Drewry launches ocean freight e-procurement tool

The London-based shipping research and consulting firm has begun offering a system to aid shippers’ ocean capacity sourcing events by using historical benchmarking rates.    The shipping research and consulting firm Drewry said Friday it has begun offering a new e-sourcing solution for global ocean transport exporters and importers.
   The product, e-Sourcing Ocean Freight Solution (eSOFS), leverages Drewry’s freight rate benchmarking intelligence and industry expertise with technology intended to bring speed and efficiency to ocean freight sourcing events.
   “Faced with increasingly complex, data-intensive product flows and budgetary constraints, ocean transport logistics managers within multinational retailers and manufacturers have been seeking a more efficient and cost effective process to handle procurement activities,” Drewry said in a statement, saying its e-sourcing tool “optimizes processes and utilizes best practices to ensure optimal carrier and route selection decisions that meet a company’s cost and strategic goals.”
   American Shipper benchmark research into transportation procurement consistently finds that around 40 percent of shippers handle procurement in a manual fashion. Only 15 percent of shippers survey respondents said they use a transportation-specific procurement tool or a procurement module within their transportation management system, according to American Shipper’s 2015 Transportation Procurement Benchmark Study, .
   Most companies using automation in their transportation procurement do so through a hybrid approach of internal systems and some manual processes.
   What’s more, last year’s procurement benchmark study found that only 18 percent of respondents lacking a procurement system have plans to invest in procurement technology in the next two years.
   About half of shippers that don’t use procurement technology say their existing process meets their needs, and roughly 40 percent cited a lack of return on investment from such a system.
   Specific to ocean freight, around 70 percent of shippers said they consider ocean freight procurement to be predominantly a relationship-based business, not a technology-driven one.
   “Unlike the often cumbersome and sometimes inflexible optimization technology previously used in ocean freight tenders, the new technology utilized by eSOFS provides much improved flexibility and usability to ensure that immediate improvements in efficiency and analysis can be realized,” said Chas Deller, a Drewry consultant and former procurement executive with freight forwarder UTi Worldwide.
   In January Drewry’s Supply Chain Advisors began work on its first eSOFS implementation at a U.S. multinational, advising and managing their 2016 ocean freight tender.
   “Increasingly, internal procurement teams are seeking new tools, technology and processes to better manage and measure historical vs. new vs. benchmark rates and take advantage of new opportunities in the marketplace that best meet their organization’s needs and objectives,” said Philip Damas, director of Drewry Supply Chain Advisors, the logistics practice of Drewry.