Enhancing Operational Control with Shipium’s Console

Despite the continued growth of shipping volumes and resulting complexity of fulfillment networks, many shippers can’t leverage their growth and scale because they don’t have the level of operational control they need to make shipping a growth driver. 

Organizations who haven’t adopted modern shipping technology are often reliant on vendors or other parties for changes, no matter how big or small. This type of vendor dependency delays the ability to respond to issues or unforeseen circumstances, and also increases operational costs. The bigger things become, the more you need to depend on others.

One of Shipium’s primary goals is to put shippers back in control of their operations. The Shipium Console is one the most significant ways that we do that.

In this blog, we’ll explore how the Shipium Console solves common challenges that are associated with a lack of control, and walk through some ways that operators can leverage the tool to quickly respond to issues and opportunities.

Common challenges and Shipium solutions

While there are many negative outcomes that can result from lack of control over operations, let’s explore some of the most common (and significant) ones, and how Shipium helps to address them.

Inconsistent delivery performance

Fulfillment networks are constantly impacted by outside factors that are difficult to account for. These factors can range from unexpected weather events to carrier issues — for example, this summer’s Pitney Bowes shutdown. In these cases, shippers who don’t have the right level of control are susceptible to missing the delivery dates (or date ranges) that were presented to customers, which negatively impacts customer experience and increases the likelihood of returns.

Excessive operational costs

Lack of control contributes to excessive costs in multiple ways. For one, the risk of missing delivery dates due to outside circumstances can force shippers to leverage more expensive service methods than they otherwise would. Depending on how many shipments are impacted, this can quickly and significantly increase costs.

Vendor reliance also contributes to increased costs. In many cases, legacy vendors charge expensive service fees to execute changes on shippers’ behalf — whether that change is the addition of a carrier or implementation of a new business rule.

Inability to adapt operations

Relying too heavily on vendors also means that changes take too long. Going back to the Pitney Bowes shutdown example, a delay of even a few days would have significantly disrupted operations and negatively impacted the bottom line. And, in many cases, a delay of several days would be considered a best-case scenario — Shipium customers who have moved away from legacy platforms commonly cite weeks-long delays.

How Shipium's Console can help

The Shipium Console is purpose-built to put control back in the hands of operators and enable them to avoid the types of outcomes detailed above. The browser-based, self-service interface allows for the dynamic management of key aspects of any fulfillment network, from carriers to origins to business rules. 

In the next section, we’ll explore some of the most impactful ways that Shipium’s customers are leveraging the Console to streamline their operations.

Common use cases for the Shipium Console

Shipium's Console enables operators to control many different aspects of their fulfillment networks and processes. Here, we’ll focus on how they’re scaling operations (across locations, brands, customers etc), centrally managing carriers, and analyzing performance. 

Creation of Fulfillment Contexts

In Shipium, Fulfillment Contexts are used to configure the characteristics of different shipping scenarios, including origins, carrier contracts, label configuration and more. Once a Context is set, it can be used to automate fulfillment based on the pre-set rules a shipper has defined, requiring less manual effort or intervention. For example, if a shipper has different carrier contracts for different locations, establishing a Fulfillment Context ensures that rating API calls are made to the correct account.

Centralized carrier management

Shipium’s customers use the Console for almost every aspect of carrier management, from implementing new carriers to reporting on performance. Once a new carrier contract is established, shippers can upload and virtualize it within Shipium to reduce implementation times from days (or weeks) to just hours. 

Carrier selection rules are also worth mentioning here. Using the Console, Shipium’s customers can set up rules that dictate carriers that should be used for certain types, establish a priority shipping workflow to expedite shipments impacted by a weather event, and more.

Analytics and simulation

To improve processes and optimize operational decisions, shippers need a way to understand both historical and predicted performance. Shipium’s customers use the Console to address both needs by accessing detailed performance reporting and enabling operators to run simulations that predict future outcomes. 

On the reporting side, operators can analyze things like on-time performance, delivery speed, volume/cost breakdowns, and carrier scorecards. It’s also worth mentioning that custom reports can be created to serve unique reporting needs based on a shipper’s data as well as data generated from the millions of shipments that have been executed through Shipium’s platform.

When it comes to predictive analysis, Shipium’s Simulation tool is also accessed through the Console, and gives operators the ability to simulate executed shipments with new carriers, origins, rules etc. to identify opportunities for performance improvement, cost reduction, or both. This level of centralized control also eliminates the need for manual, spreadsheet-based simulations, which tie up resources and can take weeks.

Wrapping up

Today’s shippers need ways to establish as much independent control over operations as possible. Modern solutions like Shipium enable them to do just that, and improve delivery performance, reduce costs, and reduce vendor dependency as a result.

If you’re looking for ways to improve operational efficiency, flexibility, and your ability to respond to events impacting your network, reach out to our team here to discuss your use case.