UK and international freight-forwarding and shipping company BIL Logistics has adopted a Mandata Cloud TMS to help broaden the range of services it can provide to its customers, and prepare itself for new business wins.
The family-run organisation, which regards itself as a “small business for the big businessman” has been operating from its base in the Midlands for over 25 years, providing its services to a varied client-base, which includes a number of Blue Chip automotive and manufacturing companies.
Before adopting its Mandata Cloud TMS, BIL Logistics’ operation was managed by a bespoke TMS, however, a lack of visibility across systems, and time-consuming manual processes eventually pushed management at the firm to start looking for alternative solutions.
Sales Director at BIL Logistics, Sarah Marley said:
“Because our previous system was bespoke to us, all of the development work had to be prompted by me asking for it. There was a lot of manual intervention involved, which wasted a lot of time.”
“One of the biggest draws of Mandata’s system for us was the way it could increase visibility across our operations by integrating our different systems together, providing us with just one system with which to manage the whole business.”
Despite only going live with its Mandata Cloud TMS in early July, BIL Logistics has already established a unique way of working with the system which allows its staff to plan jobs for the company’s fleet of road vehicles, but also for its international air and sea freight operations too.
“It’s still very early days, and we’re still learning and tweaking and changing things, but luckily, the system is really adaptable, so it’s working well for us,” Sarah said.
“By using the different Traffic Pads within the TMS, we’ve been able to figure out a way of using the system which allows us to manage all of our jobs from one place. Our systems were all quite disjointed before, so it’s a big step forward.”
Aside from the difference the Mandata Cloud TMS has made to BIL Logistics’ operational visibility, staff at the firm have also noticed a considerable reduction in the amount of time it takes for them to gain access to business data and KPI’s.
“The entire switchover to the Mandata system has been a time-saving exercise really,” Sarah said.
“Because we only had manual reporting before, the automated reporting functionality in the TMS has been a huge benefit. By having all of our data stored in one place, we can extract the information we need, and run any additional reports we want really quickly, it’s brilliant.”
Going forwards, BIL Logistics intends to expand the functionality of its TMS even further by incorporating Mandata’s ePOD module for capturing proof of delivery details electronically, and Mandata’s Web Services module to allow its customers to book jobs and access their POC and POD information online.
“As a business, BIL Logistics is an independent, forward-thinking, ever-growing company that always strives to go the extra mile for its customers,” Sarah said.
“Our Mandata TMS has helped us to broaden the range of services we can provide to both new and existing clients, and is effectively helping us to take our customer services to the next level. For us, it’s about giving our customers more, without them having to come and ask for it.”
ENDS.
