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      The 7bridges product catalogue

      What is the 7bridges product? What benefits does it bring to customers? What functionality is available for customers?

      Introduction

      Within the software, 7bridges have created 2 products:

      • Optimise
      • Automate

      These each have various tiers as well as some bolt on options.

      Optimise

      Introduction

      Optimise provides the customer with detailed spend visibility, contract compliance & the ability to analyse your current network & simulate possibilities.

      • Harmonised provider invoice and shipment data
      • Analysis of spend and Logistics Service Provider (LSP) performance
      • Auditing that spend
      • Simulating possible network improvements

      Optimise key components...

      Provider account visibility and management

      The customer can add, view and manage all their providers and accounts through a dedicated Providers section in the software. Including:

      • Key account details - account number, billing country, type, description
      • Tags to help categorise accounts
      • Annual spend
      • Annual shipment volume
      • Contracts and Rate Cards
      • Connections for receiving invoices and other documents into 7bridges software
      • Key contacts: provider account manager, contact to send disputes to, technical contact at provider, account owner at customer

      Also can view metrics for this provider account related to data in the software:

      • Tracking invoices received in last 8 weeks
      • Tracking shipments tracked in last 8 weeks
      • (If on Automate) Tracking shipments booked in last 8 weeks
      • 5 most expensive shipments
      • 5 heaviest shipments
      • 5 most delayed shipments (where tracking is available)
      • (If also have Emissions Reporting bolt-on) 5 highest CO2 shipments

      This provides a centralised place to manage your provider accounts so all information is always readily available.

      Other features

      • See notifications of account contracts expiring soon
      • Search and filter your accounts to understand them more and find what you need

       

      Invoice and shipment data ingestion and harmonisation

      Invoices from LSPs along with shipment data files are delivered to the 7bridges software via email or SFTP (LSP ebilling portal download and upload is also available at extra cost).

      File type support

      • Data file (CSV, XLS) containing invoice and shipment data is supported in almost all formats
      • PDF file containing invoice and shipment data is supported at an extra cost

      Delivery of files

      The files that arrive at the software can be seen in the Ingests tab in the Data Manager section. This shows the status of every file that has been sent to the 7bridges software.

      The data is extracted from these files as they arrive at the software and that data is ingested to be shown and used in various places:

      Invoices section

      A place to see all invoices and open an invoice to see all the detail associated with it. The invoices all display in a standard format with links to the shipments from the invoice. Harmonised invoice data includes:

      • Provider and account
      • Invoice total including with and without taxes
      • Issue and due dates
      • Downloadable original files

      Shipments

      Users can link to the details of a shipment from an invoice or via search. There is also a Shipments section that has various views; these are mostly aimed at Automate customers but do display shipment lists for Optimise customers. Harmonised shipment data includes:

      • Provider and account
      • Shipping method (service)
      • Ship and delivery date (when available)
      • Transport mode (air, ocean, package etc.)
      • Itemised charges for the shipment
      • Billed weight
      • Tracking events (when available)

      Network Analysis

      The harmonised invoice and shipment data is used to power the main reporting section of the 7bridges software: Network Analysis. This is a series of tabbed sections with various dashboards enabling the user to analyse their:

      • Spend
      • Provider delivery performance
      • Shipment properties
      • Emissions (if they also have Emissions Reporting bolt-on)

      Audit

      Audit enables 7bridges customers to know whether the invoices received from LSPs are accurate or not. This leads to better control of costs and understanding of the service level delivered by each LSP.

      What is audited?

      Audit involves a number of Audit checks that are made against all the shipment charges on an LSP invoice. These Audit checks can be seen here.

      The Audit checks fall into 2 categories:

      • Contract breach - where the charge or service performance is contrary to the contract and rate card agreed between the 7bridges customer and the LSP
      • Contract leakage - where the invoiced charge is outside of any agreed contract and rate card and so could be costing the 7bridges customer more than it could; these charges are candidates for review (through commercial negotiation or changes in operating procedure).

      Audit process

      If an Audit check discovers an anomaly with a charge then it generates a Spend Alert. All Spend Alerts of each type for each invoice are collated together and sent to the provider as a dispute. This dispute is sent via email to the Disputes contact that is present on that account in the Providers section of the software.

      Audit setup

      2 key enabling components of Audit is:

      • Configuration of charges and shipping methods
        • All charges that are seen by the 7bridges software on LSP invoices are captured and standardised and can be viewed in the Data manager section.
        • These charges are also grouped into categories (this is an available filter in Network Analysis)
        • The charge configuration involves matching it to a charge in the rate card for that account - this ensure a direct comparison between what should be charges from the rate card and how charges actually appeared on the LSP invoice.
      • Rating Engine
        • The 7bridges software includes a Rating Engine that can return quotes for a shipment based on the face value reading of the supplied rate card and contract.
        • All shipments found on invoices are passed to the Rating Engine and the generated quote saved ready to compare to the various invoiced charges for that shipment

      Prepay or Postpay?

      Audit also has an option so a customer will know when to pay an invoice. The Audit checks, generated Spend Alerts and disputes will all combine together to help the customer know what state an invoice is in and when it is ‘Ready to pay’. The customer always has the ability to override this process and manually mark the invoice as ‘Ready to pay’.

      Reporting

      Included in the Audit spend section of the software is all of the elements above plus a Results page with dashboards to help the customer understand the impact and status of Audit.

      Simulations - Network optimisation

      The rest of Optimise Standard provides customers with analysis of their current supply chain network. Simulations allows them to plan ahead, working on scenarios for a more performant supply chain.

      Simulations are run using Experiments. Optimise Standard gives customers access to 1 current Experiment type: Network Optimisation. This Experiment enables a customer to take standardised data from the software and run various ‘what if?’ simulations using various combinations of their current Provider Accounts and Fulfilment Locations. The AI model in this Experiment will choose the best option for fulfilling every inputted shipment so as to create a projection of a future supply chain network based on the maximum cost saving opportunities according to any applied constraints.

      Optimise Standard customers have the ability to run a set number of simulations in their 7bridges subscription but more simulation credits can always be purchased as an add on.

      Results analysis

      The output from the simulations can be downloaded as a CSV data file for more detailed analysis by the customer or a third party analyst.

       

      Optimise bolt-ons

      Emissions reporting

      If the customer has this bolt-on active then they gain access to a number of reporting points that are all powered from an added emissions data layer in the software. Emissions data for each shipment is calculated using a consistent methodology to enable like-for-like comparisons between LSPs. This is added to the shipments in the software based on a number of factors:

      • Transport mode of the shipment
      • Detailed transport features (min speed, max speed, fuel type etc.)
      • Distance travelled

      This is all dependent on the necessary shipment data being available in the software (e.g. from LSP invoices).

      Outputs

      The emissions data can be mainly consumed in the Emissions part of Network Analysis that is enabled for customers who purchase this bolt-on. In addition, the Highest CO2 shipments for an account are now shown on the Provider Account details page.

      GL coding

      This enables charges from LSP invoices to be tagged with specific codes that are then utilised in accounting systems. GL coding can be done manually by the user, but the main advantage of this bolt-on is the automated GL coding rules that can be created to assign GL codes based on certain data in the shipments, invoices and charges.

      The GL coding can always be seen on the invoice details page. In addition, a report of the GL coding for an invoice can be exported per invoice as a PDF file.

      The GL coding data can also be configured to export to an sFTP endpoint.

      Custom reports

      Customers can purchase additional bespoke reporting dashboards to leverage the harmonised data to deliver customer specific insights. These reports are then housed in the Custom reports area of Network Analysis. Customers can request new custom reports at any time using the form linked from the button in that Custom reports area.

      Sharing data back to your data warehouse

      Customers can receive bespoke data feeds of their standard and transformed data that is within the 7bridges software. Standard data is the data pulled straight from the files received into the software. Transformed data includes fields that have been calculated based on this standard data.

      The customer will choose:

      • The list of data fields to have in their feed
      • The delivery method from:
        • email with link to file stored in Data Manager > data exports page
        • SFTP endpoint provided by 7bridges
        • SFTP endpoint provided by customer
        • Direct data warehouse connection
      • The frequency of the delivery - daily/weekly/monthly
      • If the delivery is all data every time or just incremental changes

      Once all these choices are made the feed is setup and maintained.

      Simulations - Freight Load Optimisation BETA

      This is a beta Experiment type available in the Simulations section of the 7bridges software. The simulations take various input files to then generate optimised order fulfilment decisions for suppliers to the customer’s warehouses, including:

      • When to collect and deliver each order, given an allowable “flex” in each date, and full route time estimates with site opening times
      • Consolidating orders, quantified as number of pallets, into vehicles
      • Exact loading configuration i.e. which consignment is transported by which vehicle, given certain constraints
      • The vehicle route taken; both direct routing and “milk-run” routing
      • The ability to specify primary or secondary favoured providers and constrain providers/services for orders with specific properties

      Simulations to run

      As with other Experiments, the customer can setup the simulations to run to test their hypotheses and get to the outcome they desire.

      Results analysis

      The output from the simulations can be downloaded as a CSV data file for more detailed analysis by the customer or a third party analyst.

       

      Optimise subscription tiers

      Optimise Standard

      This includes the listed Optimise Standard components above including:

      • The ability to run 2 simulations per year (more credits can be used and will be charged to the customer)
      • The ability to ingest standard data files (CSV, XLS etc.)
        • PDF and non-standard data files may incur additional costs and limitations on numbers of pages

      Optimise Standard is 7bridges’ lead product and it sets the customer up with the data in the software to lead towards many other benefits delivered as part of Optimise Intermediate or Advanced.

      All customers are onboarded onto Optimise Standard before progressing to any other product or tier.

      Optimise Intermediate

      The additions in Optimise Intermediate are around the use of simulations:

      1. Customers can run 25 simulations per year as standard. As for all customers, more credits can be used and will be charged to the customer.
      2. Customers can use Market Insight Rates in simulations in order to compare their current provider mix to the wider market. The shipment cost estimates generated from the Market Insight Rates should be viewed as a guide only and are not guaranteed to be available to all customers.

      Optimise Advanced

      This gives customers access to more simulation Experiment types. This includes BETA Experiment types such as Freight Load Optimisation (detailed above).

      Automate

      Introduction

      Automate at it’s core is about fulfilment through shipping. It supports shipping through various LSPs for parcel, freight and specialty. Shipping bookings can be made manually or via API and can leverage a number of bolt-ons as well as employing the extensive fulfilment rules engine to make decisions automatically.

      Automate key components...

      Coverage

      Automate currently covers the following shipment types:

      • Mode: Parcel, Temperature Controlled Parcels (Specialty)
      • Geography: No limitation
      • Industries: No limitation

      How 7bridges receives shipping information

      The software is able to receive shipping data in a number of ways:

      • API - comprehensive shipping APIs allow customers to operate the 7bridges software exclusively in their own systems including sending all required shipping information directly to the 7bridges software; removing manual data entry. APIs include:
        • Sales orders - the orders and purchases by the end customer can be created and managed
        • Movement demands - the requests to initiate and manage a shipment booking in the 7bridges software
        • Book shipment - the ability to book the shipment via API and get the labels and documents as a response
      • Manual Entry - operational users can manually create shipments in the software interface by entering all data manually

      Booking integrator shipments

      Simplifying and automating the booking of your integrator shipments directly from one single platform:

      Book with multiple providers from one single platform

      The 7bridges software is integrated with LSPs to enable customers to handle all shipments with integrators from one centralised place. The software will be able to display all applicable rates and services for each shipment related to the customer’s LSP account setup in the software.

      The main LSPs supported for automated shipment booking are:

      • UPS (worldwide)
      • FedEx (worldwide)
      • DHL Parcel PL (international shipments from Poland)
      • DPD Ireland (Europe)
      • Polarspeed (UK)
      • DHL Parcel (worldwide)

      Other LSP support can be added on request.

      Domestic and international shipping

      When booking with providers the 7bridges software enables customers to ship to both domestic and international destinations using one standard workflow for both. The integrations with Integrators are enabled to facilitate paperless trade wherever possible for international shipments through capturing all required information as part of the booking process. In addition the customs step in the booking workflow gives various options for the shipment’s incoterms etc.

      Booking specialty shipments

      In addition to the automated integrator shipment booking outlined above, the 7bridges software offers a way to book freight and specialty shipments via a standardised process, whilst still supporting LSPs that deal with shipment booking via email.

      Customers can still push Sales orders and movement demands into the 7bridges software via the API or simply create new shipment bookings as per the shipment booking workflow.

      Rate generation based on your Rate Card

      Where you have agreed rate card/tariff with a given LSP the Rating Engine in the software can be configured to calculate applicable rates and services based on the shipping data provided.

      Requesting spot quotes

      Where your agreed Rate Cards do not cover the lane or shipment type the customer can trigger a spot quote request directly to LSPs directly from the booking workflow in the software. All required information is sent to the LSP so they are able to provide a quote response. The quote is then uploaded directly into the 7bridges software by the provider where the customer will be able to review this alongside any other quotes provided.

      Submitting booking requests & confirmation from provider

      The customer will select the required shipping method & rate which will submit the booking request directly to the provider via email. This also includes any required supporting documentation. The LSP can review the booking request and then provide confirmation directly on the 7bridges software, providing the AWB/label, tracking number and planned collection date.

      Shipment booking workflow

      The 7bridges software provides a workflow in the user interface to create and process shipment bookings. These can be bookings initiated through the Automate API or created manually in the software. The Booking process includes the following steps:

      1. Shipment reference - a reference for the shipment (not the tracking code).
      2. Addresses - enter the sender and recipient addresses manually or select from the Fulfilment locations and Address Book entries in the software. There are also fields for EORI and tax references.
      3. Packaging - adding products(items) to Packages. This is essential as LSP rates and bookings are dependant on specific information about the shipment contents.
      4. Customs - only for cross border shipments to specify the incoterms and other customs information.
      5. Shipping method - the returned service options from LSP integrations with quoted rates and delivery times; the user can choose how to send the shipment. This step can be automated to choose the best shipping method. It can also be controlled by the fulfilment rules engine
      6. Confirm - a step to review and confirm the shipment booking. The customer configuration can hide this step.

      The booking flow can be used by a customers shipping operatives to book shipments with several configuration options to customise the workflow steps.

      Shipment tracking information

      Booked shipments in the 7bridges platform also show live tracking information and historical tracking steps. This data also helps to populate reports on provider performance in Network Analysis (see Optimise key components).

      Tracking information is available natively for these LSPs:

      • UPS (worldwide)
      • FedEx (worldwide)
      • DHL Parcel PL (international shipments from Poland)
      • DPD Ireland (Europe)
      • Polarspeed (UK)

      In addition tracking is supported for many other LSPs via a 3rd party integration. This can incur extra costs for the customer).

      Address Book

      The Address Book is a feature for Automate customers to make managing addresses for shipments easier. Within the Locations section of the software, the customer can create both fulfilment locations and Address Book entries. These Address Book entries can be used for locations that will be used again and again in shipment bookings (e.g. the end customer) so you can make sure the data is entered the same every time.

       

      Automate bolt-ons

      Fulfilment rules engine - automating booking decisions

      Included in Automate Advanced tier the fulfilment rules engine. A fulfilment rules enables the 7bridges software to automatically make decisions and perform actions in regards to a shipment booking based on the data provided. For example, when a shipment originates in the United Kingdom and the destination country is France, then the customer may only want certain UPS services to be made available for that shipment booking. This removes the need for the logistics team to make these decisions as part of the booking process.

      Rules can be configured based on certain data conditions:

      • Match an origin country (eg GB)
      • Match a destination country (eg DE)
      • Match a tag (e.g. Marketplace_Order)
      • Match an origin address
      • Match a destination address
      • Match an origin fulfilment location (as configured in the Locations section)
      • Match a destination fulfilment location (as configured in the Locations section)
      • Match an originating company name
      • Shipment reference field matching a regular expression
      • Total overall value of SKU's in the shipment within a specified range
      • Match UK postal code
      • Match postal code prefix
      • Match destination type (business or consumer)
      • Match a product code (SKU)

      Rules can then perform the following actions:

      • Constrain the booking:
        • Fixed fulfilment location
        • Fixed shipping method
        • Fixed shipping method on the order
        • Fixed provider account
        • Fixed provider
      • Set EOR/IOR

      Currently rules are managed by Customer Support staff. Customers request changes to the rules via support tickets.

      Custom branded documentation

      The 7bridges software offers as standard the ability to generate both a Pack List and Commercial Invoice (where applicable) based on the shipping information provided. As a bolt-on, customers can request custom branded and shipment destination specific pack list templates. These are created in the software by 7bridges Customer Support to templates supplied by the customer.

      NOTE: Customisation of the Commercial Invoice is not possible at this time.

      NOTE: Where Paperless Invoicing has been used for the shipment with an Integrator you do not need to print the Commercial Invoice but it will be visible for reference.

      Automatic return label creation

      As part of the shipping process customers can generate labels for the return shipment. This can be handled automatically via the calls to the 7bridges API. Automatically created return labels will be available within the shipment after it has been booked. In addition the booking of the return shipment can be affected by the fulfilment rules (if set).

      Customs declarations

      The 7bridges software connects to government customs systems to send customs declarations and receive documents and the MRN reference. The production of the customs declaration is made during the shipment booking workflow as a bolt-on feature. The 7bridges customer will be the “Declarant” for these declarations.

      Shipment email notifications

      There are a number of event types that can be used to send emails to the end recipient of a shipment that are sent through the 7bridges Automate software. These events include:

      • Shipment dispatched
      • Shipment out for delivery
      • Shipment delivery issue e.g. delayed
      • Shipment delivered

      The emails will be sent from 7bridges on behalf of the customer.

       

      Automate subscription tiers

      Automate Standard

      This includes a few basic areas as documented above:

      • Booking integrator shipments - manual only (no API)
      • Shipment booking workflow
      • Shipment tracking information
      • Address Book

      Automate Intermediate

      Intermediate includes everything in Automate Standard plus:

      • Access to and use of the Shipping APIs
      • Booking specialty shipments (manually including spot quotes)

      Automate Advanced

      Advanced includes everything in Automate Intermediate plus:

      • Fulfilment rules engine