While we don’t typically compare two products, the ongoing debate between which of CargoWise One and Precision is better for supply chain management is one we needed to contribute to. Naturally, successful companies have adopted state of the art solutions that have enabled them (as freight and logistics organisations) to remain industry leading organisations. While the industry has been slower than others to eliminate manual processes and adopt software solutions, some companies have taken a technology first approach, and reaped the benefits over the last decade. Undoubtedly, two of the most popular solutions are CargoWise One and Precision. In this article, we’ll be evaluating these two solutions from a feature and future proof perspective.
CargoWise One
CargoWise One is a single tool that is designed to fulfil the requirements of the logistics industry. It is integrated with other software solutions, but ultimately wants you to use only their software. While this sounds like a great sales pitch, it poses a huge operational risk with one provider also becoming the single source of your whole business’ failure. That said, the customer service is known to be poor, with many users complaining that after the sale has been made, getting support is near impossible. Proceed with caution.
Precision
Precision is also a single tool aiming to do absolutely everything for your business from a supply chain management perspective. Despite having a global presence, Precision have gone the extra mile to ensure their users get a one on one training experience, a huge value add over CargoWise One.
Without further ado, let’s get started on the features of these two platforms.
Feature comparison
Technology
Let’s kick off with something lighthearted. The technology of both solutions is available in a cloud platform, meaning it can be accessed from your web browser. Precision, unlike CargoWise One, has an on premise solution too. This enables you to access Precision from your PC or Mac, as well as your mobile device (with iOS and Android supported).
Freight Features
To keep this easy, we’ve outlined all freight features in the table below, so you can compare the missing features:
|
Feature |
CargoWise One |
Precision |
|
3PL |
YES |
YES |
|
Barcoding/RFID |
YES |
YES |
|
Billing/Invoicing |
YES |
YES |
|
Customer Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Customer Portal |
YES |
NO |
|
Import/Export Management |
YES |
YES |
|
International Forwarders |
YES |
YES |
|
Local Forwarders |
YES |
YES |
|
LTL Management |
NO |
YES |
|
Rate Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Shipment Tracking |
YES |
YES |
|
Truckload Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Warehouse Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Waybills |
NO |
YES |
Logistics Features
|
Feature |
CargoWise One |
Precision |
|
3PL |
YES |
YES |
|
Barcoding/RFID |
YES |
YES |
|
Container Tracking |
YES |
YES |
|
CRM |
YES |
NO |
|
Cross Docking |
NO |
YES |
|
Inventory Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Job Management |
YES |
NO |
|
Order Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Scheduling |
YES |
YES |
|
Shipping Management |
YES |
YES |
Shipping Features
Both providers are identical when it comes to shipping features. Here they are:
|
Feature |
CargoWise One |
Precision |
|
Airshipping |
YES |
YES |
|
Bills of Lading |
YES |
YES |
|
Container Shipping |
YES |
YES |
|
Freight Shipping |
YES |
YES |
|
Ground Shipping |
YES |
YES |
|
Import/Export |
YES |
YES |
|
Parcel Shipping |
YES |
YES |
|
Ocean Shipping |
YES |
YES |
|
Shipment Tracking |
YES |
YES |
|
Quotes/Estimates |
YES |
YES |
|
Warehouse Management |
YES |
YES |
Supply Chain Management Features
|
Feature |
CargoWise One |
Precision |
|
Demand Planning |
NO |
YES |
|
Inventory Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Electronic Data Exchange |
NO |
YES |
|
Import/Export Management |
NO |
YES |
|
Order Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Sales and Operations Planning |
NO |
YES |
|
Shipping Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Supplier Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Transportation Management |
YES |
YES |
|
Warehouse Management |
YES |
YES |
The future of supply chain management
Supply chain management, despite seemingly ahead of the eight ball with these two monoliths, is actually well behind the industry. Other industries that lead the technology drive (such as accounting, finance and operations) have started using what are called “microservices”, effectively diluting the responsibility and risk of one system amongst a number of others. This means software providers become far more specialised, with integrations between solutions allowing workflows to still be automated. This is the way a number of other industries is transforming, and will naturally need to occur with supply chain management software too (albeit, it could take another decade or so).
Using the above feature set, we hope you’re able to draw a conclusion about the best solution for your business. If you need further advice regarding features or implementation into your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.
