In an increasingly competitive market where logistics service providers are required to do more with less – or at the very least do more with the same – efficiency and time-saving is of the essence for internal and external processes, says J-L Koekemoer, general manager at Ship-Shape Software.“Lengthy processes for mundane and repetitive tasks have a direct impact on productivity and competitiveness, and thus we are continuously working on optimising different workf lows as new usage patterns emerge. More agents than ever before are now embracing data exchange with their trading partners, often out of necessity because tender requirements for large accounts nowadays seldom go out to market without specific data interfacing, automation and real-time visibility requirements.”According to Koekemoer, these are areas where Ship-Shape is particularly well positioned to add value, having consistently provided end-to-end integration solutions across many areas of some of the largest multinational agents – all the way to some of the smaller players who are very progressive in their utilisation of technology. “Our focus, now more than ever, is on enhanced integration, automation capabilities and improved data visibility.”He says most agents have, for some time, understood that spending on technology is no longer just a “grudge expenditure” on the books. “Business owners realise that to be competitive you don’t just need to use a software system to get a job done, but rather to utilise the system in-depth and as comprehensively as possible to take full advantage of what it has to offer – not only to save time and money, but also add more value for their customers. In addition, we see more revenue authorities, terminal operators, carriers and agents turning to technology such as blockchain solutions to consolidate a historically very fragmented dataset of the supply chain.”Koekemoer says industry has never faced as many changes on as many fronts at the same time as has been the case over the past two years. “We have seen unprecedented change – ranging from the pandemic and civil unrest in July last year, to container shortages, port congestion, currency f luctuations, aggressive turf encroachment by the shipping lines, freight rate volatility and large-scale market consolidations by ambitious behemoths through mergers and acquisitions.”Notwithstanding some commercial entities’ decisions to insource customs brokerage, and in some ignore even the forwarding, says Koekemoer, the reality is that freight forwarding and customs brokerage in particular are still very specialised and nuanced fields.“With many revenue authorities and customs administrations across the world a part of the World Customs Organization (WCO), ramping up the modernisation and optimisation of their systems, processes and legislative frameworks to ref lect a trade landscape that is already very different now from what it was just 10 years ago, agents who actively seek to stay abreast of industry developments and statutory requirements will continue to be in demand. Additional value-add options such as trade finance offerings, f lexible warehouse solutions, and even drawback and refund management will ensure that these agents’ services will remain well sought after,” he says
