National Fast Freight Inc.
National Fast Freight drives business with business intelligence solution from Microsoft
|
|
Company Overview
Founded in 1992, National Fast Freight is a Concord, Ontario-based transportation and logistics company that specializes in freight consolidation. National Fast Freight provides a multi-modal, one-company/one call/one truck pick-up service from a single source that results in a more efficient transportation and logistics package for its customers.
Offering cost efficiencies right from the start in order to provide highly competitive price structures, National Fast Freight delivers superior levels of service for its North American customers.
Business Challenge
National Fast Freight is in the business of ensuring that customers’ freight is moved to the appropriate destination within a designated timeframe at a competitive price. With hundreds of customers located across Canada and the United States, the organization deals with multiple layers of internal and customer data that range from customer contact information to weight fees, all of which are housed in disparate systems across the enterprise.
National Fast Freight’s data management system provided the team with paper-based reports on a daily basis and did not allow employees to cross-reference current information on shipping prices, load status or customer sales in real-time, all critical business indicators required in the day-to-day decision-making process.
The organization was looking to enhance its existing system with a solution that would enable management employees to access and analyze reports in real time. By eliminating paper-based reports that required time-intensive analysis, National Fast Freight knew it could boost business performance and improve the decision-making process from management through to sales representatives.
“Our old solution enabled us to visually view our reports daily but they were only updated on a monthly basis, which made any kind of quick analysis very difficult,” says Lori McCreight, General Manager, National Fast Freight. “The process of accessing information and running a report was a nightmare as we would have to cross several different databases to get all the information we were looking for. The process took approximately two to four days as we had to gather data from different sources, resulting in wasted time and effort.”
The organization also needed to provide customers with a window into their business transactions with National Fast Freight. By providing this type of value-add service, National Fast Freight would be able to better service its current customer base and cut through the competition to attract new prospects.
|
Solution
National Fast Freight enlisted the help of Microsoft Gold Certified partner GHI Technologies to develop a business intelligence (BI) solution that would meet its organizational requirements. GHI Technologies is a leading BI and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions provider, focusing on platforms that offer superior business process solutions. GHI has extensive experience in developing and deploying BI and CRM solutions for the pharmaceutical, transportation, distribution and retail industries.
Enlisting Help from the Experts
With a small internal IT team composed of technical support and one developer, National Fast Freight needed to select a partner that could bring technical and domain expertise to the table.
“One of the biggest benefits of the business intelligence solution is that we were able to leverage the specific BI skill sets that GHI Technologies brings to the table,” says McCreight. “Due to the size of our IT team, it would have been incredibly difficult for us to develop and manage an application of this scope.”
Defining Business Requirements
Working with GHI, National Fast Freight identified a need for a solution that would offer both internal BI and an external scorecard to push information out to customers.
Following a review of available options, National Fast Freight selected a customized solution built using Microsoft SQL™ Server 2000 including Analysis Services and Microsoft Data Analyzer. As an integrated feature of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition, Analysis Services makes it easy for customers to perform rapid analysis on large and complex data sets using data from multiple sources. This has enabled National Fast Freight to realize the power of business analytics and to make better and more informed decisions.
“National Fast Freight was looking for a solution that would enable it to approach each customer and provide an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the situation,” says Tom Kavoursas, Vice President, Business Intelligence, GHI Technologies. “Utilizing the power of Analysis Services, National Fast Freight can now accurately forecast costs for customers, and within the company it can assess sales by quarter, by customer, and by customer volume. The bottom line is that National Fast Freight has been able to streamline operational efficiencies, enabling the organization to be highly competitive by providing unparalleled customer service.”
“We really wanted to get to the point where we could drill down on the details of each customer by analyzing sales volume, the volume by weight and shipment as well as profitability,” says McCreight. “In this industry everything is based on weight and cube, so highlighting the weight and volume of a shipment can help us to accurately forecast revenues and maintain profitability.”
Providing Accurate Information to Customers
In the freight forwarding business, customer service and timing are everything. Border delays, inclement weather and roadwork can all have an impact on how quickly a shipment gets from Point A to Point B. For National Fast Freight, the ability to provide customers with current data and deliver it to them over the Web was critical.
To meet this need, GHI worked on the development of a scorecard that provides customers with a window into their business relationship with National Fast Freight. Built using the Microsoft-based BI technology, the Web-based solution enables customers to view pricing information, weight information and shipping history with National Fast Freight.
“National Fast Freight was able to identify exactly how it wanted customers to view shipping data,” says Kavoursas. “Working together, National Fast Freight was able to quickly deploy the solution to their customers. Using the Microsoft-based BI tools we were able to deliver the solution in a timely manner ensuring it was both secure and reliable for National Fast Freight’s customers.”
Business Benefits
Following the rollout of the Microsoft-based BI solution, National Fast Freight has improved customer service, increased understanding of business processes, and improved operating efficiencies company-wide.
Improved Customer Service
In the shipping and logistics industry, competition is fierce and added-value services can make or break a business deal. The ability for National Fast Freight to allow customers to view data over the Web is providing the company with a strategic business advantage over the competition. With the Web-accessed customer scorecard, National Fast Freight is now able to provide reports to key clients on their activities with the organization.
“Overall, our customers love it. Many of the customers that we deal with are looking for some kind of value-added service as everyone is trying to control costs within their organization,” says McCreight. “Instead of us sending charts and spreadsheets to customers, they can now go online to view their data and access information that they can’t get out of their own systems. It is a very powerful tool.”
“When you are a top-of-the-line transportation company you have nothing to hide. Empowering customers with the ability to make better business decisions through access to confidential business data provides National Fast Freight with a strategic advantage over their competitors,” says Kavoursas. “By providing customers with analysis and reporting on a regular basis, National Fast Freight is able to actively demonstrate its commitment to being a full-disclosure company. In this industry, that is a truly compelling story.”
Better Informed Business Decisions
The Microsoft-based BI solution has enabled National Fast Freight to make more informed decisions in its day-to-day business activities. Data housed in multiple databases now provides National Fast Freight management employees at all levels with a single source of actionable information. They now are able to view and analyze information via the Web as required. For example, the sales and management teams can assess current accounts to determine their profitability and the organization has used this information to develop targeted advertising and marketing campaigns to address specific customer challenges.
“GHI Technologies was able to centralize the data we had from multiple databases into a single source. The Microsoft-based business intelligence solution eliminated many points of frustration we experienced daily: too many systems, too many static paper-based reports; IT bottlenecks; lack of timely analysis and virtually no data consolidation,” says McCreight. “We’ve definitely seen improvements in decision-making and customer retention. In many ways, this solution has enabled us to improve overall sales and dramatically improve the way that we do business.”
Increased Productivity
Utilizing the Microsoft-based BI solution, National Fast Freight has also been able to boost productivity with its transportation partners because it can break down information such as shipping costs to certain destinations and the cost for each consignment.
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System™ is the comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable server infrastructure that helps reduce the complexity and costs of building, deploying, connecting, and operating agile business solutions. Windows Server System helps customers create new value for their business through the strategic use of their IT assets. With the Windows Server platform as the foundation, Windows Server System delivers dependable infrastructure for data management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and employee portals; business process automation; communications and collaboration; and core IT operations including security, deployment, and systems management.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about the partner, GHI Technologies, please call 1 905-821-9210 or visit info@ghitechnologies.com
For more information about National Fast Freight, please call 905-761-0009 or 800-563-2223.
