Winmore Completes the CRM Puzzle for 3PLs
San Francisco, California USA Site Visit
May 15th, 2019
By
Evan Armstrong and Cheri Grabowski

Key Personnel:
John Golob – Chief Marketing Officer
Mark Gamble – Head of Product Marketing

Winmore Overview
Winmore’s cloud-based bid and tender management software application is specifically designed for Domestic and International Transportation Management third-party logistics providers (3PLs). By providing 3PLs with an automated process workflow approach for managing requests for pricing and tenders, Winmore increases process visibility and efficiency. Its system feels more like a consumer Internet app and allows local and global bid teams to handle higher volumes of qualified RFPs in a shorter time frame, often with fewer resources. Winmore uses a centralized software application and one system of record for all RFPs, bids and tenders.

Winmore has two offices in California and one in the Netherlands. Its largest customers include industry leaders DHL Global Forwarding, Imperial Logistics, Jan der Rijk, ProTrans, LF Logistics (division of Li & Fung), and C.H. Robinson Worldwide.

The RFP Response Process Today
Most freight forwarders and brokers rely on a complex manual RFP response process, requiring 3PL bid teams and stakeholders to work together quickly and effectively.

Typical bid responses require answers to the following questions:

• Is this an opportunity that fits our business, and should we respond?
• What services are required?
• Which transportation modes are involved?
• Which traffic lanes should we bid on?
• What pricing should be proposed?
• Is there ample carrier capacity within a given lane?
• What was proposed in our last bid, and what was the result?

Most 3PLs use manual processes supported by spreadsheets and email to manage and develop RFP bid responses. While desktop applications can allow an organization to get by using a manual process, it isn’t without the risk of missing deadlines, missing revenue opportunities, and disappointing potential clients. This lack of automation means that tasks, actions, and requests must be initiated and monitored by an individual or team. The human element inherent to a manual process means there is more room for error. Employee promotions, turnover, or illness doubles the burden of using a manual process for bid and tender management. In addition, strategic management of the process often relies upon historical data, which are manually gathered and may have errors or missing information.

Moreover, teams may be globally distributed and may have varying departmental priorities. This challenge can cause an accidental misallocation of resources, errors within the process, and time delays, thereby losing revenue opportunities on a regular basis.

Winmore’s Architecture
The Winmore system includes an RFP bid dashboard, a calendar view, search functionality, and intuitive yet powerful analytics to analyze profitability, yield, regional performance and lost business post mortems. The workflow follows the bid response, from pre-bid preparation, qualification, solution design to bid submission, bid revisions, and the post-bid process. At each phase, key stakeholders have visibility to each bid’s status and can review open items. Accountability is further enhanced with stored conversations, an easy approval process, action items, and alerts. The straight-forward application is hosted on Winmore’s cloud.

Key Functionality
Winmore’s software was designed to solve critical pain points during the bid process.

Better Bid Qualification
Winmore’s proprietary bid scoring technology visually reports which requests and tenders drive the most margin and value to an organization. Easily accessible metrics allow the team to avoid low-probability or unprofitable bids, and refocus on strategizing and preparing for new RFPs and tenders. Past history can be leveraged to better understand pricing and service relationships and make data-based business decisions.

Elevated Visibility
Winmore’s system effectively communicates the status of every bid progressing through a 3PL’s response process. It provides clear updates so everyone (from any function) knows what task is expected and when it is due. It also calls attention to where bottlenecks may threaten the process. Teams can leverage the automated task management process and remain proactive versus “fighting fires”. The dashboard view of the entire pipeline helps key stakeholders to understand the entire portfolio at a glance.

Increased Accountability
Winmore enables team members to collaborate, exchange ideas, ask questions, set alerts, manage tasks, and obtain approvals. The communication is centrally logged and can be referenced by any team member at any time. The system provides a platform for greater alignment between departments and increased productivity. Global participants can use Winmore as a centralized solution for managing the process, instead of relying on disparate processes. Winmore also provides audit and performance review functions to build insights which can be leveraged for future successes.

Conclusion
Winmore is a rapidly growing cloud-based bid and tender management solution for 3PLs developing bids for International and Domestic Transportation Management solutions. It supports local and global bid teams with a centralized platform designed to automate and streamline workflows that will quickly and efficiently focus resources on the right bids, increase visibility throughout the process, and increase win rates.

As e-commerce growth continues to propel the logistics industry, technological investments in smart tools such as Winmore provide 3PLs with increased process management and automation to scale up and remain competitive.

Finally, for 3PLs that have historically struggled with deriving maximum value from their CRM software investments, Winmore complements mainstream CRM software by delivering an industry-specific shipper acquisition module exclusively for them. In our opinion, Winmore completes the CRM puzzle for 3PLs.