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4S eTrans is a scalable & Fexible Freight Mgmt Sol|
- By Sharon Lobo, Dec 24, 2009 1402 hrs IST
- Tags : Umashankar S, 4S eTrans, Logistics, Four Soft,
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Tracking a shipment in transit is one of the most basic expectations of a customer and freight forwarding companies are dependent on the next generation Transportation Management systems that bring in this possibility. Umashankar S, VP-Marketing & Sales, Four Soft, in an interview with Sharon Lobo, explains how 4S eTrans, a web centric Freight Management System benefits logistics operators
Could you give us an overview of Four Soft's solutions and services?
Four Soft Limited, with about 7 years experience in developing and maturing the portfolio of products and services for LSP industry with about 50,000 users from 300 customers using its product across the globe, comes very close to the definition of the perfect IT vendor for TMS (Transportation Management) solutions. It has products that are positioned for each of the sub-verticals of the T&L industry and thus could address the IT requirements of stand-alone players and SME segment. Having said that, its products are also well integrated to perform the end-to-end business flow in getting the cargo moved from suppliers through-3rd party warehousing - custom bonded, export and import managed, freight forwarded, custom cleared and goods delivered at customer's premises with a single system-use-and- feel and thus can meet the business requirements of large corporations that perform integrated 3PL operations.
The product offering addresses the requirements of Freight forwarders in all three modes - Air, Sea and Road - duly integrated to offer multi-modal transaction, Customs brokerage, Contract Logistics and Warehouse Management Systems, transactional flow of Liners/ carriers and NVOCCs, Track and Trace systems of orders and shipments and supply chain needs of Logistic divisions of Large industrial houses. The products are developed in scalable, database-neutral platforms and have interfacing capabilities to legacy and 3rd party applications that the 3PL might already have deployed. The products are configurable to address the business practices of small and large organizations with a focus on reduced implementation cycle. With its major development centres located in India and sales, consulting and project offices located in major countries across the world, the software delivery and support model during pre-sales and post-sales phases is very cost-efficient.
What is 4S eTrans and how does a business benefit from it?
4S eTrans is Four Soft's web centric Freight Management System capable of handling Air, Sea, Road and multi modal transport management services. Built on J2EE platform with a native browser interface, 4S eTrans is designed to provide the modern day logistics operators with operational and financial control over their day to day, order to cash process of the domestic and international freight movements. Equipped with an integrated freight accounting module and interface capabilities with external accounting systems, 4S eTrans provides you a scalable and flexible Freight Management solution.
It's a unique TMS solution that has integrated Finance package and so a typical Tier 2 or Tier 3 customer doesn't need to invest in a separate Financials package. Having said Tier 1 or large corporations that would have a central finance application and other ERP systems can have easy interfaces from 4S eTrans. Its multi currency and multi company transactions support makes it a perfect choice for freight forwarding companies that operate globally. The modern J2EE technology based, web centric architecture makes it scalable and flexible to support dynamically growing business demands. It also has SOA/ Web services enabled and so companies can make best use of IT investments that were already made in existing legacy systems along with 4S eTrans. Track & Trace support and visibility features help customers and suppliers to get to know the status of their cargo with latest update.
In India, how has the adoption of transport management systems been so far and how will it be in future?
In India, IT has grown from the 'basic' level of supporting manually processed operations to the next level of leveraging effects of consolidation and centralized processing - thanks to the growing levels of acquisitions and mergers that are happening in the freight forwarding industry apart from pressure from customers to have systems that help them to access, track & trace their shipments.
Freight forwarding industry's important differentiator is to capitalize the merits of consolidation so as to reduce the effects of fixed costs on a per capita basis per shipments transacted. This is definitely better achieved with advanced TMS systems. Centralized processing of back end operations help splitting customer facing front end operations that directly influence the quality and service levels and TMS systems have proven their worth in realizing this benefit. Tracking a shipment in transit is one of the most basic expectations of a customer and freight forwarding companies are dependent on the next generation TMS systems that bring in this possibility. All three elements directly and positively influence the efficiency of the business.
Two types of spending are happening in the TMS industry globally and in India. One is the replacement market and another is the new sale market. The global majors that have already invested heavily in IT systems are replacing the systems with new technology ERP systems like that of Four Soft. In countries like India and China, with the boom witnessed in industrial activity in the last 10 years and also their becoming global hubs in terms of logistics, many veteran companies that were operating without major IT systems are going for big-bang adoption of ERP systems in one go. In addition, the MNC companies that are setting up shops or allying with partners in India are going in major IT investments now.
In the domestic side, more and more logistic providers from India and West Asia are signing up with Four Soft to use the products and services in customer friendly delivery models. They span from the traditional user based licensing to ASP, software on rentals and SaaS. The services include consulting, providing customer specific software enhancements, implementation, training and support apart from the software.
What is the value proposition Four Soft offers to its customers as compared to competition?
The value proposition for customers from Four Soft comes from many angles. The first is the advanced and web based technology we employ for all our new generation products. It suits the constantly growing operations and size of the logistics industry in terms of scalability at a reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). All that it requires is net access to provide access to employees and trade partners. This takes away so many hassles that are otherwise involved in a typical client-server model. More importantly, it makes the entire supply chain look and behave as one entity by providing information to all the authorized and interested parties simultaneously. This in turn reduces the per-capita costs of document processing to a great extent.
The high usability factor adopted across our products ensures that the navigation trough the applications resembles very closely to the thought process of the individual and adheres to the business process. The high degree of configurability that is built-in ensures that an SME as well as large corporation is able to adjust the business flow in accordance to the magnitude of his operation.
Could you give few examples of how Four Soft's Indian clients have benefited from 4S eTrans?
4S eTrans has benefited each of the Indian customers greatly and uniquely depending on their business processes. Following are some of the common benefits our Indian customers have witnessed by using the product:- Integrated accounts were highly benefited for many of the Indian customers. (Most of Indian customers use eTrans with eAccounts.) This was highly helpful in reconciliation of P&L, visibility of operations to accounts at any point of time.
- Flexible and efficient job accounting functionality.
- Instant and any time job profitability report which helps in profitability analysis. - Information abundant reports like sales registers and purchase register which helps to make strategic/statutory decisions in planning.
- One time data entry which flows across different functions of the business.
- Company level visibility/reporting on the business of each branch.
- Flexibility to handle AR/AP from any branch/corporate regardless of from were it is incurred.
- Period control functionality on the accounts for controlling the back dated entries.
- Capability to enhance to multiple companies of the same group.
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