Research of the peculiarities of the Organization of International Freight Transportation (freight process) and testing the app idea

MCG specialists were contacted by a British logistics company, which, in particular, also develops software for cargo transportation operators. In order to develop high-quality software, the customer was interested in how exactly the work process of industry specialists is organized, what tasks they constantly have to solve and what problems they regularly encounter.

During the first consultation meetings, it was decided to focus the attention of the research on the issue of rate calculations in the process of container transportation by sea to four European countries: Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
A series of in-depth interviews with industry specialists — buyers, logisticians, supply managers, etc. — was the most suitable method for solving the given task. These specialists were divided into two homogeneous groups:

1. buyers — those who import for their own needs,
2. traders — are those involved in the supply chain, connecting buyers with producers.

The most resource-consuming stage of the research was the recruitment of participants: specialists in this field are considered difficult to reach, since on the one hand there are not so many of them, and on the other hand, their time was usually already planned several months in advance.

Therefore, to find them and convince them to participate in the study, 3 recruiters worked for 1.5 months.

The customer personally participated in the evaluation of the expertise of the selected candidates. This joint work allowed us to select informants who have a high level of professional competence and vast experience in the field.

The interview guide consisted of three independent parts:

1. A general excursion into the process of organizing international cargo transportation, which included blocks of questions about working with shipping companies and suppliers, the search for new contractors and partners, as well as the main problems related to this.
2. Thematic review of the process of rate calculations, analysis of the main methods, review of available and insufficient tools on the market.
3. Testing the customer's application idea. Informants were offered a detailed description of the idea of the application, which could hypothetically be of interest to people in the field, followed by a detailed analysis of all points of the concept and the generation of additional ideas.

The obtained data became the basis of the analytical report, which contained:

• Typification of the main approaches to the organization of sea freight imports to Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
• Description of the features of the search for new partners, suppliers and new exporting countries.
• An overview of the most urgent problems and pains associated with the process of organizing international freight transportation (with the determination of the place of rate calculations in this series).
• An analysis of the most typical methods and tools of rate calculations, as well as a description of the related existing and hidden needs.
• Detailed feedback on the application idea proposed by the customer, with an assessment of potential TA, drivers and barriers to its promotion, a list of required and desired functionality, a range of value for potential TA and much more.
• A pool of new ideas and options for the development of the application concept, in which the audience would be interested.
  
  

The information presented in the report fully satisfied the customer, providing him with a clearer understanding of the market situation and arming him with a number of concrete recommendations, promising ideas and real feedback from industry experts. Moreover, some of the informants expressed a desire for further cooperation, offering to transfer their contacts to the customer for further consultations and direct testing of the application in the process of release, and the customer himself gladly took advantage of this offer.