Process Management for 3PL Providers

Third Party Logistics (3PL) companies are growing in prevalence in the supply chain management market, helping organizations to offload functions including warehousing and distribution, transportation, and returns management. In the process, they inherited some of the supply chain technology and process challenges of their customers and partners.

Traverse Systems’ business process automation solution Rivet™ combines technology and services to address these challenges head-on with pre-configured blueprint templates custom made for 3PL companies.

What are some common 3PL company challenges?

• Onboarding. 3PL companies often bring on hundreds of new customers each year. As such, onboarding presents enormous integration and interoperability challenges.
• Standardization. 3PL companies work with firms that have unique processes and technology stacks, increasing the complexity, time, and costs required to standardize processes. 
• Collaboration. 3PL companies must manage and balance relationships with various departments and groups in their interactions with retailers, vendors, and carriers.
• Visibility. The many players under the 3PL company’s umbrella demand real-time information access. 
• Compliance and Accountability. When questions or disputes arise, 3PL companies must be able to ascertain and document the events in question with full credibility and accountability.

What do these challenges cost your business?

Incompatible and often manual processes and technologies lead to suboptimal operating efficiency. 3PL companies seem unreliable when they fail to provide immediate answers to questions about the whereabouts and condition of goods labels. An inability to resolve disputes creates dire financial exposure.

Rivet standardizes 3PL operations through process automation

Rivet is a business process automation solution that combines technology and professional services to automate previously manual and ad hoc business processes. It is a single platform that replaces email, spreadsheets, task management software, and the other software and manual processes you and your customers and partners use today.

Rivet Blueprints that target pressing 3PL challenges

Rivet’s tailored blueprints combine software and professional services to automate your processes your way. Rivet’s blueprints ensure that:

• Process-specific data is identified and sourced from existing documents, data, and, where desired, data repositories and applications
• Process tasks and responsibilities are assigned and tracked automatically
• Data collection is automated by your privacy, security, and approval requirements
• Alerts notify appropriate personnel of erroneous, incomplete, or late tasks Redlining, review, and approval of documents are shepherded automatically

The result is an automation-driven experience that supports the online completion, tracking, and verification of all documents, signatures, and approvals. You and your customers and partners are provided with industry-specific tasks, data, supporting documentation, follow-up actions, and alerts. And online dashboards offer real-time status of everything the blueprint drives and manages. 

We have blueprints that directly address these 3PL challenges, including:

• Customer Onboarding. Rivet’s 3PL Customer Onboarding blueprint automates data collection across 15 categories of business and process information, including general business information, warehouse assignment locations, inventory management requirements, SKU information, retailer and vendor representatives, and commodity requirements. A supporting set of capabilities enables the integration of existing applications and the exchange of data via various file and data interchange standards.   
• Carrier Onboarding. Rivet’s 3PL Carrier Onboarding blueprint collects and manages data from federal registration and regulation information to insurance requirements, cargo limitations, safety and rating documentation, licensing and bond documentation, trailer and asset tracking, EDI integrations, and more. 
• Retail Compliance & Claims Management. Rivet’s 3PL Compliance and Claims Management blueprint helps companies to better position themselves to dispute retailer chargebacks. A dispute workflow management solution drives and manages the process of establishing a documentation trail that includes photos, spreadsheets, emails, forms, proof of inspection, and more across companies and departments.
• Customer Management. Beyond the initial onboarding process, there are recurring and often time-sensitive requirements, including terms and conditions to annual certificates of insurance (COI) and numerous other contractual or regulatory documents and processes. The Rivet 3PL Customer Management blueprint captures these requirements and ensures they are proactively amended and approved as needed.

3PL Organizations’ return on investment in Rivet

Rivet process automation and its process-focused blueprints generate significant labor savings through automation — typically two or more fulltime employees. It standardizes your processes, regardless of the underlying uniqueness of each customer, automating deadline tracking and follow up and alerting appropriate personnel of errors or issues. Rivet’s customizable dashboards provide visibility into the status of processes risk exposure and the need for action.

Want to Learn More?

For a deeper dive into the challenges 3PL organizations face today and Rivet’s ability to address those challenges.