AboutCargooffice < Cargooffice

---++!! About !CargoOffice

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---+++ Introduction
!CargoOffice is a large set of transport and logistics related software. All software can be used online, as !SaaS (Software as a Service), and is immediately ready for use. It has two parts, a "frontoffice" showing functions for customers and a "backooffice" showing functions for the transport company's own staff and for collaboration with partners.

Some examples of available software:

   * Online job entry
   * Dispatch and planning
   * Track & Trace 
   * Fleet management
   * Freight exchange
   * Quotation
   * Warehousing

Also see the section on [[#WorkFlow][Typical Workflow]] below.


---+++ Who owns !CargoOffice?
The !CargoOffice software is owned by [[http://www.loginet.nl][Loginet BV]] and actively maintained. The software is available round the world, online and ready to use.

---+++ History of !CargoOffice
In 1998 Loginet BV created the first web pages for transport companies. As these web pages rapidly became an instrument for transport companies to comunicate with their customers Loginet was asked to add functionality for online job entry and track & trace. In 1999 Maersk Sealand became interested and asked Loginet to develop some online services for their intermodal activities. From then on !CargoOffice grew rapidly and over the following years a lot of new software was added to the repository. Nowadays there are different programmers and companies contributing to !CargoOffice.

---+++ Front Office
The Front Office is used to welcome customers and has links to pages like 'Order Entry' and Track & Trace'.<br> 
Its 'look and feel' is easy to customize to give this welcoming page a more personal touch. [[FrontofficeSettings][Read more..]]

---+++ Back Office
The Back Office is for the company staff itself and holds links to for instance 'Dispatch and Planning', 'Billing and Invoicing', 'Freight Exchange' etc. The 'Back Office' is the page to start using any software from the Cargo Office. All settings, passwords and links are available from here. [[BackofficeSettings][Read more..]]

---+++ Do it yourself
Can you do it yourself? Of course you can. In fact it is very easy to start your own Cargo Office.
When starting you need some kind of super user or Cargooffice Administrator, somebody inside your company who has some interest in handling the functionality inside the Cargo Office. Every Cargo Office starts with a default configuration. Reading all available documentation the Cargooffice Administrator is free to add new users and adjust the Cargo Office to its companies needs.

---+++ How to continue
Are you missing something? Just read our documentation!<br>
Is there still some kind of modification or extra program wou want to have made? Simply, just tell us!<br>
The best way is using your bug tracking system. Your remarks will be picked up by our programmers desk and answered ASAP.

#WorkFlow
---+++ Typical Workflow
A lot of Freight Forwarders are using !CargoOffice for their daily work.<br>
Below is a typical workflow procedure for a small forwarder. 

   * Order entry by customers via online entry form, Excel sheet or EDI. 
   * Order entry by staff from faxes or received telephone calls. 
   * Manual entry of the transport price (for invoicing) and charter price (for charter order) and costs for profit/loss calculation. 
   * Optional offering to charters through the freight exchange. 
   * Assignment of orders to charters, either via the dispatch form or directly by entering the charterID into the order entry form or into the status-change form. 
   * Confirmation of the planning by changing the status of planned orders into &#8216;confirmed&#8217;. 
   * Status &#8216;confirmed&#8217; triggers an action to send a &#8216;charter order&#8217; by email to the charter and/or electronically (XML or other format) and/or by order-copy if the assigned charter also uses CargoOffice. 
   * Charter accepts the order and changes his order-status into &#8216;accepted&#8217; which triggers an automatic status change of the FF&#8217;s order into &#8216;accepted&#8217; as well (or some other status with the same meaning). 
   * Charter reports optional statuses like &#8216;pick-up&#8217;, &#8216;on-route&#8217;, &#8216;delivered&#8217; etc. depending on capabilities and level of automation (PDA, SMS) or otherwise manually through the FF&#8217;s frontoffice. 
   * Status &#8216;delivered&#8217; (or POD or otherwise) triggers an automatic status change of the FF&#8217;s order into &#8216;delivered&#8217; as well. 
   * The &#8216;delivered&#8217; orders are selected and an output file is created for the accounting software, status is changed into &#8216;invoiced&#8217; (CargoOffice can also print invoices directly). 
   * Sometimes there are additional statuses and output files/emails to confirm the reception of signed documents and weekly or monthly reports to charters for their invoices. Usually these are underscore statuses (not visible to customers) like &#8216;_documents received&#8217; and &#8216;_charge report sent&#8217;. 

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-- Main.RutgerRutgers - 22 Aug 2006
This topic: Cargooffice > AboutFreecargo > FreightExchangeHowto > WebHome > CargoOffice > AboutCargooffice
Topic revision: r6 - 2013-06-06 - HenkRoelofs