Specialty chemical distributor Connell Bros. Company is using the GT Nexus global trade and logistics portal on-demand platform to procure, execute, monitor and audit containerized freight services, across all ocean carriers.
The initial level of service, which provides shipment tracking and contract management services was activated in 2007. Within six-weeks, CBC had all of their container status messages flowing into a centralized database and all of their ocean contracts digitized online in a common format across all carriers. That foundation has now been expanded to freight procurement and advanced spend management capabilities.
CBC’s business can be exposed to unpredictable demand swings based on changes in regional economies, said GT Nexus. Additionally, transportation costs represent a significant part of operational budgets. For these reasons, CBC required a flexible solution that could support constant change, and also deliver industry-leading strategic spend management capabilities.
“GT Nexus has a proven track record of success with the world’s biggest shippers,” said John Figura at CBC. “We now have a fully integrated suite of tools that allow us to transform the way we run our transportation network. And since it’s an industry platform, our carriers were already connected to it and familiar with the applications based on their experience supporting other customers on GT Nexus.”
The spend management capabilities of the platform focus on two primary areas. Strategic optimization supports the procurement cycle and allows CBC to identify the best service-price combinations before making final allocation decisions. The freight audit capability compares the data inside final digitized service contracts with electronic bills of lading and then presents a real-time view of discrepancies.
The entire platform is provided as an on-demand service that is hosted and managed by GT Nexus. CBC shares the network, data translation services, and infrastructure with all other GT Nexus customers, but uses a secure private environment to use applications and collaborate with partners.
