White Papers

The global economy has changed forever. As freight prices and demand soar, you’ll need an innovative payment solution that can keep up with your growth. That’s where Melio comes in.

You need a reliable, secure business payment solution that scales with you. Melio is built for businesses like yours. Melio gives you a flexible way to pay and get paid. You pay how you want, your vendor gets paid how they want.

Melio is the innovative solution set to help businesses succeed beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Want to know more?

Online retail sales jumped 40% from 2019 to 2020 amidst significant supply chain disruption, marking a permanent shift in consumer buying behavior at a time when global supply chains are strained and slow. Now, many retailers are realizing their supply chain and sourcing operations are not flexible or resilient enough to support omnichannel fulfillment.

As global markets continue to recover from the impact of the last 18 months, the global freight and shipping market itself is in the middle of a unique and challenging situation. All adding significant pressure and focus on global logistics players at a time of need.

 

At ECU Worldwide, our processes, services, and global infrastructure have allowed us to deliver innovative solutions to keep pace with growing global demands, even through the most challenging situations.

To select the best platform for you, it’s essential to get these 15 questions answered first to make sure that it’s a solution that can scale with you, properly support you, and provide you with what you need to achieve your goals.

Supply chain and logistics teams are seeking ways to build robust transportation budgets to help their business to adapt to more pandemic headwinds.

While 2020 saw unprecedented market swings, capacity imbalances may continue as the recovery boosts some sectors more than others - making flexibility and contingency planning even more essential to your budgeting process.

As you refine your strategy, building variability into your budget can position your business for success. Download the DAT iQ budgeting eBook to learn how leading transportation and logistics teams are approaching variable budgets and implementing best practices to solve for uncertainty in 2021.

It’s time to tackle yard waste – the sort of costly and time-consuming inefficiencies that happen at the loading and unloading docks at warehouses, distribution centers, retail outlets, and myriad facilities around the world that receive and send out goods. We’re talking bottlenecks that prevent smooth movement of trucks in and out, long lines for pick up or delivery, and unclear protocols that leave drivers and warehouse staff confused and frustrated.

Finish strong. A frequently-used motto in the health and fitness industry. For NordicTrack, the motto is not only heard when customers are coming to the end of a virtual exercise class, it’s also on display daily through the last mile delivery of its fitness equipment to homes across the country.

 

Cross-border trade is set to skyrocket as nearshoring becomes more common for manufacturers post-pandemic. Smart and responsive cross-border order management and supply chain strategies are needed to navigate the process.

Why are agile freight procurement teams so successful? A study by McKinsey found that they were more resilient to market disruptions, even though their supply chains were leaner than non-agile teams.

This brand new whitepaper has everything you need to know about agile freight procurement and how you can roll it out at your business.

The highest level of service at the best possible rate. That’s the goal as you’re procuring transportation. How do you know you’re hitting that goal? You can use internal analytics, conduct bids, or reference external benchmarks. Our preferred approach is a hybrid of all three: combining analysis of your own service requirements and carrier performance metrics with benchmarks on rates, capacity, and volume to compare your freight network to the broader market.

Request your copy of “Winning is Knowing” to see how leading-edge business intelligence tools can help you see a complete view of the freight markets, adequately plan and budget for your procurement cycles, and serve your business objectives.

The 5 best strategies to overcome the challenges of container shipping management: A Complete Guide

Import and export are extremely complex environments to manage for any industry. It requires detailed planning and critical execution, involving multiple partners, in different time zones, with various expertises. These challenges often result in a supply chain that is fractured. Cluttered information, poor decision-making, and miscommunication are some of the many obstacles that stand in the way of a smooth, free-flowing supply chain. Surprisingly, these barriers are unnecessary and are easily avoided, with the right tools and strategy that is.

Continue reading to discover the 5 best strategies in the industry on how to overcome these barriers and get your logistics running like a well-oiled machine.

When it comes to shipping high-value loads, security is the priority, so ensuring products arrive on time and safely - and that they are protected from pilferage and theft - is key. The whitepaper breaks down how you stay ahead of business trends such as:

· Increased Global Security Requirements
· Digital Transformation
· Outsourcing
· Increasingly Complex Supply Chains

Download this whitepaper to learn how an end-to-end supply chain integrity solution can result in real ROI for your business.

From governmental regulations, port strikes, extreme weather events and more, network optimization models can provide the decision support needed to ensure agility (and possibly cost avoidance) when you need it most. Optimization models serve both strategic and tactical purposes for business planning situations across various supply chains. To strengthen your supply chain’s resistance to unforeseen events and better prepare for unplanned opportunities, consider building and maintaining a model to help your business manage through disruptive events that happen all too often. To read more please click here

The white paper demonstrates how the strategic use of an Ocean Freight Tracking System (OFTS) can drive tangible business benefits. In doing so, we will show how buyers, whether Forwarders or BCOs, can determine how they should measure the return on investment of deploying an OFTS.

Specifically, five key areas will be covered:

1. Free time optimization to reduce demurrage and detention charges
2. Carrier rate negotiation
3. Inventory management
4. Supply chain and shipping network optimization
5. The use of employee time to focus efforts on more value-added activities

Understand how marketplace structures can improve freight utilization rates and promote supply chain sustainability

Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet-of-things sensing and blockchain are transforming supply chains, automating processes and making companies more responsive to market demand signals. Yet, capacity utilization and lack of transparency is still a major challenge, which comes at a cost to consumers and the environment. How can capital markets controls, technology capabilities and models help to alleviate these pains?

Through innovative application of proven capital markets structures, shipping and logistics organizations can transform their operations leveraging:

• Implementation of proven matching models fit for complex markets

• Creation of electronic order books

• Application of blockchain and smart contracts

• Data provenance solutions

To learn more about how these structures, and technologies that enables them, can help to improve price discovery, transparency, optimize capacity utilization rates, reduce complexity and achieve better sustainability, download our whitepaper here.

Why is Nasdaq Technology in Shipping & Logistics?

 

Nasdaq’s mission-critical technology is road-tested in some of the world’s most demanding markets. Through its B2B commercial arm, Nasdaq is bringing proven capabilities in speed, resiliency and complex data management beyond capital markets to enable new business models, create growth opportunities and fuel innovation. Visit our website to learn more or contact us.

How quickly does my product need to get from the port to its final destination? How far is the final destination from port? What mode of transportation do I actually need to balance time and expense? Are there providers who can ‘do it all’ so that I don’t have to worry?

Supply chains are layered with complexity; there are many factors to consider when selecting a shipping provider that can undoubtedly have an impact on the success of your business. So, let’s dig in.

There are the basics of due diligence when selecting a provider for any need. In transportation, your questions of a provider may be something like this … Do you have capacity and multi-modal capabilities? How long have you been in business and can you provide me with references? Will you be able to provide me with the visibility to the goods that my business requires? Do you have a history of good security practices?

To read more please click here!

It can be difficult enough to manage the “everyday” risks to your supply chain, but actually getting ahead of and dealing with larger crises can seem near impossible. With everything that’s happened recently, we’ve all learned an important lesson in that it’s paramount to be prepared for the absolute worst-case scenario.

 

Yet many companies still aren’t. In fact:

43% of 142 companies, ranging from consumer goods to healthcare, reported that their supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions 55% of those companies have no documented contingency plans 38% of 247 companies acknowledged that they have too much unmanaged supply chain risk

Thankfully, there are ways to deal with maintaining supply chain continuity in a dire scenario, as well as solutions for how to anticipate and minimize future disruptions.

 

The Playbook for Supply Chain Continuity in a Crisis covers:

What you can do now How to prepare for a crisis with comprehensive contingency planning Anticipating and managing risk with a supply chain integrity platform

Be prepared for the “everyday” risks, as well as bigger disruptions by downloading your playbook today.

Before the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down, companies with global supply chains were decreasing manufacturing and shipping times with just-in-time production. Globalization was operating at full steam and businesses were sourcing supplies from all over the world.

 

When coronavirus hit, business shutdowns and international travel restrictions disrupted supply chains. Now, the businesses that are open are fighting tooth and nail to keep supply chains intact. To survive, they must optimize for the current environment and mitigate significant risks. “How to build a pandemic-proof global supply chain” offers insights for navigating this new landscape.

 

This white paper also provides information about different business models, including insourcing, outsourcing, multi-sourcing, offshoring, and nearshoring. And since no discussion about supply chains would be complete without mention of China, “How to build a pandemic-proof global supply chain” devotes a whole section to this topic alone. Still, the most valuable material may be the suggestions for securing offshore supply lines. Download this white paper to learn how to build resilient supply chains that can weather any storm.

As we navigate the uncharted waters presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear - our collective role in the international transportation business has never been more crucial than it is now. Ensuring a seamless global supply chain is paramount.

 

As the landscape of our business shifts – and it is changing almost on a daily basis – we must not only adapt to meet these changes, but also try wherever possible to anticipate them. “The ability to switch gears is key at the moment. In order to mold ourselves to the flow of the market and to meet our customers’ changing needs, we need to be able to react quickly, modifying and enhancing our products so that they are fit for new purpose” says Klaus Jepsen, Group CEO for Shipco Transport, one of the world’s leading neutral NVOCC’s. Click here to view.

 

The digital evolution has created a dramatic surge in the quantity of business data, providing tremendous opportunities to gain valuable insight into processes that can improve organizational efficiency and performance. However, much of this data resides in silos, limiting the ability to readily access this information and achieve a holistic view of operational efficiency.

Without a unified location to house multi-sourced data, businesses are resigned to time-consuming, manual processes to compile information and attempt to extract value. With a rich history of providing customers with data analytics services, Versiant, a leading managed services provider, offers a digital enhancement to its existing services. Powered by Microsoft technologies, Versiant Data Analytics as a Service provides a centralized, cloud-based data warehouse that empowers enterprise with greater agility, increased analytics and reporting proficiency, and standardized access with unifying data definitions. Driving businesses’ transformational journeys to data, DAaaS provides critical insights into key performance indicators to promote growth and increase competitive advantage.

To read more click here.

LANXESS, a global specialty chemicals supplier, selected Odyssey Logistics & Technology to track multiple assets for four business units that provide products across 33 countries.

THE CHALLENGE

References to control towers generally conjure up images of tall buildings lurking in the middle of airports, filled with air traffic controllers hovering over numerous radar screens to ensure every aircraft departs and arrives safely. While there may not be a physical “tower,” a supply chain and logistical control tower works in a similar fashion, providing visibility across multiple operations, assets and services. When LANXESS was challenged with managing a variety of assets across multiple partners and countries such as ocean containers, rail cars or ISO tanks, its team turned to Odyssey to help track these resources.

To read more click here!

 

STRENGTHEN YOUR STRATEGY WITH INTERMODAL

Amid mounting disruptions to the transportation industry, now is the time for shippers to both diversify shipping strategies and lock in relationships with strategic intermodal carriers.

Read this guide to learn about the mounting disruptions to consider when planning your transportation strategy and how to:

• Increase on-time delivery and reliability with intermodal carriers experienced in precision-scheduled railroading (PSR)
• Secure reliable intermodal equipment and driver capacity by using asset-based intermodal carriers
• Work with intermodal carriers prepared to comply with upcoming industry regulatory changes, such as the ELD mandate, the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse and Assembly Bill
• The importance of developing strategic relationships with intermodal carriers to obtain long-term benefits for cost, capacity and service

Click here to download

Online freight transportation procurement tools offer the opportunity to untangle the current mess around the less-than-truckload and truckload bidding process. When looking for carriers in a bid for transportation sourcing, shippers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) should focus on improving the accuracy of their data before submitting, leveraging technology to catch and correct common mistakes. In addition, stakeholders must move the transportation request for proposal (RFP) process beyond spreadsheets and embrace online platform possibilities to competitively manage the complexity of multiple bids, streamline resources, and maximize choice and flexibility. Click Here to view.

“Trade wars are good, and easy to win.” With those fateful words, uttered by President Trump in March 2018, the US government embarked on a prolonged conflict that will have lasting conse­quences not just for the economies of the US, but also for China and the global trading community. Over the course of two months this summer and fall, the JOC interviewed numerous industry stakeholders, economists, and other experts about the lasting impact the trade war has had on supply chains that, in some cases, were decades in the making. Whether an agreement is reached in the short term or not, manufacturing and transportation networks have changed in ways that will continue to play out for years. Read how in the wide-ranging JOC whitepaper.

Some steamship lines advise shippers of heavy freight to limit container weight to 44,000 pounds or even less to remain within so-called “legal” limits.

Shippers who abide by this guidance could be shipping 25% more containers a year than needed – andpaying for the privilege.

This eBook from I.C.E. Transport explains how heavy freight shippers can unlock a six-figure savings opportunity. You'll learn:

• What are the true weight limits for container freight?

• Why are land side services the key to ocean freight savings?

• How are other importers shipping smarter for big savings?

Download the eBook to learn the ins and outs of efficient ocean shipping of heavyweight and over-sized freight.

By pulling the collective resources of the members to provide intermodal chassis, NACPC is able to offer at-cost pricing, which provides trucking companies significant savings compared to the competition.