can reduce cost of customer enquiry

Monday, August 8th, 2011

If a branch receives 1000 calls per month on enquiries and each call lasts for approximately 2 minutes, a total of 2000 minutes (34 hours) of an employee can be saved by using the two way sms feature. 34 hours account to almost 17% of the employee’s overall work duration per month. That means financial equivalent of 17% (17% of the salary) is saved or this saved time can be used for other productive purposes. Considering the approximate salary as Rs. 10,000 per month, the savings will be Rs 1700 per branch per month. If the company has 50 branches, the approximate savings will be Rs. 85,000 per month and the annual savings will touch Rs 10,20,000/-

SA-FMS has been providing SMS notification facility to the clients using which the status of the consignment will be sent to the concerned person when it is booked, despatched and delivered. Now we have moved a step further with a two-way sms feature for our logistic software clients’ customers.

With this feature, the consignor / consignee can send the waybill number as SMS to a given number, and the last status of the consignment will be sent back. For a consignment that has been booked, the SMS will have the details including consignment number, source and destination, booking date and booking time. If the consignment has been dispatched, a response will be the sent to the SMS which will have the consignment number, source and destination, dispatch date and dispatch time. If the SMS is sent for a consignment which has been delivered at the destination, the reply will be sent back with the consignment number, destination and the delivery date.

This feature reduces the workload of the employees, as the consignor / consignee will be able to know the status by sending SMS from his mobile phone. They don’t need to call the respective branches for knowing the status of the consignment. The accurate information hence increases the customer satisfaction as well as a reduced workload for the employees.


SA-FMS is powered by Software Associates, the pioneer among the logistics software companies

Operational costs and pricing pressure in logistics industry

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

The recent diesel fuel price hike has considerably increased the operational and other costs incurred by the freight logistics firms. A hike of 3 rupee per litre on diesel fuel will increase the operating expenses considerably as most of the full load trucks have a fuel economy of 4 to 7 kilometres per litre.

A 30 MT truck that has a fuel efficiency of 5 kilometres per litre will now have an additional expense of .60 rupee per kilometre with the new diesel price. Consider a truck that covers 500 kilometres a day. The fuel price hike will bring in an additional cost of Rs. 300 per day. If there are 50 such trucks for the firm, the total additional cost per day shoots up to Rs. 15,000. This in turn produces as monthly value of Rs 450,000/-. Thereby the approximate annual operating cost goes up by Rs. 54,00,000/-. The hike will also affect the companies those hire trucks from outside. The rate for hiring the trucks will be increased by the truck owners and this will again cause a burden to the transport firms.

From the past trends, it is evident that the price of the diesel fuel will keep on rising and in near future we can expect the diesel price touching the 65 rupee per litre mark and the petrol price reaching Rs 100 per litre. With the series of hikes happening and the huge amount of additional cost incurring, the best way to improve your profits is by simplifying back office operations, reducing the cost of serving customer etc, and here, SA-FMS ERP advantage pays off with its cost saving benefits for freight and logistics industry.

Some features of SA-FMS include:

  • Incorporates best practices in Freight Logistics industries
  • Excellent controls for accounting and inventory to avoid pilferage
  • On time and within budget implementation practices
  • ERP with guaranteed return on investment (ROI) through operational efficiencies
  • Time tested ERP solution for large and small freight logistics companies

INR 100 = USD 2.2

Multi lingual help for logistics software

Monday, June 27th, 2011

SA-FMS freight logistics ERP solution has successfully completed over 750 installations for clients all over India. Implementation works were completed at these locations and proper training  provided to the staff by the well equipped SA-FMS team based on the professionally crafted training program. However there were concerns raised by few staff from some branches about a training kit in Hindi, which will make it easier for them to understand the product in a better manner.

As a part of that, a knowledge base was added by the SA-FMS team which explained various operations and modules in SA-FMS in Hindi. It was integrated with a flash demo which shows various operations that can be performed with the freight logistics system. The Knowledge base is accessible online and we received  feedback and suggestions to add more “how to” attributes

Ravi Chand, booking staff of Bhilwara branch of one of our clients said, “The Hindi help system with visual demo has helped us to train the new staff. They are able to understand the operations easily as the description is provided in Hindi. This helps them in self learning and in understanding the logistic ERP management software quickly. Moreover a senior staff is not required to train the new staff, as the file explains every basic process in detail and shows it visually.”

We have been receiving similar responses from many of our clients about the knowledge base. As part of providing the best services and benefits to our clients, we are committed to move ahead with additional languages and functionalities which will indeed help us to reach better heights.

Freight logistics ERP – end user perspective

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Joseph hails from an ordinary family who did not want to continue their traditional job of farming. He completed his pre-degree and went in search of some job which will satisfy his interests. After sending a series of application into various firms, he got a job in the Bangalore office of XYZ Roadways, an established transport and logistics firm, at the age of 19. It has been 31 years now since Joseph joined XYZ.

Being office staff, their clerical works mainly included handling receipts, registers, accounts etc, with a lot of files piled up. As the organization grew, the staff also had to be prepared for the growth from grass root level. It included partial change in their work process with the aid of computers.

Years later, the management decided to improve the process and minimize the workflow. For this, they decided to computerise the entire process and implement logistics management system. As a result, the earlier version of SA-FMS, the logistic management system  was introduced to XYZ. Joseph was much concerned and worried about this step, as many employees including him were not computer savvy. He had a feeling that computers may take up his job and he may become jobless. He was concerned about his work efficiency, once the logistic management software is implemented. He was also concerned about how difficult his further work would be with the transport software.

The change was not that smooth. Freight logistics software was implemented and computers became a part of their work-life. But ERP had all the processes simplified in place, interconnections between all the branches and a delivery tracking software.

There were many anxiety reasons for the staff. Reluctance towards a new technology they think they cannot master, confusions about what can be done by computers and what cannot be done etc. SA-FMS and XYZ management took care in handling the issue by giving training and support to the staff. The effort involved was mainly in dealing with the mind block of the staff. Once it was solved Joseph and his colleagues realized that the logistics management software had all the simplifications for a layman to work on it with mere common sense and organization knowledge. The staff was able to accustom gradually to the system. They realized that there is a considerable amount of time saved. There was no more a delay in communication between the departments and no question about updated information.

SA-FMS underwent several version changes and each time it evolved into a better version which makes tasks simpler for the employees.  Joseph has worked with all these versions and he is very much impressed with the system. According to him, “SA-FMS is very user friendly. I have not been trained in computers and I’m 50 years old. I don’t find any difficulty to use SA-FMS. The colors used are optimum, without causing much strain to the eyes. The interface is well designed and the sorted menu on the left side of the screen helps to select each function from the particular module.” Now Joseph is proficient in the software and he is able to clear the clarifications of his colleagues. He even provides the software training to the new employees hired. SA-FMS indeed has also improved his computer knowledge and he has started using various other features in computers including e-mail, web browsing, word, excel etc.

Freight logistics workshop @ Bangalore

Friday, April 8th, 2011
FMS

Dear all

We are pleased to invite you to the first of our series of workshops on cost savings and operational efficiencies for door to door cargo movers,sundry cargo operators and express parcel services in freight logistics industries having 25 – 400 branch operations. The workshop is designed for business owners and senior managers.

Date : 30th April 2011

Venue : Pai Viceroy, JC Road, Bangalore, India

Timings : 11 am to 1:30 pm followed by lunch

Agenda

  • Welcome address – Mr. Sunil Sharma, MD, Sharma Transports, Bangalore
  • Freight logistics industry – Indian trends, Mr Shekhar Sheetanshu, NITC SoMS
  • Cost reduction in Logistics industry – Duleep Sahadevan, Director, Software Associates
  • Improving customer satisfaction – Remil Rashid, VP Marketing, Software Associates
  • Management Information using SA-FMS – Manoj Kumar, Product manager, Software Associates
  • Vote of thanks

Prior registration is mandatory to attend this event. Send in your name, organisation, email ID and contact number to sa-fms@softwareassociates.co.in or call 0984 778 2246 for confirmation. Hurry. limited seats available.

 

 

 

 

 

Logistics software – Truck route planning

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

A major concern faced by the freight logistics firms is the transshipment operations. It incurs hidden as well as direct costs due to lack of proper planning. Transshipment is the shipment of parcels or containers to an intermediate destination, and then from there to one or more destinations, applicable to transport companies that follow a hub and spoke model. Without a proper trans-shipment planning system, the organization will incur higher costs  The major issues that arise as a result of improper trans-shipment planning include

  • Delay in delivery
  • Extra distance covered
  • Additional fuel cost
  • Wastage of time
  • Wrong delivery of parcels
  • Part delivery of consignments
  • Consignment re routing
  • Breakages and theft
  • Regulatory hassles at border crossing
  • Loss of business reputation

SA-FMS Freight logistics ERP solution has a route planner which helps to set an optimal route when there are multiple destinations to be covered in a single trip. This helps in reducing unwanted costs.

SA-FMS also offer ogdopus, an android smartphone based routing system that takes the pain away in the last mile of the delivery system

SMS for logistics tracking software

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Lets face facts. Freight logistics industry today faces stiff pricing competition due to lack of service differentiation, and often squeezed by rising fuel prices, higher operating costs etc. One of the constant thoughts of the owner would be on how to raise the service levels to customers without increasing the cost of servicing.

Imagine having regional offices in 10 locations, serving 200 plus branches and an agency network in tier 2 and 3 cities across the country, effectively utilising a central goods control system to monitor the overall activities of  freight logistics business.

SMS technology provides simple, easy to use and low cost ways to provide consignment and related business information to customers, agents and business partners on standard GSM phones.

We have implemented these technologies for clients in Freight Logistics and Healthcare industries to provide information on demand services to assist their business eco system, thus enabling speedy and affordable information flow using existing IT infrastructure.

Supervisory information

  • Critical alerts on daily collections
  • Trip delays
  • Customer complaints

Customer benefits

  • Status of consignments
  • Branch location information

Branch / Agent benefits

  • Status of the consignment
  • Confirmation of delivery
  • Tracking report at each transshipment
  • Promotional messages / Policy alerts
  • Account balances and payment reminders

SMS technology can help freight logistics companies lower the cost of servicing customers, offer higher levels of service to help beat competition.

Ten reasons to install SA-FMS software for freight

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Freight logistics erp suite, india. africa, middle East, Mumbai, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu

  • Incorporates best practices in Freight Logistics industries
  • Excellent controls for accounting and inventory to avoid pilferage
  • Hybrid offline / online technology to assist in business continuity
  • On time and within budget implementation practices
  • Software with guaranteed return on investment (ROI) through operational efficiencies
  • Time tested for large and small freight logistics companies
  • Management Information System to aid informed decision making
  • Range of modules to choose from to buy as you grow
  • Choice of on premise installation and rental models
  • Open source technology with no hidden cost on system software

Logistics Software India – Backed by a 20 year old organisation with superior support and product engineering skills. Availabie in India, Africa and the Middle East

Jai Bharat Roadlines chooses SA-FMS

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Jai Bharat Roadlines, a fast growing transport company based at Western transport hub Mumbai, shown their confidence on SA-FMS  to accelerate their growth. Headed by Mr.V.K Gopinath with 10 operating branches in Maharashtra & south India, selected SA-FMS logistics software to improve their parcel services and making "Express Delivery" as their core-competency.

Growing your business is a matter of choice and if you are keen to take the challenging route, we bring the required skills and resources to help you modernise your logistics business, formulate organization vision, mission and recipes for a scalable business model.

Logistics Software for Bombay Carriers

Monday, August 16th, 2010

We are pleased to announce the acquisition of our new client for SA-FMS, The Tirupur (Tamilnadu) based logistics provider operates in niche area of hosiery and textiles, intends to use the Logistics suite to enable them reduce operations costs, centralised monitoring of goods traffic, higher management control and to broaden scale of operations across geographic boundaries. The client has offices at Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and Mumbai

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