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Customer
Headquartered right outside of O’Hare Airport, the firm was founded in 1984. R.S. Express handles all aspects of international trade logistics from documentation and transportation arrangements, to cargo clearance and storage for companies shipping products into the United States. The company has approximately 15 employees that manage imports and exports of a broad assortment of cargo, from textiles and clothing to the items that may require special treatment or take advantage of preferential trade agreements such as, electronic parts and equipment, chemicals, and machinery.
Business Issue
RS Express represents a variety of companies that routinely import and export merchandise to and from various ports in the United States. The company coordinates and files the necessary documents with U.S. government agencies on behalf of their clients.
Each import and export transaction progresses trough multiple stages and is accompanied by a number of transportation and compliance documents. The documentation for each transaction must be saved to satisfy customs regulations as well as for responding to follow-up activities. With many active customers, it’s not unusual for RS Express to receive questions regarding import/export transactions. Customer inquiries and the completion of intra-office activities constantly require employees to search for information. Also, managing data consistency without redundancy across the enterprise is critical since the core business systems dictate the quality of customer service.
That’s why in 2004 RS Express began searching for a way to improve their business process and customer relationship management.
Solution
This deeply ingrained customer-centric philosophy lead RS Express to evaluate how a variety of technology offerings might enhance their core services and differentiate them from the competition. The company understood the value of the Internet-native system based on the centralized data warehouse that could be shared by all supply-chain participants.
In the end, it decided that QuestaWeb’s TradeMasterQW integrated software suite has the right mix of process streamlining, customer service enhancements and operational flexibility. Customhouse Brokerage with Remote Location Filing (RLF), Import Freight Forwarding, Export Freight Forwarding, Duty Drawback, Integrated Accounting, Query Builder, Document Binder, and HTS Classification modules were installed.
“Due to the high level of automation throughout the software and the self-service nature of the client-facing components, we were able to handle a rapid increase in volume that would have posed a greater challenge with our old system,” Kevin Hannon, CEO of R.S. Express. “QuestaWeb’s ability to integrate our internal operations has been equally valuable.”
Results
Improved business process
- Robust functionality, integration of modules, and user friendliness ensure and enhance continuing support of changing business dynamics and increased productivity.
Improved customer service
- Improved quality of the system has led to timely and more predictable delivery of shipments, and a faster response to changing customer requirements.
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