Advantage Freight Networks (AFN) is a third-party logistics provider in the transportation industry, managing the freight for hundreds of its customers and maintaining relationships with thousands of carriers. AFN started as a small shop managing the freight for just a few customers and filling the “hard to place” shipments, and has grown into a specialized logistics solutions-provider that works to design custom solutions that meet the needs of its individual customers. Far from simply arranging for a load to be picked up and dropped off at its destination, AFN designs logistic plans that make its customers more efficient and flexible in the shipping of their goods.
Because of the nature of AFN’s operations, a platform was required that would allow for ongoing development and integration of new features, as well as specialized access by AFN’s customers and carriers that required up-to-the-minute access to the status of their shipments.
The company required a software platform that conformed to its internal processes and organization, something that no “out of the box” solution could provide. Starting with just 5 employees, the company has grown to more than 120 in just a few years, and needed a software solution that could grow with it. The company’s business moves fast and it requires flexible software to be able to manage the evolving needs of the marketplace. AFN’s competitive market edge relies on sophisticated customer/carrier matching techniques and the ability to predict demand to anticipate where freight is moving.
Working with Advantage Freight, the DEG team designed, developed, and implemented a custom platform that manages all components of AFN’s business, from the tracking of customers and carriers, to the creation of loads, quotes, and posted trucks. Because of the dynamic nature of the company’s business, DEG designed the software to be flexible and easily scaleable to greater numbers of users and external third-party software applications.
Because of the number of external services used by the company, such as load boards, EDI, and verification services, AFN’s platform had to be constructed in such a manner that it could easily integrate data from multiple sources into its processes. The solution had to be able to source and import complex data while presenting the consolidated information in a seamless manner to its users. The use of the platform as a “hub” for all the information managed by AFN required the system to provide unlimited flexibility in both the user interface and data structure.