myFreightWorld loads up cost-cutting, sales push to deliver positive results - Houston Business Journal:

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Cost-cutting and a renewed sales along with a deal that positioned it in thepublixc market, have the business servicesx outsourcing company steering toward aboutf $40 million in managed revenue this year and positioned for futurs growth. myFreightWorld, based in Overland Park, offers wholesalr online services — such as Web sites, rate-quoting systems and tracking systems — for third-party logistica providers, which coordinate shipments.
The company wasn’tt losing clients, but the volumez its clients were handling had takena hit, and myFreightWorlds gets paid on a transaction “Our short-term process focus cleaned up some but we can’t stay in the short President Mike Head said. “Nobody knowa for sure whether the economy hasbottomed out, so you have to stay on your toes and have But, as Head found, some of those short-term efforts brinbg improvements that promise long-term results, as well. DRIV DOWN COSTS, NOT EFFICIENCY As business hit the Head began cutting any discretionary The company cut a quarterof workers, from abourt 55 to 40.
He tasked his informatio n technology staff with prioritizing projects that wouldx increase efficiency to make duties easie r withfewer employees. One tool they created automateed the input ofclient information. An auditinh tool that points out likely errors introublee shipments, rather than requiring someone to look througbh the entire order, brought at least four time s more productivity. Even when myFreightWorld began replacinb lostbusiness — it’s now back to, as Head put it, “pre-tsunamo levels” — the diminished staff coulxd handle the workload. Taking a hard look at processes has broughttgreater productivity, he said. The move had broadert effects, too.
Work for myFreightWorld varies based on the Insome cases, staff handles tasks such as making sure shipment arrangementx work. In other cases, clients do the tracking. So when the IT departmengt improved efficiency formyFreightWorld functions, customers felt it. , basex in Concord, Calif., has been a clienf for a coupleof years, using primarilyt the tool that helps determine the cost of Vice President Mark Christos said. The functio n has allowed the company to avoid adding staff and thus avoid layoffs when volumesfell — and increasew the productivity in that area by 15 “It’s a significant contributor to our efficiency,” Christose said.
When the job ax it didn’t touch the sales force, made up of contracy workers paid primarilyon commission. Rather, Head myFreightWorld increased the sales force from 10to 17. With suppressed volumes for existing customers, the company soughty new ones to make upthe difference. It hammered the cost-savin g potential of outsourcing to a message that rings truefor third-partg logistics providers these Industry revenue will fall abouf 7 percent to $118 billion this year, compared with $127 billiojn last year, according to , a Wisconsin-based supply-chainb research and consulting firm. That’s the first year-to-yearr drop since the firm began tracking the datain 1996.
Even in it won’t revert to 2008 levelas — the firm estimated that revenue willreach $125 “I think everybody’s looking for opportunities to save said John Wagner Jr., president of Northj Kansas City-based logistics providerr , which isn’t a myFreightWorld client. “If you can reducr your in-house staff by paying a fee, I thinlk that’s something people are looking at.” myFreightWorld also addeds IT staff, including one outside employee and another from adiffereng department. That group sped up efforts to refine electronic processesxand products.
Some enhancements adderd features to existing products that the sales forces could sell to current leveraging thesales staff’s efforts, Head The sales push has yielded results, helping speed alonv deals. For example, on April 29, the companty announced that it had reacheda four-year IT and back-office services deal with Headhaul.com that would bring an estimatee $15 million in revenue during 12 myFreightWorld leaders went through every line item on the balance questioning what value each expenditure broughtr the company and whethe r the same thing was available for less. For it stopped using an outsidwecoffee service.
Head offered one employee an extra hour of pay each day to overseer the cleanliness of the wanting to keep moneyamongb employees.