Empowering better decisions 

Xeneta crowd sources information from some of the world’s leading shippers to provide unique insights into the very latest ocean freight rates. In all, over 160,000 port-to-port pairings are covered by the data, with 110 million data points. The collaboration allows the Oslo-based business to greatly extend its footprint within the market, while Catapult can offer its users a new depth of real-time market insight to enable better, more profitable decision-making. 

Paul Mullins, Xeneta CRO, explains: “In short, access to Xeneta’s data will give the Catapult community the ability to quote more quickly, accurately and profitably to customers looking to ship their products.”

“For our company, it gives us greater access to the established Catapult community and pushes the Xeneta brand and market standing on to the next level. It’s an exciting collaboration that we’ve been discussing for the past 18 months, so it’s hugely gratifying to finally be able to roll it out and deliver compelling benefits for customers worldwide.”

Hitting the ‘sweet spot’

Catapult CEO, Virgil Ferreira says “Speaking to the Xeneta team and to our clients we realized that they were using benchmarking data at a global procurement level, or for periodic market analysis, but were finding it difficult to deliver that powerful information in a meaningful and actionable way to their broader team.  We concluded we needed to put the data where the day to day rating decisions are being made, in the rate management system.”

“This is how it works. As a forwarder, for example, you need to provide a quote for a customer that wins your company business, while optimising profit margins. In the new QMS user interface you can compare your organisation’s buy and sell rates to the current Xeneta market benchmark – assessing today’s trends – and tailor your quote accordingly. The result is a far richer level of decision-making, a game-changer in fact, that allows Catapult users to really hit that margin ‘sweet spot’." 

Actionable insights

To access the new, integrated QMS user interface, customers must be subscribers to both Catapult, which is owned by Accelya Group, and Xeneta. Existing Xeneta subscribers that now choose to access Catapult will enjoy a lower, combined subscription rate.

Mullins says the two companies “make a great fit”. He notes:

“Our teams have worked closely in the past and we realise the value of Catapult – a platform that leading freight forwarder sales teams utilise day in, day out – while they see the unique industry insight our wealth of data delivers. By displaying data points from both firms in the one interface we can unlock further value from our crowd-sourced intelligence, making it actionable for front line sales teams in a new, organic, easy to use and powerfully beneficial way. This will give users a real competitive advantage in the marketplace, full stop. As such, it’s an important development for the sector.”

Xeneta’s unique reporting and analytics platform is used by customers across the world to provide intelligence, transparency and a degree of predictability to the constantly fluctuating world of ocean freight rates. The companies feeding data into the platform include globally leading shippers such as Electrolux, Continental, Unilever, Lenovo, Nestle, L’Oreal, and Thyssenkrupp, amongst others.