Shipment management software provider CargoSmart has been developing a new visibility model which lets shippers and forwarders monitor their shipments, but the company is already looking ahead at the next step to take in an increasingly data-driven world.

Lionel Louie, chief commercial officer of CargoSmart, says that the company had traditionally only been involved in electronic data interchange with regard to schedules and tracking, but that is now not enough.

“Every month, there are millions of schedule changes because there are many, many different factors – ports, congestion, vessels, and so on,” says Louie. “We see that, with the vast amount of changes and information flowing around, just relying on the EDI from the carriers is insufficient in terms of completeness and timeliness. There are gaps, so we took that and decided to track ships more proactively using technologies such as predictive analytics and some interesting modelling techniques. Right now, we track about 7,000 container ships worldwide, and we combine that with shipment data and any other factors to come up with more accurate and timely visibility data.”

CargoSmart’s customers include a variety of shippers, consignees, logistics service providers, non-vessel operating common carriers and more than 30 shipping lines.

“We’re looking at expanding our customer base beyond freight forwarders, carriers and ships, but to also cover ports, terminals and even rail operators, who need much more information as to when goods will be arriving at which ports, and with what volume,” says Louie. “That helps them a lot with their costs planning, so that is one area I’d like CargoSmart to get into.”

One of the ways to attract more people is by making improvements to the system in order to make it more user-friendly. Much of CargoSmart’s current user interface revolves around spreadsheets and reports, but Louie says that this is something which he doesn’t want to continue. “We’re migrating to on-demand web dashboards, with intuitive charts and graphs, as well as interactive elements such as the ability to switch dimensions,” he says. “This type of UI makes it much easier for our customers to explore the material that we have for them.”

With the emergence of big data and increasingly complex mathematical models, software companies like CargoSmart have to be careful about not getting too engrossed in all the numbers and statistics.

“One of the challenges is finding a way to package enough of all these new technologies for our customers,” says Louie. “Sometimes we move too quickly and the customers aren’t able to consume all the advanced data. So we have to make sure we have the right amount of information for the right market.”

While Louie agrees that there can potentially be too much data, he says that it is sometimes needed to spot small trends and correlations. This is particularly true for developing ports, many of which are in China and Southeast Asia.

“Developing ports and terminals need to make sure that they can provide their efficiency and operational data to customers in order to attract more business. They also need to work on their supporting networks as well,” he says. “But underpinning all that, it all comes down to whether they have the right data at the right time. They need it to plan capacity, to add new infrastructure and even to find out more about their competitors.”

As for the trend of redistributing capacity using alliances and mega vessels, Louie thinks that it is ultimately a good thing in terms of rebalancing the total number of ships, but on top of the right efficiencies and infrastructure, very accurate operational planning is needed.

“When you consolidate schedules, reliability actually becomes even more important, because now it’s not just one liner that’s affected,” he says. “There could be four or five or even more, as well as all their customers, too.”

By Jeffrey Lee

Staff Writer | Hong Kong