“Useable data is crucial for us and our customers. Using BoxTop provides the access and flexibility we need. BoxTop is fast, efficient and it links our offices in Runcorn, Heathrow, Toronto and Budapest together with improved productivity.”
- Matt Beech
- Chief Executive
- Maltacourt Global Logistics
In data we trust…
The background
Maltacourt is a privately-owned UK-based freight forwarder, offering international air and sea services and European road freight. It was established in Widnes, UK in 1981 and now also has offices at London’s Heathrow airport and in Australia, Canada and Hungary. Maltacourt is a growing business and has recently (Nov 2009) doubled its warehouse space near Heathrow and expanded into central Europe.
The challenge
Maltacourt’s business was growing and it needed to find a more efficient way to manage the information along with the freight itself. In order to remain competitive, it needed to improve productivity per employee and to link its Widnes and Heathrow offices.
Maltacourt also wanted to improve visibility for customers – to allow them to access what information they needed, when they needed it. It also wanted to improve visibility for its own employees – so they could always access information about the status of the cargo and, most importantly, be alerted to potential problems. The existing system was no better than just recording data for invoicing.
The solution
Maltacourt investigated a variety of freight forwarding software systems and narrowed it down to the last two. Matt Beech, CEO, says the functionality of the two was very similar but what persuaded him to select BoxTop was its ease of use. “We asked the operations people to look at the systems and they were able to use BoxTop straight away. It was obviously designed by people who understand the industry. Training takes a minimal amount of time and it is a quick and easy system to use.”
Matt Beech also wanted the system to be based on Microsoft SQL “so we could build anything we wanted to sit alongside and extract and exchange data. Data is only interesting if you can use it.”
This means Maltacourt can give its customers exactly what they want. “One customer wanted a POD with more information than just the time, date and person who signed. So we added the data they wanted, created it in the format they wanted and send it to their server automatically twice a day.”
Maltacourt also asked BoxTop to help when it needed to interact more easily with a partner in Hungary who was handling goods out of three factories there. “Our partner can now input data about the cargo, using an Internet process designed by BoxTop – what, where and precisely what time the goods were picked up as well as warehouse and trucking data, and this information updates BoxTop instantly for us. This has greatly increased efficiency – and the accuracy of the data.”
The result
Maltacourt has found that customer satisfaction levels have improved. “With BoxTop, we can always give our customers exactly what they want. BoxTop is led by its customers. We ask them if they can offer us a particular facility and they almost always can deliver it!
“BoxTop is a vast improvement on what we had in the past and on what others can offer. They promised us a swift and seamless transition to their system – and they delivered.”