Scope at alpha trans
Mr Pointner, what exactly is the business of alpha trans?
For 30 years the freight forwarding company alpha trans with headquarters in Munich has been an experienced partner for air freight, sea freight and logistics. As a subsidiary of the Barth + Co. Group, one of the market leaders in textile and lifestyle logistics in Europe, our customers benefit from four other branches in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. In Germany alpha trans has 80 employees and cooperates with partners in business centers worldwide. Our competence is based on the textile logistics sector. Renowned companies in the textile and lifestyle industry such as Gore, Escada and Patek Philippe are among our customers. In addition to logistics for garments, fashion and lifestyle articles we handle the transportation of household goods, information and telecommunications technology, along with parts for mechanical engineering, for medical and sanitary technology as well as for the entertainment industry.
Where do you use Scope?
One of our priorities is air and sea freight transportation. Therefore we need an efficient transport management system covering export, import and customs. At alpha trans 65 users apply from Riege Software International for export and import processing of air and sea freight as well as for customs clearance (AES, EZA, NCTS und SumA). At our Munich airport branch alone, for instance, we process around 800 customs declarations assignments with Scope. In addition, 15 users at Barth + Co. use the new software system.
Are you satisfied with the product?
As the pilot customer we have accompanied Scope’s specification, development and implementation right from the start. We witnessed how within a short period of time an initially limited range of functions turned into a full forwarding and customs software which we can apply in all of our sectors. We have cooperated with Riege Software since 1995. Until now our experience with the company has been very positive. From our point of view Scope also has great potential in the future because the modular system is platform-independent and provides a modern technology basis as well as a wide range of functions. We also profit from the system’s standard interfaces. Data exchange with other systems such as our accounting program is therefore much easier. Another advantage is the intuitive user interface which allows easy handling and operation. Furthermore it offers new advantageous features such as search & find.
Which solution did you use before and why did you change?
Since 1995 we had used the Procars software from Riege Software for handling, operation and administration of our shipping assignments. Over the years it grew into a complex IT infrastructure with company data on several internal and external platforms. The increasing complexity and maintenance intensity resulted in rising costs. In order to simplify and modernize company processes we were looking for a new future-proof logistics software program which would handle all required processes within one solution. After the tendering procedure in November 2007 we decided to trust further in our long-term partner Riege Software and jointly develop a solution. It was especially attractive for us to have the opportunity to assist in the process of creating new software by contributing ideas and specifications. The final tip to the scale was our internal requirement to cut costs.
Was Scope especially helpful in a specific situation?
After the operational start of the system on August 1st, 2008, the employees got used to the new system within a short period of time. Thanks to the solution’s intuitive menu navigation we were able to save high training costs and implementation time because even inexperienced users were able to operate Scope intuitively. I also really appreciate the fact that we have all our data available at a glance, that it is also possible to open several assignments parallel for processing and that we can access all the data immediately during evaluation.