payment solution, Fortigo offers a multimodal TMS that can handle any type of shipment. This allows for a closed-loop system that empowers Fortigo and its clients to identify compliance anomalies with vendors, saving money and time.
Fortigo’s solutions are geography agnostic and can manage freight bills across all geographies and any mode of transportation. They’re also able to pay any carrier, with any currency, in any location. Along with its freight audit and
Clients moving from manual processes to Fortigo’s freight audit solution can see first-year savings of 8% to 12%—or more. Established customers typically see savings of 1% to 4% or more year over year; the amount depends on the volume of shipments and the complexity of their transportation networks. Customers who take advantage of the closed-loop audit solution by leveraging both Fortigo’s TMS and its freight audit services can realize even greater annual savings. For the past three years, Fortigo has been named a FedEx Certified Freight Bill Audit and Pay provider. “In a competitive industry with hundreds of FBAP providers, Fortigo is the only multimodal TMS provider that is also a Certified FBAP provider by FedEx,” Kontoravdis says. The certification recognizes Fortigo’s ability to support the EDI round-trip process, increasing accuracy and efficiency within the freight audit function, as well as its focus on cybersecurity and ability to protect confidential data. From its early days, the Fortigo team has opted to grow organically, so it could focus on customers’ needs. This customer-oriented model allows Fortigo to continually deliver unique supply chain innovation to customers. Over the next few years, Fortigo will continue to focus on innovation to remain the best FedEx certified FBAP provider, Kontoravdis adds. Intelligent Audit: AI Empowers Shippers to Ship Smarter For nearly three decades, Intelligent Audit, a women-owned company,
Looking Into FBAP Providers Freight bill audit and payment (FBAP) providers can help companies save money, streamline operations, and make more
Who is doing the work and holding the data? Some firms engage outside partners to provide certain services. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, shippers should know who’s working on their account, where their data will reside, and who will have access to it. This is key to protecting client data and complying with regulations. What does the provider mean when it says it’s “global”? Does the FBAP provider operate full-service processing centers around the world, or does it instead rely on a handful of employees in a few countries? Does it have employees in each region who speak the language and understand local requirements? How are clients’ funds and data handled? Freight bills contain a wealth of valuable information. A trustworthy provider has a fiduciary responsibility to its clients. Among other steps, it won’t co-mingle funds and data with those of other companies. The provider also should have established processes and technology to ensure data security.
intelligent decisions. To gain these benefits, shippers can address the following questions to identify strong, reliable FBAP partners. How solid are the company’s financials? Ask to review externally audited financial statements, and check that the provider has fidelity bonding. It should also employ a bankruptcy remote structure that protects clients, should the firm run into financial trouble. Once a provider is hired, check these attributes annually. Has ownership recently changed? This may not be a concern in other industries. However, the FBAP business tends to be stable with long-term relationships. A change in ownership may mean an owner is facing financial challenges and needs to bring in additional business partners. Also check if the FBAP provider changed banks recently. This might be another red flag that business and banking operations are not stable.
has been a leader in providing comprehensive freight audit and payment solutions across all transportation modes worldwide.
By tailoring these solutions to specific departments or functions, shippers gain a deep and accurate understanding of their shipping operations.
68 Inbound Logistics • September 2024
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