Freight Controller is pleased to announce a new MS Power BI upgrade to our Freight Reporting solutions to enhance our current service offerings.
At Freight Controller we are always looking for ways to improve the solutions we offer our customers to ensure we are staying up to date with the latest technology advances and therefore the latest and best methods for optimising their freight management processes.
Our recent focus has been on our Business Intelligence reporting service, which has been greatly enhanced by the leap forward provided by implementing Microsoft’s Power BI system.
Interactive Dashboard
The system still uses our in-house Carrier Check system but rather than the output being to MS Excel that we then email to our customers as per agreed parameters, now we are offering clients access to our interactive MS Power BI Dashboard.
Customers can log in to their dedicated, secure Dashboard to see their freight data reports as and when they like.
Drill Down Reporting
Customers can then interactively drill down into the data and refresh for a new report on a specific KPI of interest. For example, customer might want to focus on the Receiver (customer) data to create a report on the customer who has shipped the most for a particular time frame (e.g. month or quarter).
Once they are happy with the report, they have created they can export that as a pdf or PowerPoint to be presented at their next Supply Chain meeting.
Carrier Check System
Our BI Reports themselves are an output of our Carrier Invoice Reconciliation process that is processed via our Carrier Check System.
Customers manifest file data is imported into Carrier Check via three main methods:
- Our TMS System – installed at the customer warehouse
- Another 3rd Party FMS System
- A freight manifest data file that is sent/imported into the customer’s carrier systems
Freight Data Warehousing
That freight data is then warehoused for future reports such as trending reports, for example: Year on Year reports.
It is also available to be used for the next Freight Review. Warehousing your data for 12 months, 2 or 3 years provides a wealth of data for the next Freight Review process that incorporates analytics of your freight profile, enabling a benchmarking process, and reconciled, cleansed data for the most accurate predictive modelling of the results of the RFP. You can learn more about this process here.
Carrier Invoice Reconciliation & BI Reports Process
Once imported into Carrier Check, we can reconcile the invoices for any errors and overcharges.
That reconciled data is then imported into our Power BI system from where the customer can now check as needed to see how their freight activity and costs are trending.
Freight Business Intelligence Dashboard
Currently we can provide Dashboard Reporting based upon:
- By Warehouse Site Location: From
- Receiver Location: To – Primary Region:
- Primary is main Cities & Country Region e.g. Sydney, and NSW
Within these parameters you can see:
- KPIs such as Average & Total Cost per Kgs
- Trends over time frame selected
- Drilldown on Carrier/Service and / or monthly trends
- Breakdown of Per Region KPIs
- Customer KPIs
- Carrier KPIs
You can click on any of these KPIs for further details and to produce and export a Report.
Stage 2 – Power BI Rollout
This is Stage One of our Power BI rollout and new improvements using the system will become available in the near future.
Stage Two of this platform improvement will include more data fields such as:
- Sender (for those who have 2+ brands or divisions)
- Cost Centres i.e. sales teams for freight recovery, departments, etc.
- Groups – typically customers that have multiple delivery sites; stores etc.
- Sales Order Invoice value; for freight cost percentages
Freight Industry Expertise
At Freight Controller, we believe in the powerful combination of technology and human expertise. We have grown our expertise for 40 years now in the freight and logistics industries.
So, whilst we’re excited to offer our customer this upgrade in technology that allows a type of self service on the data through an interactive dashboard, our consultants will continue to work with our clients to ensure that they are getting the most out of the data.
As per the name Freight Controller we aim to help our customers increase their visibility on their freight activity and costs to better control their freight management processes and align them with their business goals. We believe that this technology upgrade empowers our customers to do just that.
To learn more, including how to implement this new service for your organisation, please contact us for a consultative meeting.