Five Solid Reasons for Automating This Year

Editor’s Notes:

The team at Cheetah Software would like to take a moment to wish you a most prosperous and successful new year. We look forward to working with you this coming year and making it the best ever.

One of the keys to getting results company-wide is having excellent communication. Organizations fall down when communication falls down. In this issue of Cheetah Speed, we will show you how our software, in essence, is a vast integrated/automated, real-time communications solution, tying together your entire operation. At any given moment you have instant access to the status of a shipment or delivery and so do your customers.

Enjoy the new issue of Cheetah Speed. With this New Year about to begin, what better time to let us know what is happening in your world. What do you see taking place in the trucking and delivery industry? Send your comments, your thoughts and your ideas to:

info@cheetah.com

Best,

Larry Jaffe
Editor, Cheetah Speed

CONTENTS:

Scope: Five Solid Reasons for Automating this Year
Product Lines: More about the Cheetah ASP Product
Onboard: Spotlighting a New Cheetah Client

Scope: Five Solid Reasons for Automating this Year

Do you think it’s time to automate your operations? If you ever had any doubts, here are five reasons why you need to do it today! Streamlining your operation with Cheetah increases efficiency, reduces costs and provides higher margins. It really is as simple as that.

Impacts Dispatchers

In today’s constantly changing economy, there is no time for error, there is no time for mishap, and most importantly, there is no time for poor routing and planning. Cheetah is geared up to handle from 10 trucks to 500 or 5000 or more. How many trucks can your dispatchers handle?

Cheetah provides a detailed street-network environment with every street digitized into our system. Cheetah and one dispatcher can replace 2 to 3 manually overloaded dispatchers.

Impacts Drivers

The Cheetah System looks at all your pending orders and automatically sorts them based on on customer requirements. Cheetah’s dynamic route optimization calculates all your pickups and deliveries. Routes are planned out in advance based on pickup and delivery times. Once your driver is on the road, any changes due to add-on work, cancellations or delays from traffic conditions are put into to the system and ETA’s recalculated on the fly.

Impacts Customer Representatives

Your CSR’s receive a continuous flow of up-to-the-minute real- time information regarding the status of pickups and deliveries. ETA’s are automatically recalculated when necessary (unexpected delays, etc.), travel times and locations are always available. Cheetah’s proven technology is not only on par with industry leaders, but puts you at even higher levels of service and enables your representatives to give more timely information than ever before.

Impacts Customers

The key to expanding your business is satisfied customers. And the key to satisfying your customers is providing them with easy-to-access information about their shipments. With Cheetah, your customers can log in to your web site and in real-time check shipment status. They will see where their shipment is and when it will arrive. Cheetah automates your shipping process from warehouse to customer for rapid-fire information and status.

Impacts their Bottom-Line

The transportation industry is composed of two facets, the shipment itself and accurate information about the shipment. The technology to deliver that information also provides greater efficiency and reduced costs to your operation. By reducing the manual workload, less people are required to do the same amount of work. For example, with optimized routing, drivers increase the number of stops they make.

Of equal importance, is the affect on your new and continued business. UPS® and FedEx® have created a very high standard, because they do not just deliver boxes; they deliver the goods and the information. At any given moment, customers, dispatchers and CSR’s can see the real-time status of a shipment. Thanks to Cheetah, your company can operate at the same level of service as these industry leaders. In essence, we automate your supply chain. We enhance your infrastructure and streamline your operation, moving your operation from points of disconnection to a fully integrated two-way communications network.

Your bottom-line is improved with new business, your current customers are happy, and internally you have accomplished greater efficiency and production with less cost.

Product Lines: More about the Cheetah SaaS Product

Many of you have written in and wanted to know more about how our new approach to software distribution works and how it affects your bottom-line. We will soon have a white paper dealing with this latest method of software distribution and how you benefit from it. In the meantime, we want you to have as solid an understanding as we can deliver within the confines of our newsletter.

When we talk SaaS we are talking about us hosting the application at our data center. SaaS stands for Software as a Service. This means you access your software through the Internet. What’s the advantage to this you may ask? I have software on my current network that we upgrade all the time. What’s the big deal? Well it’s like this:

Currently, your company is responsible for all your hardware and software purchases, system upgrades, back-ups, and round-the-clock technical support. Maintaining the system can be quite costly and if disaster happens can be extremely disruptive to your workplace. Additionally, as your company grows and requirements change, the information and communications system must grow with you.

Additionally, specialized systems often require extra hardware, communications equipment and software licenses each time a new location is added. The costs can be significant and even prohibitive. This can cause a delay or even halt your expansion. Bottom-line: you may not be able to deliver the level of service demanded by your customers.

On the other hand our SaaS-based Cheetah System allows decentralized access to all the centralized information. Anyone in your organization (with proper authorization) can access your Cheetah network through the Internet. We manage the network for you. No need for installations, upgrades, replacements, or maintenance ever. Cheetah handles all data back-ups, software upgrades, and maintenance on a regular basis.

Because we own the software and data-center servers that run the application, all of our clients benefit from our top grade personnel and hardware. The Cheetah SaaS  network is run at the highest performance levels obtainable. We continuously maintain and upgrade the system to keep it running at optimal levels, always!

Since software applications are our core business, we are able to focus on what we do best and give you the same opportunity. By taking over these functions, Cheetah gives you the opportunity to fully dedicate your team to what they do best – trucking! We make certain that you have ready access to Cheetah Freight or Delivery and your secured company information at any time, from anywhere. Partnering with Cheetah provides an alternative for smaller companies with low IT budgets, as well as larger companies interested in outsourcing some or all aspects of their IT needs.

In either case, you are able to focus on your core competencies by outsourcing this non-core area. For many trucking companies, in-house resources cannot be redirected without impacting customer service or the bottom-line. The SaaS model supports virtually unlimited growth. There is no need to worry about growing your business beyond the capabilities of your business system. Unlike legacy systems, there is no need for additional expensive on-site equipment. You don’t need to add expensive servers, software and IT resources. Adding another terminal or store simply requires an off-the-shelf PC, broadband Internet connection, an ID and Password. Installation is quick, easy and affordable.

Onboard: Spotlighting a New Cheetah Client

SOUTHWESTERN MOTOR TRANSPORT

This month, Cheetah Speed welcomes Southwestern Motor Transport. SMT is one of the nation’s top regional LTL trucking operations. They are based in San Antonio, Texas, and have 20 terminals and over 200 trucks. It’s been quite a rollout for both Southwestern and Cheetah. But thanks to the sophistication of the Cheetah Freight ASP interface, the implementation went very smoothly.

Highlights of the Installation:

Southwestern’s IT Director, Robert Bernal:
“Cheetah already possessed an intimate knowledge of our back-end systems, interfacing these with Cheetah Freight was a smooth and virtually painless operation.”


“The system is so straightforward and intuitive that getting it fully utilized was accomplished with remarkable ease.”


“A hosted solution spared us the significant expense in equipment and personnel required with in-house systems.”

Southwestern’s President, Chris Withers:

“We looked at a number of packages with an emphasis on those that would allow for rapid implementation and a quick return on investment.”


“Increasing fleet productivity and customer retention were also key factors in seeking out a real-time tracking and routing system.”


“In just our first week on Cheetah’s system, we could see productivity increases and our drivers were driving less miles per day.”


“Increased visibility of our fleet’s routes and locations enabled us to make a number of routing adjustments almost immediately. There was also a noticeable reduction in phone calls to dispatchers and customer service reps since the implementation.”