Centralizing their logistics operations on a single platform solution has enabled French freight forwarder, CLASQUIN, to optimize their operations, accelerate their growth, and differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market.
“We see CargoWise as the backbone of our operations. Everybody within our business is working from the platform, and it has transformed the way we work at the level of operation, and it will secure the way we work in the future and the way we deliver service to our clients”, says Frederic Serra, CIO, CLASQUIN.
CLASQUIN is an air and sea freight forwarding and overseas logistics specialist, with an integrated network of 66 offices and more than 1000 employees across 22 countries. Headquartered in France, the Group designs and manages tailor-made transport and logistics solutions for its clients and organizes and coordinates the flow of client shipments between France and the rest of the world.
CLASQUIN had been operating from their own custom-built TMS for more than 30 years. However, after experiencing significant growth over the past decade, maintaining, and updating their legacy system was becoming more difficult and costly, and the changing regulatory environment left them unable to keep on top of their compliance.
“Historically we invested in our own TMS, but we realized that we could not keep up with the evolution of the market in terms of compliance and added value. Each new layer and each new request required more time and resources and would send us back to square one as we would have to redevelop an entire part of the system.
“With the growing complexity of the market, adapting to our clients’ specific needs was no longer sustainable on our existing system, so we decided to look at what was available on the market”, says Mr Hugues Morin, CEO, CLASQUIN.
With a customer-centric approach and plans to continue achieving strong annual growth, CLASQUIN wanted to focus their efforts on the needs of their clients rather than maintaining their technology, and in 2016 they made the move to CargoWise.
“Innovating at the level of production will help us innovate at the level of the client and choosing a very strong and stable production tool can help us achieve this.”
Recognizing that upgrading their technology would empower their people to be more productive, support their organizational goals and have an immediate impact on their bottom line, CLASQUIN chose to fast-track the implementation.
“At CLASQUIN we’re dynamic and we’re all working towards our long-term growth, so it was important for us to communicate to our people that this change was necessary if we were going to improve productivity and efficiencies across the business.
“When you deploy quickly, it may not be perfect, but you’ll reap the benefits of the system much faster and start really seeing value. People will start using and understanding the system faster, and you’ll develop a deeper understanding of its capabilities”, he says.
Increased control with powerful compliance capabilities
Prior to adopting CargoWise, compliance was an increasing area of concern for CLASQUIN. They found it difficult to keep up with new legislation and policy changes, and were left with data that was convoluted, difficult to interpret and hard to access efficiently.
Operating in an industry where serious penalties are issued for non-compliance, they needed a system that could provide real-time updates and alerts on legislation, publications, and notices from regulatory bodies.
“Our goal was to find a solution that could support our growth and help us remain compliant with changing customs requirements and regulation, such as tax compliance or national e-invoicing. We looked for a system that was highly customizable, could seamlessly handle customs regulations and evolving legislation, and would boost our productivity.
“Because CargoWise is constantly updated to reflect changing laws and legislation, we now have peace of mind that we’re submitting the right paperwork. Denied party screening is also extremely important in our industry, and we now have a tool that we know is going to make sure that we’re compliant and is going to improve and enhance our processes”, explains Mr Serra.
Simplified, streamlined and optimized processes
Previously, CLASQUIN’s operators were performing manual tasks and working from paper documents or excel spreadsheets, which was time consuming and left them prone to errors. With CargoWise, every task, process or job can be configured into a workflow, freeing up their people to work on high-value tasks and projects, such as delivering innovative solutions to their clients.
“Workflows are an extremely powerful tool that have completely transformed the way we work and have helped us generate more productivity at the level of the operations. The operator can now look at their to do list in the system and execute their tasks based on rules and priorities, which has increased efficiencies and boosted productivity across the business.
“The biggest advantage is that we aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Each time we receive a request, we ask the customer what they want to achieve and then we look at how CargoWise can help us achieve this result in the best way possible”, says Mr Serra.
An integration-based, building block approach
Using CargoWise as their core product and single source of data, CLASQUIN have adopted an integration-based, building-block approach to their technology strategy to provide tailored solutions to their customers and create differentiation in the market.
“When you have a foundation that is extremely solid, you can provide a unique service that will differentiate your business, offer your clients new services, and use data that is produced systematically from the one system, rather than relying on spreadsheets or patchworked systems.”
This approach led to CLASQUIN launching their own digital platform called LIVE, which brings together their digital services in a single portal and provides an optimized user experience. Using data from CargoWise, LIVE provides real-time and enriched visibility on shipments, dynamic analysis to make sense of their transportation activity as well as collaborative services to their clients and their partners.
“LIVE by CLASQUIN issues the data that comes from CargoWise and is integrated with other systems to help us create even more value for our clients. Our operators save time because we’ve eliminated manual data entry, and they can generate accurate and consistent reports and provide that data to our clients.”
Continued investment in digital tools
Digital innovation is a strong component of CLASQUIN’s future growth strategy, and the continued investment and development in digital tools will enable them to remain adaptable, flexible and competitive, says Mr Serra.
“Right now, the market is very unstable, and nobody could have predicted what happened as a result of COVID, so the challenge for all of us in the industry is adaptation.
“Our focus is on client centricity and having a stable and strong production tool that automates manual processes will allow us to spend quality time helping our clients and offer that point of differentiation.”
With new features and functionalities regularly added to CargoWise, remaining flexible and responsive to both their clients’ needs and changing market conditions will be even easier for CLASQUIN moving forward.
“Because CargoWise is constantly updated, we can cherry-pick what we want because of the level of customization that the platform offers. We have a constant flow of new features and functionalities that were developed by experts in our industry that are going to help us accelerate our growth, which allows us to differentiate ourselves in the market.”