Challenges:
In our last blog we brought up some challenges you’ll encounter when it comes to effectively using data. For instance, how do you effectively analyze such large amounts of data on your own? If you subscribe to e-bills every week, you get files with hundreds or thousands of rows and columns of data and it is impossible to analyze it on your own. Shipping carriers offer data analysis tools, but they don’t give you the whole picture. Ultimately they are invested in growing their own business, not yours. UPS will not tell you when you could save money by shipping ground instead of air, or when you can combine packages to lower shipping costs. They only give you enough information so you feel informed, but are not dangerous to them.

Data Analysis Tools:
This is where AllGreen comes in. Throughout our history, we have developed data analysis tools that are meant to save you money. Where carriers obfuscate, we strive to give you clarity and help your business. AllGreen also offers software that allows you to get your data in one place. So often data is extremely fragmented making it impossible to see the whole picture. We remedy that with several solutions including Transportation Management Software (TMS). Our TMS and freight invoice auditing solutions bring all your data into one place and eliminate multiple rounds of data entry.

What Can Data Do For You?
Now that you have the data you need and the tools you need to analyze it, what can this data help you do? As we talked about in part one, the purpose of good data and good data analysis is to save you time and money. Throughout every step of your process, there are opportunities to save. By taking the raw data from your carriers and analyzing it, you will begin to see trends. It is in these trends that you will find opportunities to save.

Data analysis can show you:

• The places where you’re sending multiple packages. Instead of sending three 5 lb. packages, you can send one 15 lb. carton.

• How to make your shipping more effective. Where are you sending packages via air when it would be just as fast and far cheaper to send them via ground?

• Where to move your distribution centers. Perhaps the place you have your distribution centers is not the most effective. By relocating a distribution center you could be closer to your customers, giving you a shorter transit time and lower transportation costs.

Analyzing Discrepancies
In the last blog we said that historical sales numbers aren’t enough. When used in conjunction with the carrier data, however, it can be a powerful tool. By analyzing your numbers up against the carrier numbers you can find discrepancies. When you see trends in this area, it allows you to make changes to more accurately charge your customers. If you are charging your customers for a 10 lb. package but FedEx is charging you for 14 lbs., you are eating this cost. When you analyze this, you can find ways to recover your shipping charges. This allows you accurately negotiate with your carriers and create an effective transportation plan that supports your organization strategy.

Your Centralized Decision Making Hub:
Let AllGreen bring the pieces together, consolidate and compress the information into one clean format, and create a centralized decision making hub for you. Helping companies save money is what we’re here for. We have all the necessary tools and experience analyze and consolidate your company’s data so you can make the best decisions possible for your company.

Summary:
Good data is important because it allows you to save money and make good decisions. You acquire good data through electronic billing, getting raw data from your carriers, and your own data collection. Once you have the data, you will need tools or resources to help you analyze it. This analyzation leads to actions your company can take to save money and make your customers happy.

Let AllGreen bring the pieces together.

How to Get Good Data
Now that you know why data is important, you’re probably wondering how to get the data your company desperately needs. The world of data is huge, and oftentimes overwhelming. It can be hard to know where to even start. This second blog in our three part series will focus on how to acquire good data. We will talk about the different ways that you can get the data you need for your company, as well as the shortcomings of each data gathering method.

Internal Sales Numbers
Many businesses get data through their own internal historical sales numbers. Your company has the data for your past shipments, including the size and weight of packages you’ve shipped and the states you shipped them to. This appears helpful, but it’s not, at least not on its own. There are far too many variables involved. You could take two identical packages and send them both to New York. Despite the near identical shipping conditions, the packages can vary in price up to 60%. Was the package going to a business in New York City, or a remote residential location in upstate New York? Factors such as these can dramatically change the price of shipping.

Internal Sales Numbers – The Problem
Historical sales numbers can’t give you enough information. What problems can this kind of information gap cause? It can cause you to lose money or even customers. When you don’t have accurate information, you may be overcharging your customers or undercharging and paying for shipping out of pocket. How do you solve that problem? More data.

Carriers
This leads us to our next method of data gathering: carriers. When you get data from your carriers you can get a much more comprehensive picture of the many variables involved. If getting data from carriers is so much more comprehensive, why doesn’t everyone do it? Electronic billing. Many companies still receive paper bills from their carriers. This makes data capture and analysis nearly impossible. When you sign up for electronic billing, along with your bill, you will receive a .csv file with hundreds of columns of data. It contains everything, the size, weight, region, service level, delivery surcharges, etc. By analyzing this carrier data, over enough time, you can start to see trends, and when you discover trends you can begin to make better decisions.

Carriers – The Problems
There are a few problems with this, however. Firstly, how do you analyze this data once you have it? The files you receive are massive and even if you knew what to look for it would be impossible to effectively find it yourself. Shipping carriers have billing tools that allow you to take the data they send you and run general reports. This seems like a good solution. The problem is that these carriers do not have your best interest at heart and they will only give you enough information to keep you from being dangerous.

Internal + Carriers
The two methods of data gathering are the most powerful when used in conjunction with each other. Your company’s internal data alone is not enough, but when combined with carrier data it becomes a great tool. By analyzing internal data and carrier data against each other, you can identify discrepancies that the carriers won’t tell you about, and save your company money.

Summary
To get good data you must be keyed into both the front and the back end—your own sales numbers, and the carrier information. Electronic billing is key; you cannot get the historical data you need without it. By combining internal sales data and external carrier data you get the kind of comprehensive picture your company needs to compete in today’s fast paced market.

In our next blog, we will talk about what to do with the data once you have it. We will talk about how to analyze you data as well as the solutions to many of the challenges data presents.

What is data and why is it important?

Data is, at it’s most basic level, information. It is the information about every step of your company’s process. We live in the information age, and we have access to more data than ever before. This may feel overwhelming at first, but when you learn to leverage all of the information flowing in and our of your company, you are set up to surpass your competitors and save significant resources—from tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands, to potentially even millions of dollars.

Data allows you to make good decisions

Data is truly more than the sum of its parts. It is the driving force behind your company’s decision-making engine. The profitability of your company is determined by every decision you make, and it is impossible to make good decisions without good data. Imagine you were buying a new vehicle and you were trying to choose between two cars that looked the same from the outside. Car A costs $10,000 and Car B costs $12,000. If you don’t have access to information about the upgrades and features of each car, how can you know which car is truly a better value? Without all the appropriate information, it is impossible to make a good decision. Making business decisions is no different. How can you know the best thing to do for your company if you do not have access to all of the data?

Data drives change and improvements.

This is important because the world we live in is changing rapidly. We live in an instant age. The growth in e-commerce through the last 10 years has changed how consumers expect their products. Even if you aren’t dealing directly with companies like Amazon; two-day, next-day or even same-day shipping has become standard. This requires agility in your supply chain. Customers expect their products faster than ever. This requires you to make good decisions that align with the quickly changing landscape. The only way to meet this ever-increasing demand for speed is to have good data. Efficiency is key, and without good data, there is no way to ascertain your level of efficiency.

Data creates opportunities for efficiency and profit.

Every process within your company is an opportunity. Leveraging the data you have allows you to improve these processes. Imagine if you had a process that that takes place hundreds of times per week or even thousands of times per day. What if you saved $0.01, $0.10, $1 or even $10 per process? Throughout the course of a year, those small changes will have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line.

Data allows you to see trends.

More data—as long as it is the right kind of data—is better. Having a large timeframe of data to pull from allows you to see trends in your business. It shows you not only the changes you need to make, but also how changes you’ve made in one area affects other areas of your business. The unique pieces of your business and your process do not exist in isolation. Every decision you make creates trends in other areas of your business, and data allows you to see these clearly.

Data helps you identify ways to serve your customers more effectively.

Many companies’ decisions depend on their carriers’ analytics. If you’re doing this, you are already behind the curve. Shipping carriers provide good raw data, but they have a vested interest in keeping you inefficient, and they can never give you the complete picture. They don’t know your market, your customers, or your distribution like you do. Because your profitability comes down to the efficiency of each process, and decisions must be made quickly, you cannot afford to be operating with incomplete data. Without all the information, you will not know how to serve your customers well. We will cover this more in depth in the next blog post.

In Summary:

Collecting and using good data is one of the most important things you can do for your company. It drives informed decision-making, as well as allowing you to make decisions quickly, it drives profit, it creates opportunities for positive change in the processes your company does on a daily or weekly basis, it shows you business trends and it allows you to serve your customers’ needs. Without data, your company is stumbling through the dark. When you utilize all of the information available to you, your company is released to operate at its highest potential.

Our next two blogs will focus on the practical steps your company can take to get good data and the response your company should have to the data you acquire.

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