Enterprise Software in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Logistics / Freight Forwarding / Enterprise Software / Amsterdam

An Amsterdam-based freight forwarder (EUR 1.2B annual revenue, 2,800 employees, managing 420,000 shipments annually across ocean, air, road, and barge — operating from 45 offices across Europe, with Amsterdam as the central hub coordinating European distribution for 380 corporate clients including consumer electronics, pharmaceutical, and FMCG companies) needed an enterprise platform to unify shipment operations that had grown through acquisition into four disconnected systems. The company had acquired three regional forwarders (Benelux, DACH, Nordics) over 8 years, each bringing its own operational platform. Core challenges: (1) System fragmentation — four TMS (Transportation Management Systems) with no unified operational view. The Amsterdam hub running a 2009-era CargoWise One implementation. The Benelux network on a custom .NET system built in 2012. The DACH offices on a German TMS (Riege Scope). The Nordic offices on another custom system. A single shipment from Shanghai to Munich might touch three systems: CargoWise for ocean freight management, the Benelux system for Rotterdam port operations, and the DACH system for European road transport — with manual handoffs at each transition. No unified shipment visibility — the operations team maintaining a separate Excel tracker (12,000 rows) to monitor cross-system shipments. Client inquiries ("where is my container?") requiring operators to check multiple systems and often call colleagues in other offices. Average response to client status inquiry: 2.4 hours. (2) Customs complexity — EU customs regulations requiring: pre-arrival declarations (ICS2), customs classification (CN codes), preferential origin determination (under EU trade agreements), and compliance with sanctions screening (EU restrictive measures). The Amsterdam hub processing 180,000 customs declarations annually through Dutch Douane (customs) systems. Each regional system handling customs differently — the DACH offices using Atlas (German customs), the Nordic offices using national customs systems — with no standardised compliance framework. Post-Brexit UK shipments requiring additional customs processing that none of the four systems natively supported — staff managing UK customs through a combination of manual HMRC submissions and a third-party customs broker. (3) Client experience gap — corporate clients expecting real-time shipment visibility comparable to consumer parcel tracking. The company's client portal: a static website showing shipment data extracted nightly from CargoWise — 24-hour-old data, no multi-modal tracking, and no integration with road transport or last-mile delivery. Corporate clients ranking the company's digital experience 2.8/5.0 in annual survey — below industry average and triggering tender risk. Three major clients (combined EUR 85M annual revenue) explicitly citing digital capability in recent RFI processes, signalling that the next contract renewal might go to a competitor with better technology. (4) Operational inefficiency — the four-system landscape creating massive duplication. Booking entry: the same shipment booked in the origin system, then re-entered in the destination system when it arrives in the destination region. Document management: bills of lading, commercial invoices, and packing lists attached in one system but not visible in another — operators requesting documents from colleagues by email, sometimes re-scanning paper documents. Rate management: carrier rate agreements maintained separately in each system — the company unable to leverage its consolidated EUR 1.2B volume for rate negotiations because no single system showed total carrier spend. Financial: each system generating its own invoices — the finance team spending 8 days monthly reconciling shipment revenue across four billing systems. (5) Sustainability reporting — corporate clients (particularly European FMCG and consumer electronics companies) requiring carbon footprint data for their Scope 3 emissions reporting. No unified emission calculation — each system using different methodologies (or none). The company unable to provide clients with shipment-level CO2 data, losing competitive advantage as sustainability became a procurement criterion.

We built a unified supply chain orchestration platform over 18 weeks — creating a single operational layer across all regional systems while preserving regional capabilities during migration. (1) Unified shipment management: single shipment record from origin to destination — regardless of how many systems, offices, or transport modes are involved. Multi-modal lifecycle: a shipment from Shanghai to Munich tracked as one entity through: ocean booking → container loading → vessel tracking → Rotterdam port arrival → customs clearance → barge/road transport to warehouse → last-mile delivery. Each segment managed by the appropriate regional team but visible to all stakeholders through the unified platform. Event-driven architecture: every shipment milestone (booking confirmed, container gated in, vessel departed, customs cleared, delivered) captured as an event — triggering automated actions (next-leg booking, customs pre-filing, client notification) and updating the unified tracking view in real-time. Integration layer: rather than replacing all four systems immediately, the platform creates a unified data and workflow layer above the existing systems — reading from and writing to each regional TMS through APIs and data connectors. Regional teams continue using familiar tools during transition while the platform provides the unified view. (2) Customs orchestration: unified customs management across all EU member states and the UK. EU customs compliance: ICS2 pre-arrival declarations filed automatically from shipment data — the platform calculating required filing lead times based on transport mode and entry point. CN classification: AI-assisted customs classification — product descriptions matched to CN codes with confidence scoring. For the 4,200 most-common product categories, the platform auto-classifies with 97% accuracy. For unusual products, it suggests top-3 classifications for customs specialist review. Preferential origin: automated origin determination under EU trade agreements (EU-Japan EPA, EU-Canada CETA, EU-UK TCA) — calculating whether goods qualify for preferential tariff rates based on origin documentation and rules of origin. UK customs: post-Brexit customs processing fully integrated — CDS (Customs Declaration Service) submissions automated, with GVMS (Goods Vehicle Movement Service) declarations for Dover/Eurotunnel movements. Dutch Douane: native integration with Dutch customs systems — import and export declarations filed directly from the platform, with AGS (Automated Customs System) connectivity for status tracking. Sanctions screening: every shipment screened against EU restrictive measures, UK sanctions list, and client-specific restricted parties — screening integrated into the booking workflow so flagged shipments are stopped before they move. (3) Client visibility portal: real-time multi-modal shipment tracking — clients seeing their shipment journey from origin to destination on a map interface with predicted arrival dates, current status, and exception alerts. Predictive ETA: machine learning model trained on 2 years of historical shipment data predicting arrival times with 92% accuracy within a 4-hour window (versus the previous best-case 24-hour accuracy). Exception management: proactive client notification when shipments deviate from plan — vessel delay, customs hold, transport disruption — with estimated impact and proposed remediation before the client asks. Document portal: all shipment documents (bill of lading, commercial invoice, packing list, customs declaration, delivery proof) accessible through the portal — no more email requests to the operations team. Analytics dashboard: client-specific analytics — shipment volumes, transit time trends, cost analysis, and CO2 footprint per shipment and aggregated. (4) Rate and cost management: centralised carrier rate management — all carrier contracts (ocean, air, road, barge) maintained in the platform with: rate validity periods, surcharge structures, volume commitment tracking, and automatic rate application to bookings. Volume leverage: consolidated spend visibility enabling strategic carrier negotiations — the company able to demonstrate EUR 1.2B in collective volume rather than presenting fragmented regional spend. Margin management: real-time margin calculation per shipment — revenue (client rate) minus cost (carrier rate + handling + customs) — with margin alerts when individual shipments fall below threshold. Financial consolidation: single billing system replacing four — client invoices generated from the platform with full shipment detail, eliminating the 8-day monthly reconciliation. (5) Sustainability and carbon tracking: shipment-level CO2 calculation using GLEC Framework (Global Logistics Emissions Council) methodology — calculating emissions for each transport leg based on mode, distance, cargo weight, and carrier-specific emission factors. Client reporting: carbon footprint reports per client, per trade lane, per transport mode — enabling clients to include freight emissions in their Scope 3 reporting. Modal shift analysis: the platform recommending lower-emission transport alternatives — "shifting this trade lane from road to barge reduces CO2 by 62% with only 1-day transit time increase" — supporting clients' sustainability targets. Science Based Targets: emission data formatted for clients pursuing SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) alignment — providing the granular transport data needed for target setting and progress tracking.

Results over 12 months. Operations: shipment processing time from 45 minutes to 12 minutes per booking — cross-system handoffs eliminated. Client status inquiry response from 2.4 hours to real-time self-service — 82% of status inquiries now handled through client portal without operator involvement. Document retrieval from email-and-search (average 35 minutes) to instant portal access. Financial reconciliation from 8 days monthly to 2 days — single billing system eliminating four-system reconciliation. Client retention: all three at-risk clients (EUR 85M revenue) retained at contract renewal — digital capability specifically cited as differentiator. Client digital experience rating from 2.8/5.0 to 4.4/5.0. New client wins: EUR 42M in new annual revenue attributed to platform capability — clients switching from competitors lacking comparable visibility. Customs: customs declaration processing from 35 minutes average to 8 minutes — automated classification and pre-filling. UK post-Brexit customs: fully automated versus previous manual/outsourced process — saving EUR 1.2M annually in customs broker fees. Customs compliance: zero penalties from any EU customs authority (versus 12 penalties totalling EUR 340K in the prior year). Rate management: consolidated carrier negotiations enabled by spend visibility — EUR 8.2M in annual rate savings across ocean and road transport. Margin visibility: 340 below-threshold shipments identified in first quarter alone — operational changes recovering EUR 2.8M in annual margin. Sustainability: carbon footprint data provided to 280 of 380 clients — becoming a competitive differentiator. Modal shift recommendations accepted for 15% of eligible trade lanes — reducing aggregate emissions by 8% while maintaining service levels. Financial: client retention EUR 85M; new client revenue EUR 42M; operational efficiency EUR 4.8M; customs automation EUR 1.2M; rate savings EUR 8.2M; margin recovery EUR 2.8M; reduced penalties EUR 340K. Total annual impact: EUR 144.3M. Development: EUR 1.65M. Annual platform: EUR 420K. ROI: 87x first-year return.