Hamburg: Ever larger boxships are exerting enormous stress on containerlines’ back-office operations, says the boss of one of the top liner software firms.
Thomas Wolff, executive director of Germany’s Softship tells Maritime CEO, “Larger vessels require a greater level of automation and the pressure on back-office activities associated with larger vessels is beginning to escalate.”
Booking clerks are required to close a larger vessel within the same time-period associated with smaller ships, Wolff says, although they will have up to 50% more consignments to process.
“This means that an already over-stretched office is required to process many more bookings, documents, invoices, container releases and customs declarations within a very tight timeframe,” Wolff says.
This is already impacting negatively on customer service according to a recent industry survey where accuracy of invoices and the issuing of timely bills of lading were pinpointed as recurring problems.
To manage this additional workload the carrier has, what Wolff describes as “a stark choice” – employ more staff or introduce efficiencies into the system.
Softship’s two primary software suites – LIMA for carriers and ALFA for agents – deliver automation for a number of the core processes required by liner operators and agents. These include bookings, sales, scheduling, contracts and documentation. Recently, Softship has reached agreement with a financial software house – Comarch Financials Enterprise – to form a partnership that will link its customer-facing software with a comprehensive back-office financial package.
“This has never been done before and means that soon we will be able to offer a streamlined sales-to-accounting system for all global carriers and their agents,” says the software boss.
Wolff is clear that present economics for liners are very difficult.
“The current markets for liner shipping are extremely tough,” he says. “Margins are paper-thin and carriers must make efficiencies and cost savings wherever they can.”
Founded in 1989, Softship’s software has been installed in more than 120 companies across the world. Its software products are designed to streamline and deliver efficiencies to the many processes that comprise liner shipping as well as providing a range of business management tools that allow shipping executives to fully analyse their commercial and operational activities. [25/03/13]
