Air Products
Background
Based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Air Products (NYSE:APD) has 21,000 employees and
operations in over 40 countries. It serves customers in industrial, energy, technology and
healthcare markets around the world with atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases,
performance materials, and equipment and services.
Producing and delivering industrial gases and specialty chemicals globally presents a unique
set of challenges. Unlike most products, gases must be compatible with other materials
on board—both on a container level and a ship level—and shipping conditions (such as
temperature) can be critical. This can affect the loading of the ship itself. For example,
certain products can't be stowed near flammable materials and some materials can't be
shipped below decks.
This means Air Products must provide very detailed information to carriers when booking
shipments, which can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. Since shipments are
booked six to eight weeks ahead of the sailing date, there are often changes that can impact
delivery to customers by the time the ship is scheduled to depart. For the solution, Air
Products turned to INTTRA's newly enhanced Internet booking tool, INTTRA ACT (I-ACT)
Booking 2.0. Besides making it easier to enter booking details to all INTTRA carriers, I-ACT
Booking 2.0 generates automatic e-mail notifications when a booking is sent and confirmed,
as well as changes to a shipment. This saves time because it eliminates the need to follow-up
on bookings with carriers via e-mail and phone.
Erica S. Stoyer, Transportation Planner at Air Products couldn't agree more because she uses
I-ACT Booking 2.0 every day. Ms. Stoyer explains, "This efficient and interactive tool really
helped us out. We can respond to and use booking information in a more specific way—and
it's less subject to interpretation. Plus, there are fewer errors because we don't have to
manually call or write in details for every booking."
INTTRA's I-ACT Booking: Carrier confirmations in half the time
Submitting bookings, requesting and tracking carrier confirmations, and monitoring bookings
throughout the entire cycle is a one-step process with I-ACT Booking 2.0. Standardized
templates allow repeat bookings with a single keystroke, while minimizing the chance for
data entry errors. Ms. Stoyer explains, "Before, we had to start the booking process from
scratch for every shipment. Now, we can create templates once for each material and then
re-use them whenever we make similar shipments because almost all the details are already
completed. This improves efficiency by reducing booking entry time."
Using INTTRA confirmation numbers, planners can track qualifying bookings from the start to
the completion of documentation to final bills of lading. And this data can be shared from
one INTTRA product to another for improved visibility throughout an operation.
Hitting the books quickly
After a successful 30-day trial with select users and sites, Air Products was ready to roll out
I-ACT Booking 2.0 across its operation. With just a short two-day training session, Air Products'
employees were able to start booking shipments more efficiently. Ms. Stoyer notes, "Anyone
in our U.S. offices who is authorized to schedule a booking uses I-ACT Booking 2.0. I can't
imagine doing bookings without it."
"We're seeing a lot of benefits now, and we're going to use more reports and tracking
down the line. I-ACT Booking 2.0 could help us find new ways to work more efficiently,
especially with customers on the receiving end of the shipments"
– Erica S. Stoyer, Transportation Planner, Air Products
Close the book on complicated bookings
See for yourself how INTTRA's enhanced I-ACT Booking 2.0 can simplify and speed up your
global carrier bookings—no matter what type of materials you ship. Contact your INTTRA Sales
Representative or click on "Resource Center" at www.inttra.com
Learn More
For more information on how INTTRA can help you streamline your shipping documentation
business process, contact your INTTRA Sales Representative or access other collaterals by
clicking on "Resource Center" at www.inttra.com.
About INTTRA
INTTRA is a leading global provider of e-commerce solutions to the ocean freight industry.
INTTRA professionals work with over 30 leading carriers and their customers, to streamline and
standardize their shipping processes worldwide through a network of over 20,000 corporate
locations. Over 260,000 container orders are initiated on the INTTRA platform each week,
representing more than 10 percent of global ocean container trade.
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