Supply Chain
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B2B
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2022
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Product Designer
Reducing Scheduling Delays
Zencargo is a digital freight-forwarding company that helps customers manage and optimise their global shipping and supply chains. The goal of this project was to reduce their reliance on an offshore third party and help their operations team become more autonomous.
Dragged out process
The Global Services Centre (GSC) was manually adding transport schedules from the carrier websites to the Zencargo platform. An operator could then search and assign a schedule to a customer booking. Progress hinged on how fast the GSC could add schedules to the platform.
Costly delays
If a schedule wasn't on the platform or a customer requested a change the operations team had to request the new schedule from the GSC. This process took up to 3 days to implement - costing time and money.
Need for UI improvements
The old search tool was a modal which only had basic search parameters. This modal didn't show any in-depth scheduling information which may be of use to the operators.
API to the rescue
The team decided to implement an API into the platform which would pull the schedules directly from the carriers website into the platform. This would need a new user flow which would accommodate the needs of the operators. The new flow was faster and eliminated multiple clicks and screens on the user journey.
But what if the schedule wasn't there?
We came up with the idea of a schedule builder. This tool would enable the operator to create a placeholder schedule or a custom schedule at the request of the customer. The challenge came from creating an easy to use UI and would enable multi-leg journeys.
User feedback
We ran several rounds of tests with members of the operations team. We A/B tested different features and used Fullstory to monitor their usage of the tool in beta and post launch.
"The search tool is really fast, and saves me having to wait on the GSC." - EMEA operator
"I like how I can click on the schedule and get a more detailed breakdown of the journey." - Benelux operator
"The schedule builder is really helpful in a pinch. we've gotten more customer requests so this saves time." - UK operator
New, improved search tool
Users could now search directly on the platform to find any live transport schedule directly from the carriers. They could find single and multi-leg journeys and use advanced search parameters for specific results. The schedule finder takes advantage of a full-screen view to show more information.
Custom schedule builder
Operators can now build a custom schedule for bookings if a specific schedule hadn't been released yet or at a customer's request. This helps prevent delays due to missing key paperwork.
Full control
Schedules can now be managed directly from the booking details page with their status shown on the booking. The user now has full control over bookings without the need for the offshore third party to get involved.
