Sometimes the most familiar way to do something really is the best way to get it done. The supply chain and logistics industry is known for its love of a good, old-fashioned spreadsheet — and why not?! We learn how to use tools like Excel and Google Sheets out of necessity to organize the world around us. Who hasn’t used one to plan a vacation, workout program or to evaluate their options when buying a car or house? And when we go to work and our bosses want to know how close we are to hitting our margin goals, what last quarter’s transportation spend was, and which software meets our needs at the best price, that’s when most of us tend to at least start with that tried-and-true matrix of cells.
That’s why SONAR has released our new Microsoft Excel Add-in. Once installed, everyone from boomers to Gen Alpha (if a 14-year-old has interest in logistics data) gains access to incorporate SONAR’s millions of data points into their day with nothing more than a user login and password.
Shipper procurement teams can now incorporate SONAR contract rates directly into their spreadsheet-based RFPs. While you’re at it, throw in the SONAR Lane Score to see if you’re quoting an outbound-heavy lane. These will be more difficult to cover if the contract falls through and you have to go to the spot market, so price carefully!
3PL team leads can finally answer the question: “If I say no to this truck at 10am, what is the risk that I’ll still be sitting here without one at 5pm?” Export your load list to Excel and add a few functions to pull in today’s outbound tender rejection values (OTRI). Then, you’ll be able to assess available truckload capacity for each lane. And did you know you can also request equipment type and length-of-haul-specific OTRI to be even more accurate?
Taking a look at the company financials this quarter and wondering just where your projections went askew? I promise that SONAR has something that will help you explain to your boss that it was the crystal ball that was wrong. With the Excel Add-in, you can tell them not to worry because you have now replaced the voodoo with high-frequency, validated, trustworthy and easily accessible…DATA. Here is your heads-up for the fourth quarter and yes — all of the data in this article could be yours in Excel.
All of this and so much more can now be at the fingertips of anyone who needs to monitor market conditions, optimize rates and maximize margins in the supply chain and logistics world…with no budget for fancy new software, sitting on a list waiting for IT resources, or PhD-clad data scientists required.
Submit a demo request to learn more about how you can utilize SONAR data within Microsoft Excel at your organization!
