PARSIPPANY, N.J. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --
INTTRA, the world’s largest multi-carrier network for ocean shipping, today announced the release of a breakthrough application, INTTRA Change. Designed to reduce the tens of millions of manual transactions ocean carriers process annually, INTTRA’s unique technology solution for both structured and unstructured documents paves the way for expanded e-commerce adoption in ocean shipping.
A 2012 study conducted by INTTRA of 24 of the world’s largest ocean carriers revealed that more than 76 million shipping transactions are still processed manually. These transactions—including bookings and shipping instructions submitted via documents, emails and/or faxes—require tedious validation, and often, corrections to errors made during manual data entry. This results in millions of dollars in added processing costs for carriers and shippers alike.
“Manual processing costs are a major concern for both smaller shippers, as well as large, multi-national corporations. Organizations are spending millions on advanced ERP or TMS systems, only to find that shipping information is being manually re-entered, often incorrectly, in carrier documentation centers,” said Ken Bloom, CEO of INTTRA. “Not only do these mistakes delay shipments, but they also have the potential to eliminate many of the efficiencies gained with automation and optimization. We consider manual transactions to be one of the weakest links in the management of global shipments, and INTTRA Change provides a new option to eliminate its practice in the industry.”
Unlike manual or Optical Character Recognition (OCR)-based solutions, INTTRA Change is the first technology solution that converts shipping data from a shipper’s existing reports or documents into the carrier required formats and submits them electronically directly to carriers. Any exceptions from validation checks, as well as amendments or cancellations, are managed by the INTTRA Change platform, enabling customers to immediately edit and re-submit transactions online. This capability eliminates back and forth emails or phone calls between carriers and shippers in order to process transactions. INTTRA Change also includes an easy to use, yet powerful, multi-carrier shipment reporting capability.
With INTTRA Change, shippers are given more control over data quality due to the automatic conversion of data and transmission to carrier systems through the INTTRA platform. Additionally, because the solution does not require a technical implementation or process change for shippers, IT organizations are not required to develop costly, custom system-to-system integrations or deliver additional training for end users. This removes several traditional barriers to e-commerce adoption.
INTTRA Change for Structured Documents is available immediately to customers using formatted documents, such as system-generated outputs from ERP or TMS systems and/or readable documents entered by shippers, to request bookings and submit shipping instructions to carriers.
INTTRA Change for Unstructured Documents will be available to customers later in 2013. The unique solution will complement the Structured Document offering, enabling image files, faxes and unstructured email text to be converted into shipping transactions processed by INTTRA.
Additional Resources
- To learn more about the INTTRA Change, click here.
- Connect with INTTRA via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About INTTRA
INTTRA is the world’s largest, multi-carrier e-commerce network for the ocean shipping industry. INTTRA professionals work with 48 leading carriers and NVOCCs, 109 software alliance partners, as well as their customers, to streamline and standardize their shipping processes worldwide through a network of more than 220,000 shipping professionals. Over 525,000 container orders are initiated on the INTTRA platform each week, representing more than 18 percent of global ocean container trade.
For further information, visit www.inttra.com.
INTTRA, the INTTRA logo, INTTRA-LINK, INTTRA-Desktop, INTTRA-ACT, and OceanMetrics are trademarks or registered trademarks, service marks or registered service marks of INTTRA Inc. All other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.
CONTACT:
Affect
Brittany Bevacqua, 212-398-9680
bbevacqua@affect.com