Parsippany, NJ—Oct. 30, 2013—INTTRA, a large multi-carrier e-commerce network for ocean shipping, announced its strategic vision to help the ocean shipping industry excel in a new era of supply chain shipment visibility defined by accessible, quality data for shippers of all sizes. The vision taps the strengths of INTTRA’s vast collaborative network—connecting shippers and carriers across the globe—to ensure information is shared accurately, consistently and in a timely manner.
According to the KPMG Global Manufacturing Outlook—Competitive Advantage: Enhancing Supply Chain Networks for Efficiency and Innovation report, only 9 percent of today’s logistics professionals have complete visibility into their supply chains, due to the lack of access to quality data and a reliance on manual processes. Moreover, with quality data typically available to only the largest global shippers, many logistics professionals remain without effective supply chain shipment visibility, resulting in inefficient processes and information gaps.
“By offering easy access to our expansive set of container status events, we aim to help ocean shippers gain measurable improvements in the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of their data, so it can serve as a valuable asset for improving business results,” said Ken Bloom, CEO of INTTRA.
Vision for Visibility
To improve supply chain shipment visibility—with quality data at its core—INTTRA is executing on a strategic vision comprised of three initiatives:
- A new supply chain shipment visibility solution. The new solution, available in early 2014, can give shippers and freight forwarders access to data from INTTRA’s ocean carrier network and ultimately include optional data sources, such as U.S. rail and trucking. It can enable large volumes of timely container event information to be obtained, viewed and analyzed to improve the shipment delivery process, and enhance decision-making and logistics management.
- Strategic agreement. INTTRA recently announced an agreement with Kewill, a global provider of multimodal transportation management software, to bring together its multi-carrier shipping network with Kewill’s supply chain visibility software to form this new offering, so Kewill’s technologies underlie INTTRA’s new supply chain shipment visibility solution.
- A comprehensive shipment information quality program. This program was created for the ongoing analysis of data quality on INTTRA’s network of ocean carriers and driving sustainable quality enhancements, which provides carriers with a systematic approach for gauging the timeliness, accuracy and completeness of container status events, and helping them collaborate with shippers to pinpoint improvement areas.
“Like all shipments—data should be delivered correctly and on time,” said Erik den Ouden, the director of global IT at JF Hillebrand (a member of the INTTRA Product Advisory Council). “By prioritizing data quality, INTTRA enables JF Hillebrand and the ocean shipping community to target a critical issue head-on: the need to exceed customer expectations in a real-time world. The carrier connections enabled by INTTRA will help us easily access the quality data we need in a timely manner to keep customer satisfaction rising, and do so across a larger portion of our addressable market.”
New Supply Chain Visibility Solution
With the industry’s most extensive network of carriers, INTTRA offers a view into 34 percent of the world’s container shipment movements, according to the company. This can provide users of INTTRA’s new supply chain shipment visibility solution a complete look at supply chain data, enabling shippers to anticipate delays and respond quickly to changes. It also can enable carriers and shippers to use large volumes of data for analyzing business factors, such as shipping volumes across many carriers and shipping performance metrics.