GT Nexus standardizes shipment invoice information

GT Nexus standardizes shipment invoice information Oakland-based trade software developer GT Nexus said Wednesday its on-demand portal now offers carriers, shippers and logistics companies a completely standardized format to process ocean and air freight invoices.
   The portal essentially translates the invoices produced in companies various system into a common language. GT Nexus said this fills the gap that the industry is seeking in terms of standardization of data.
   “The explosive rise in transportation costs has made freight spend management a priority,” the company said in a statement. “But automating the audit and payment process has proven difficult — if not impossible — for most companies because the data feeds from transportation service providers are so wide ranging in format and data quality. There is no standard.”
   Andy Stinnes, vice president of products and strategy at GT Nexus, said the industry should not hold its breath for one format to be developed and universally used.
   “There has long been the notion of getting all carriers to adhere to one standard, one format,” he said. “That is a pipe dream. It is na've to assume an entire global industry would conform to a single universal standard. GT Nexus allows carriers to provide data in whatever format and taxonomy they prefer — and then we standardize it. Our internal standard can then easily be mapped back into whatever format a customer’s internal system requires.”
   In making an announcement this week, GT Nexus said its trade and logistics portal “now supports the open standards of service-oriented architecture, providing Web service-based access to industry-standard ocean and air freight invoices.”
   Service-oriented architecture, or SOA, allows different applications and programs to exchange information.
   Some of GT Nexus’ customers, which number more than 15,000 and include carriers and shippers, lauded the system.
   “The portal has proven to be an effective way to get accurate billing information quickly to multiple customers,” said John Gurrad, vice president of business planning at MOL America, in a statement.
   “Without a pragmatic, proven approach to standardizing the data that logistics partners rely on, no supply chain process can truly be automated,” said Alan Chester, vice president of global transportation at Williams Sonoma Inc., in a statement. “GT Nexus continues to build on its technology foundation, and the industry continues to reap the rewards.”