Brazilian logistics company integrates with seafreight e-commerc platform to reduce costs, streamline operations
Alameda, CA, and Sao Paulo, Brazil — November 2, 2004 — GT Nexus announced today that Transcronos, a provider of import and export trade management and freight logistics services in Brazil, has joined the GTN portal, the industry-backed transaction platform for ocean freight management.
Transcronos went live on GTN in August for electronic processing of bills of lading with ocean carriers. Transcronos said it has reduced the time required to process shipping documents, while improving information quality and eliminating extra fees for manual work by using GTN as a standardized transaction platform.
Transcronos becomes the 26th logistics provider worldwide to go live on the GTN portal for integrated shipment transactions. Brazil is one of the fastest growing geographic regions for GTN.
Prior to joining GTN, Transcronos said it was sending shipping instructions to its ocean carrier partners via e-mail or fax. This process meant that the carriers had to manually re-enter the information into their systems, which was inefficient and prone to errors. Final documents were often late, delaying the tendering of cargoes at the port.
Adopting GTN as its integration hub eliminated the manual data entry, improving document accuracy and speeding transaction processing, according to Vilas Boas, Commercial manager for Transcronos. Now, we use GTN to send an electronic file directly to the ship line. There is no delay between systems, or extra effort to input the information. We are more efficient and can provide our customers with better service.
Vilas noted that Transcronos' principal export customers are many of the world's largest industrial manufacturers who have major operations in Brazil. GTN helps Transcronos step up to the needs of these global customers, who require advanced e-commerce capabilities and reliable electronic information from their logistics providers.
John Urban, president of GT Nexus, noted that one of the keys to growth for cargo portals and their emergence as network utilities for the industry is flexible and responsive integration capability. Every forwarder or 3PL has different systems and unique technical requirements, he explained. Our strategy as a portal has to be flexible, giving each customer the integration path most appropriate for their business.
In the case of Transcronos, GTN deployed an integration solution that starts with an electronic flat file, received by GTN from the Transcronos legacy system with all the necessary data for a bill of lading. GTN's integration engine then converts the file, maps it into a standardized electronic data interchange (EDI) message, and sends that directly into the ship line's back-office system. The ship line uses the same transmission backbone and integration software to return an electronic confirmation to Transcronos. Data transmission is automated and managed by GT Nexus as the hosted service provider. Re-keying of information and the problems of reconciling data in multiple systems is eliminated.
Transcronos said the platform enables it to reduce costs, since transactions are processed faster and more accurately through an automated, electronic system. In addition, the company is able to avoid document surcharges, which are levied by carriers when shippers or forwarders send hard-copy documents.
