Product Information

Descartes Transport Management System Infodis Deep Sea

To properly control the deep sea flows requires a huge amount of manual labor. For outbound ocean shipments you may have found that your ERP-system is lacking information for proper messaging with ocean carriers or shipping agents. There are no port location codes, no address notification and no way to control the type of document to be prepared by the carrier. On top of that, if you are booking manually and working with several carriers, you may end up using different ocean portals for making web-based booking requests.

For inbound containers the only way to know when the goods will arrive is to go to the tracking and tracing site of the ocean carrier, type in the container number and check the status, over and over again.

Descartes TMS ID helps logistics professionals quickly evaluate money-saving transportation and shipping options, and then execute those shipments with contract carriers. Built to accommodate the end-to-end supply chain management process, the solution also supports order management through consolidation, financial settlement and auditing.

In order to accommodate booking requests, provide confirmations with accurate ETA’s, shipping instructions and container status updates, Descartes TMS ID Deep Sea module (Deep Sea) provides fully operational links with over 30 shipping companies through the major sea freight portals.

ERP-System Link
Descartes handles booking requests (from transport order messages) and shipping instructions (from goods issue messages) by extracting all usable information from EDI messages sent through our network. We add standard mappings and customer and/or ship-to specific defaults to assemble a correct message to the proper portal.

Web booking facility
Apart from the direct link to your ERP-system, Descartes has a web booking portal to forward a booking request to a carrier and then complete the information for the shipping instruction. Templates and addresses from the address book maintained by Descartes are available for easy data entry. For inbound shipments, customers are able to work with your overseas shipper/supplier to make a web booking request via the Deep Sea module. Shipping instruction details for the booking can be entered by the supplier or directly updated from your ERP system.

The Benefits
Sending shipping instructions using Deep Sea saves you money on the document cost charged by the shipping company. The up-to-date tracking information is available on Descartes’ carrier independent website and there are daily spreadsheets detailing the ETA for every inbound SKU.

On main events, like container discharge, the Deep Sea module can send e-mail alerts to the parties concerned. The status and schedule information can also be fed back into your ERP-system. By building flexibility into your supply chain – adding new suppliers and carriers is simple, and you with gain better control from day one.

Descartes Transport Management System Infodis Deep Sea connects the largest transportation-focused community in the world. Descartes TMS ID is an advanced application that helps logistics professionals enjoy the following potential benefits and more.

Potential Benefits
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