Anytime a company adopts a new piece of technology, the question is always the same: What’s the return on investment (ROI)? Automating the pricing process has its benefits and can streamline the workflow of any organization. But what is the business case for this kind of automation?
In this article, we’ll explore nine ways that automating the pricing process can provide a solid ROI for those who serve in the logistics industry.
9 Key Benefits of Automation
To better understand the business benefits of automation, it’s important to look at nine specific markers. For reference, this analysis will rely on real-world numbers to illustrate how Winmore provides genuine, measurable benefits to logistics companies.
1. Filling Empty Miles Through Analytics, Leaderboards, and Campaigns
Empty miles are the primary form of freight waste. But it’s not always easy to eliminate empty miles, especially when logistics providers cannot identify nearby loads that match or complement their routes. Winmore aims to change this.
To accomplish their goals, Winmore analyzes 180 days of freight histories. This data is used to identify lanes with the greatest likelihood of being empty.
These lanes are then flagged and posted to commercial leaderboards. This brings attention to potentially empty lanes, allowing companies to focus their efforts on minimizing or eliminating these empty miles.
While the success rate varies, Winmore has helped one recent company save $298,350 simply by filling empty miles. Again, because empty miles are a major source of loss for the trucking industry, the elimination of this waste can have a significant impact on your team.
2. Increasing the Capacity of Pricing Teams
Winmore changes the way your teams operate — including your pricing team. By bringing your entire request for proposal (RFP) team and pricing team together, you’ll be able to streamline your workflow. Everyone on your team will understand what’s expected of them and will be equipped to deliver a greater level of focus and dedication for each bid.
Winmore achieves this through project management systems and shareable insights and dashboards. As a result, all team members will be able to document their tasks and contributions and provide a greater level of collaboration to the RFP process.
In the past, this has enabled companies to achieve as much as a 30% increase in capacity. Winmore has even saved at least one company $165,750!
3. Internal Rate Benchmarks and Rate Accuracy Improve Wins in Strategic Lanes
Typically, a pricing team calculates bids based on historic data and future projections. But with Winmore, your pricing team will gain access to internal benchmarks, historic rates, and current trends. This data ensures that your pricing team has the best information to work with so that they can provide the most confident, accurate estimates in the industry.
Accuracy matters. After all, accuracy helps you land more bids. When you rely on solid data to improve the accuracy of your pricing, you likewise improve the number of lanes you win in each RFP.
Winmore estimates that companies can win as many as 25% more lanes using their innovative system. In our real-world example, Winmore was able to help one company add $478,125 through additional bids.
4. Reduction in Time Spent Searching for Pricing Information (and Updating Others)
Why waste time searching for pricing information when today’s technology offers a centralized platform with which to manage your records? Winmore offers a secure digital site that can be used for the RFP and pricing process. You can use this site to store documents, communicate with the team, read feedback from shippers, and review your most recent RFPs.
This improves the efficiency of your pricing and/or RFP teams. Winmore has helped companies save these personnel 5 hours every week for a combined savings of roughly $13,281.
5. Integrating Pricing Data Across the Enterprise
Winmore is designed to integrate your company’s internal systems, bringing multiple processes together into one unified hub. This means that you’ll be able to maintain an accurate, up-to-date database of your customer information and keep all team members apprised of the status of RFPs and other important processes.
In other words, integration improves efficiency. Winmore has saved one company 16 hours per week across the entire pricing team, resulting in total savings of $42,500.
6. Reduction in Time Required for Data Mapping
There are many “layers” to the logistics process, which can often translate into excess amounts of time searching for the right data or updating your database during the RFP process.
Winmore recently worked with a company that was spending 30 minutes for every RFP uploaded and downloaded. But with the Winmore software platform, the time it takes to complete this process was shortened by 75%.
This is only possible thanks to the advanced systems built into the Winmore platform. Machine learning allows Winmore to “read” and “translate” each RFP to the cloud and map shipper data fields. This makes storage and retrieval easier than ever before, even saving one company $39,844.
7. Reduction in Time Required to Identify Strategic Lanes
In an industry in which efficiency is everything, Winmore can help you quickly identify strategic lanes to make the best use of time and resources.
Ordinarily, this process can take as much as 60 minutes per RFP. Winmore can cut this by 75% by using software to analyze routes and identify the precise moment an RFP contains your most strategic, efficient routes.
This saves you time, but it can dramatically increase your company’s overall efficiency, too. Winmore has recently saved one company $19,922 using these tools.
8. Reduction in Time Required to Route Lanes
Your team members have unique insights and areas of specialization. This means that some members of your pricing team may have greater efficiency and accuracy when pricing certain lanes. The best way to enhance your business is to ensure that this team members price specific, dedicated lanes.
But this can slow the process down. Winmore discovered that one company was spending 60 minutes per RFP, a process that Winmore’s software was able to reduce by 75%. How? The software is designed to automatically match lanes with the best people to price each lane, guaranteeing the best possible estimates. In the case of this company, this single shift saved $19,922.
9. Fewer Issues Resulting from Errors in Hand-Off to TMS and Ops Teams
While it’s true that nobody’s perfect, human error can take a bite out of your bottom line. The Winmore software system can reduce human error by automating the handoff of the award to the transportation management system (TMS).
In the real world, this recently saved a company $29,882. It’s easy to imagine the frustration and headaches that can be avoided by improving accuracy across the board.
The Total Return on Investment for the Winmore Platform
If you’ve been paying attention to the subtotals listed for each of the above categories, you’ve likely noticed that the Winmore platform can provide enormous financial benefits. When Winmore worked with one particular company, they were able to provide an estimated savings of $1.1 million.
The company had made an investment of $170,000 in the Winmore platform. This means that their overall return on investment was roughly 6.5 times their initial input.
While your results will vary, the Winmore system offers businesses the chance to improve efficiency, cut costs, and win more bids. This can improve your client relationships, while your workforce will also appreciate the chance to rely on a streamlined, integrated software solution.
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