Working at shipping industry since 2001 and being an independent freight brokers since 2006 our company gained wide experience of shipment of mostly bulk cargoes at Black and Mediterranean seas not only as brokers, but also as ship managers and time charter operators. In 2008 when crisis gave us a bit of free time, which is so expensive for all shipbrokers, we started development of shipping CRM system for flawless and automatic post fixture operations and first version of CRM was completed in 2009. It was simple and limited by it’s abilities cloud based e.g. keeping all data at remote server with approach via internet. It was system for internal use which shows it’s potency within next 3 years. It kept over 30 fixtures at once and over 500 fixtures in total without any significant problem or fail. Our company staff during 2009-2012 was only two persons – one freight broker and one post fixture operator and our system allowed us to keep business at highest standards of diligence and attitude. In 2012 our company started to develop second – more comprehensive version of CRM system which we are pleased to introduce here. It’s no doubt that shipping business could not be automated, as shipping is rather a kind of human relationships than just cargo moving, but it’s routine side that could be given to machine. System in dedicated to shipment of break bulk cargoes and based on Black and Mediterranean shipping practice.
Basic philosophy of our software is usability and possibility to work with minimum data input. For example you may not state any financial data like freight, dead freight, da, channel dues etc. and program will work further with reduced ability to make financial reports. System has two versions: first for freight brokers and second for ship owners; main functions are common like keeping data, mailing and reporting, but of course logic is different. System is based on oracle™ database which is known to be one of the world’s best solutions for corporate customers and is scalable to any size of your business. Our system is secure: SSL traffic encryption. You can use it even with insecure public Wi-Fi hot spots. Automate daily backups with triple redundancy. You can forget about your fears to lose your data. Really helpful, smart and simple system gave us opportunity to save up to 70% of time spending on daily post fixture mailing including formal mail exchange, position reports and demurrage reminders. Using our CRM system with its automatic requests, reminders and reports allows 1 even not skilled post fixer to handle up to 20 vessels at once, without losing any small details of the voyage.
And this is not a kind of fluent words, but real over 3 years chartering and post fixture practice of our company doing hundreds of fixtures within year. CRM is dedicated to freight brokers and ship-owners companies, taking into consideration all peculiarities of shipping business. Our system has over 30 pre-installed mail templates for ship brokers and over 60 pre-installed templates for ship owners including routine and everyday requests, which always take time and requires precise attention like:
- Agency nomination at load and discharge ports
- Checking berthing/loading/discharging prospects with agents
- Requests for freight payment
- Requests for release of bills of lading once freight paid and bills marked “frieght prepaid”
- Requests for discharging instructions from the Charterers
- Requests for port/agency nominations from charterers
- Checking if ship operators are in touch with agents
- Checking if receivers are in possession to present original bills of lading
- Executing precautions with statement of facts
- Keeping bunker records Beside automatic requests our System is providing semi-automatic requests for any data may be required from any party:
- Bills of lading, statement of fact proformas
- Particular events like commencement/completion of loading/discharging/delivering of cargo documents etc
- ETA, Present position requests
- DA, DA payment, DA finalizing, Freight payment
- Forbid or allow discharging etc.
The daily agenda is a kind of main point for each post fixture operator. System chooses two next most important events for every vessel and so compiles automatic agenda for post fixture operator. For example if agents are not set – system will insert agents input into agenda giving operator idea to what to pay attention next, if agents set and their e-mail is not set – requires setting of e-mail etc. No one small detail will escape form postfixturer view. Very important and useful feature of our CRM is daily position lists for particular charterers including vital details of the voyage and bills of lading and also daily demurrage reminder which keep you partners in due course. Another report available for ship owners is post voyage time charter equivalent calculation where you can not only acquire TC equivalent, but time and expenses distribution. If so required and in case bill of lading data is inserted correctly and in full, our system could compile standard Letter of Indemnity for discharging without bill of lading presentation. One more useful feature is circulation machine which allows making personal and precise circulation to each of your partners, naming each company and person according to your contact list. It’s always better to approach personally in our business Almost everyone travelling for business faced problems of hotel wi-fi do not allow your e-mail go over SMTP. Smart Quickmail feature eliminates such problem – you can send your personal mail directly from CRM system. Just choose the voyage and system will offer you to choose only chained contacts – agent, charterers, master, broker – not whole contact book. Also you may send e-mail with your brand template to anyone even not connected with voyage and not defined in contact book. Anyhow keeping and tracing of all your fixtures in one system is very handful , moreover if such system could be approached from any place via internet– human may forget something, human can delay and such delays or missing of attention can lead to significant financial losses in our business. Our automatic system helps to avoid such unpleasant consequences.
You can always control your business and stay updated. System could be customized for your needs including changing/adding of templates and reports. New free laytime calculator will be included in our system in 2-nd quarter of 2014. Now we are glad to share our experience with you – our dear colleagues, partners and friends and introduce new CRM system for small freight broker and ship owners companies. Based on cloud technologies it gave ultimate access 24 hours a day 365 day a year from any device connected to internet: PC, tablet, iPhone etc. CRM do not require any local installation so it could be used on every modern device which has internet. And the last think we’d like to outline – our system is free of any charge till the end of year 2014 and our policy for the future is lowest fares for our partners. You can subscribe via e-mail given at our web-site www.grainchart.net
