Page 36: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2020)

Feature | Mercado Labs 2020 SHIPPING & PORT ANNUAL mary cost drivers. Ships cost hundreds of millions to purchase riod is managed by MS Of? ce, which wasn’t designed to man- and many millions per trip to operate.” At the same time, the age work? ow, automation or process. For the remaining 15% of maritime industry also must look at the most ef? cient way to op- the total move, a freight forwarder is typically engaged to assist timize network whiles signi? cantly improving customer service. with logistics. Often, the order information remains discon-

Garrison offers that the three biggest uncontrollable expenses nected from the information chain. Hence, shifting the complex for a carrier are equipment dwell time, no show bookings, and process from the analog world onto a digital platform is the key.

equipment repositioning. All three are driven by the customer, Using digitalization to drive automation is not a new con- tied to their ordering process, and yet, carriers have done little cept for many industries. That transformation has been any- to understand this and/or build the technology to turn it into a thing but swift for a waterfront which has long de? ned prog- win/win for everyone. That’s where Mercado comes in. ress in terms of deadweight tons, ship LOA and TEU capacity.

Because Garrison spent half of his career at APL working Mercado’s innovative disruptive difference automates the for their logistics division (now APLL), it taught him the im- supply chain by digitizing traditional, manual functions and portance of connecting the order to the product. “Customers critical documents such as the order, invoice, packing slip buy shoes; not containers and bills of ladings,” he explains, and ISF. That’s important because a manual invoice has to be adding, “Connecting one to the other drives massive value reconciled by both the broker and by the accounting depart- for the customer, however that service is limited to visibility. ment of the importer to make sure it matches the order. This

Once the product is on a boat or a plane, there is little a cli- involves manpower and often, expensive mistakes. ent can do to correct a bad order.” Mercado starts with order Importantly, Mercado is a ‘platform;’ not a ‘point solution.’ management during planning and buying, converting it to vis- ‘Point solutions’ typically address one aspect of the transaction, ibility during the logistics phase. whereas Mercado Labs aggregates and improves all of these processes. Here, the Order, Suppliers, Providers, Products, and

Collaboration: Digitalizing the Supply Chain Logistics all work as one. Mercado’s platform connects to any

Mercado integrates with a client’s legacy ordering systems, point solution, ocean carriers directly, a shipment visibility tool not as an ordering system but one which provides for better such as P44, or ocean shipment viability tools like ClearMetal. tracking, transparency and accountability. Mercado is an In- That kind of collaboration exists only when technology brings ternational Supply Chain Platform (Plan, Buy, Move) which all of the pieces together, in one highly visible tool. embeds work? ow, process, and automation so that suppliers, orders, products, production, and logistics are all connected. Democratizing the Supply Chain:

Available Now – to the masses

Importantly, Mercado sends data back to the ERP so that host systems stay connected. “The bene? t to the client is Collabora- At the heart of Mercado’s value proposition is the goal of tion, Transparency, Visibility and Predictability,” says Garrison. democratizing the use of cloud-based supply chain manage-

It takes six months on average from the time an order is ment, providing an accessible price point for the nation’s placed from an ERP until it is received by the distribution cen- 300,000 importers. The ? rm aims to serve all importers, not ter. Without Mercado’s cloud-based technology, 85% of that pe- just the big boys. 36 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • October 2020

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