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U.S. Shippers Association Moves Global Logistics Control Technology into the Cloud with GT Nexus

By ussa-login on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - Blog

Platform Centralizes Freight Spend Management and Visibility for Industry Trade Group

Oakland, CA and Needville, TX – October 24, 2012 – GT Nexus today announced that the U.S. Shippers Association (USSA) has successfully rolled-out its cloud supply chain platform to centralize and automate global logistics management for member companies. GT Nexus replaces disconnected, manual processes and systems with a single collaborative platform. Delivered as a hosted cloud technology service, GT Nexus automates the entire freight spend life cycle, beginning with the procurement of transportation services, through rate management and shipment visibility.

USSA enables the pooling of expertise of member companies to optimize logistics solutions and costs for exporting containerized products. USSA contracts for shipments of about 50,000 TEUs of ocean freight per year. Member companies include manufacturing industry leaders such as Air Products, Amcol International, Llyondell-Basell, FMC Corp., Guardian, Phibro, Rhodia, Sekisui, and Solvay.

“Our members are all very large, global companies that work together on common supply chain issues,” said Mark E. Davis, CSCP, Global Supply Chain Manager, FMC Corporation, Lithium Division. “Cloud technology is an ideal solution for us because it supports business collaboration between our members and partners in a way that could never be done before. We are now all
operating against a ‘single version of truth’ information model, which is very powerful when applied across a large global network like ours.”

“We want to provide our members with the best technology possible,” said Beverly Altimore, Executive Director at USSA. “The combination of disconnected standalone software and spreadsheets was cumbersome and inefficient. GT Nexus gives us both the business applications and the partner network for our members to efficiently manage their global logistics operations.”

USSA has consolidated and automated a number of key business processes that were previously handled through various software tools. GT Nexus had a proven, scalable solution that’s already deployed at many of the world’s biggest shippers and forwarders, enabling USSA to get up and running very quickly.

One of the key benefits of USSA is its ability to pool the freight volume of the members and negotiate preferred rates and services with logistics providers. Member companies then access their contracts and run their supply chains using the jointly negotiated rates. GT Nexus provides both the transportation sourcing environment, as well as the central contract repository that members access over the Web.

“The USSA is an example where you have multiple parties on both sides of the commercial relationship,” said Greg Johnsen, CMO and Co-founder at GT Nexus. “This is exactly the kind of business-to-business collaboration that cloud supply chain platforms like GT Nexus were designed to support. The USSA turned to GT Nexus because they discovered that stand alone
solutions still lack an industry network and key stakeholder support.”

GT Nexus is also providing USSA member companies with shipment visibility capabilities on the platform. Often cited as the number one priority, visibility can help companies in the process manufacturing industry improve operational control and customer service. “While USSA consolidates purchasing to gain buying leverage for all members, each company operates
independently using the negotiated rates,” added Altimore. “GT Nexus is designed to support this complex combination of centralized purchasing and decentralized daily operations that are scattered around the world.”

The GT Nexus cloud supply chain platform fuses business applications to an integrated network of importers, exporters, carriers, 3PLs and banks. Customers use just the services they need, paying as they go, which eliminates the up-front risk associated with traditional software and allows for rapid deployments and opportunities for easy expansion into more sophisticated logistics management capabilities.

About USSA

USSA provides container and LCL transportation procurement services to a select group of shippers. Organized originally in 1985 as an export association, USSA is in the process of expanding their global footprint to include import and cross-trade ocean procurement services. For more information and membership inquiries, visit www.usshippers.org.

About GT Nexus

GT Nexus offers a cloud-based platform that the world’s biggest companies use to drive efficiency and agility across the global supply chain. Leaders in manufacturing, retail and logistics services all share GT Nexus as their standard, multi-enterprise collaboration platform. Users operate against a core set of information across multiple supply chain functions to optimize
the flow of goods and trade information, from order point to final payment. Customers include Xerox, Williams-Sonoma, Nestlé, DHL, Sears, Caterpillar, Kraft Foods and The Home Depot. For information, visit www.gtnexus.com.

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