CRM for shipping

In the shipping industry, working with clients is always time-consuming: managing applications, completing accompanying documentation and customs declarations, tracking the location of cargo and resolving current issues. All this creates a high operational burden on the staff, due to which the quality of service may decrease, which is unacceptable in a highly competitive environment.

Using an individual CRM system, you can optimize most of your company’s internal processes through automation and ensure its sustainable development.

In CRM for shipping, flexibility and security are important, so all system functions are developed individually, taking into account the needs of each particular company. If we talk about the general functional capabilities of such systems, they may look like this:

• Company structuring. Digital division of business into departments and automation of interaction between them.
• Maintaining a customer base. CRM keeps a single database of customers. A separate card is created for each of them, which contains the entire history of communication, a list of applications and their statuses, documents and other important information, which greatly simplifies communication.
• Control of work of personnel. CRM tools collect reports on the work of each employee and allow you to evaluate its effectiveness.

• Order management. Maximum automation of receiving applications for the transportation of goods, tracking and changing their statuses.
• Digital document management. CRM is able to store all standard documentation – contracts, invoices, customs declarations, etc., thanks to which you can get rid of most of the bureaucratic processes and conduct document management in digital form. This will improve the quality and speed of customer service.
• Integration of external services. CRM can be connected to various third-party services, such as payment systems for online payment for services, telephony and other tools that will make the work of the company even easier and more convenient.
• Collection of analytics. Up-to-date analytical data will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your business and determine the most promising points for its development.

Business in the field of sea transportation of goods is quite complex and includes many internal processes. Therefore, in order to create the most effective tools for automating it, it is important for developers to build good communication with the client. To do this, we carry out development according to the SCRUM methodology.

The idea of the methodology is that the development of the project is carried out in short sprints, each of which has a specific goal and a limited deadline. Thus, the customer always knows what kind of work is currently being carried out and what the result will be.

In addition to the methodology, there are also development stages. Consider what work is done on each and them.

Stage 1. Gathering information

The creation of CRM begins with research – specialists need to determine how the company works, what processes exist in it and their priority, as well as the client’s experience in using similar systems.

To get answers to these and other questions, we organize communication with customer representatives.

Stage 2. Design and development of documentation

Design is considered a fundamental stage in the development of CRM, during which specialists lay the functionality and architecture of the project. A high-quality and well-thought-out prototype allows you to significantly reduce risks, optimize the development process and reduce the time to create a quality product. During design, the following are created:

• interface mockups;
• schematic visualization of CRM modules;
• summary table of functionality;
• describes the mathematics of the project.

In addition, our specialists record demo videos for the client, in which they describe in detail the logic of all functions. As a result, the customer can understand how his CRM will look and work even before the first line of code is written.

In simple words, the prototype is the foundation of the project, on which the entire development and testing process is built. Therefore, we devote a lot of time to this stage.

Stage 3. Design development

For a CRM system, it is important that its interface is user-friendly and comfortable. This will simplify the training of personnel and minimize the likelihood of making mistakes during work. For a shipping business, this is critical because every mistake can be costly.

To achieve the highest quality result, an individual design is created for such CRMs. With this approach, all interfaces, tables, graphs and other elements are drawn manually, taking into account the features of the system functionality.

Stage 4. Programming

The technical development of CRM is considered one of the most difficult stages. It can be divided into two components:

• Frontend. This is the client side of the system. It is created in strict accordance with the previously approved design and provides a comfortable user interaction with the server. Frontend for web applications can be built on HTML/CSS/JavaScript or Vue.js/React.js frameworks. For mobile applications, cross-platform Flutter / Dart technologies or native technologies can be used: Swift for IOS, Java / Kotlin for Android.
• Backend. This is the reverse, or server part of applications, in which all data is processed and stored. To develop the backend in web applications, Python/PHP/Node.js or Django/Flask/Yii2/Laravel frameworks are used. In mobile and desktop applications, in addition to this stack, the C ++ language can also be used.

Stage 5. Testing

After developing a feature, it is important to make sure that it works correctly. To do this, QA engineers are connected to the project, who perform comprehensive testing of the CRM system.

Stage 6. Technical support and development

The first weeks after the start of using CRM in real conditions, users may encounter unexpected errors.

In each such case, the problem is studied and promptly eliminated by the developers as part of technical support.

It is important that after the release you will be able to continue developing your CRM by releasing new patches. Thus, it will grow in parallel with your business and always meet its needs.

Customized CRM will help your company automate internal processes and establish more effective interaction with customers. It will simplify the interaction between employees and allow you to completely transfer the workflow to the digital plane, which will open up new opportunities for business development.

AVADA MEDIA has extensive experience in the development of CRM systems for logistics and cargo transportation. When implementing such projects, we completely immerse ourselves in the client’s business, study his individual processes and needs, and then find the best technical solutions.