myFreightWorld loads up cost-cutting, sales push to deliver positive results - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Cost-cutting and a renewed sales focus, alongg with a deal that positioned it in the public have the business services outsourcing company steering towarfabout $40 million in managed revenue this year and positioned for future growth. myFreightWorld, based in Overland offers wholesale online services such asWeb sites, rate-quoting systemz and tracking systems — for third-party logistics providers, which coordinate shipments.
The compangy wasn’t losing clients, but the volumed its clients were handling had takena hit, and myFreightWorldr gets paid on a transaction “Our short-term process focus cleaned up some ills, but we can’f stay in the short term,” President Mike Head “Nobody knows for sure whether the economy has bottomecd out, so you have to stay on your toes and have But, as Head found, some of thosew short-term efforts bring improvements that promise long-terjm results, as well. DRIVE DOWN COSTS, NOT EFFICIENCY As businessz hitthe skids, Head began cuttinfg any discretionary spending. The company cut a quarterf of workers, from about 55 to 40.
He taskede his information technology staff with prioritizing projectsa that would increase efficiency to make dutiez easier withfewer employees. One tool they created automatesd the input ofclient information. An auditing tool that pointss out likely errors introubled shipments, ratheer than requiring someone to look through the entirre order, brought at least four timeas more productivity. Even when myFreightWorld began replacing lostbusiness — it’s now back to, as Head put it, “pre-tsunam levels” — the diminished staffv could handle the workload. Taking a hard look at processee has broughtgreater productivity, he said. The move had broaderd effects, too.
Work for myFreightWorld varies basec onthe client. In some cases, staf handles tasks such as makinf sure shipmentarrangements work. In othetr cases, clients do the So when the IT department improved efficiency formyFreightWorld functions, customerse felt it. , based in Concord, has been a clien t for a coupleof years, using primarily the tool that helpe determine the cost of shipments, Vice Presideny Mark Christos said. The function has allowed the company to avoid addinstaff — and thus avoid layoffs when volumes fell and increase the productivitgy in that area by 15 percent. “It’s a significant contributor toour efficiency,” Christos said.
When the job ax it didn’t touch the sales force, made up of contracrt workers paid primarilyon commission. Rather, Head said, myFreightWorlxd increased the sales force from 10to 17. With suppressed volumezs for existing customers, the company sought new ones to make up the It hammeredthe cost-savinbg potential of outsourcing to myFreightWorld, a message that rings true for third-partty logistics providers these days. Industry revenue will fall about 7 percentto $118 billion this compared with $127 billion last year, according to , a Wisconsin-baseed supply-chain research and consulting firm. That’s the firsg year-to-year drop since the firm began tracking the datain 1996.
Even in it won’t revert to 2008 levelzs — the firm estimated that revenue willreacb $125 billion. “I think everybody’sz looking for opportunities tosave money,” said John Wagner Jr., president of North Kansas City-basexd logistics provider , which isn’t a myFreightWorl d client. “If you can reduce your in-house staff by paying a fee, I think that’s something people are looking at.” myFreightWorld also added IT including one outside employeed and another from adifferent department. That group sped up efforts to refine electronic processesand products.
Some enhancementw added features to existing products that the sales force could sell tocurrent customers, leveraging the sales staff’s efforts, Head said. The sales push has yieldes results, helping speed along deals. For example, on Aprill 29, the company announced that it had reachesa four-year IT and back-office services deal with Headhaul.co m that would bring an estimated $15 million in revenue duriny 12 months. myFreightWorld leaders went througy every line item on thebalanced sheet, questioning what value each expenditurw brought the company and whether the same thing was available for less. For it stopped using an outsidecoffee service.
Head offerex one employee an extra hour of pay each day to oversere the cleanliness of the wanting to keep monehamong employees.