Four Soft’s End-to-End Technology Solutions to the Supply Chain Industry

Recently, Mr. Rajshekhar Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Four Soft, briefed ARC India about the company’s industry practices and expanding presence in the supply chain and logistics domain. In the “reset” economic climate, companies must ensure the efficient and smooth flow of goods and related information. With extended supply chains becoming the norm, the logistics challenges are becoming more complex. Four Soft, with a niche suite of software product offerings, is well positioned to serve the transportation and logistics market.

While India has emerged as an information technology service providers’ hub, the country is not a major player in the enterprise solutions space. With niche transportation and logistics software product offerings, Four Soft emerges as a company of a different mold. Even as a product company, Four Soft differs from others with its emphasis on application development and maintenance services. Despite new technology upgrades in its product portfolio, Four Soft lets customers leverage more of their existing enterprise solutions. Considering the conservative mindset of the supply chain industry and the time and price pressures under which the industry works, this strategy helps Four Soft retain its customers and ensure their satisfaction. This strategy of retaining existing customers while expanding the business is working to Four Soft’s advantage.

Enterprise Solutions for the Supply Chain Industry

Four Soft addresses the supply chain industry’s needs for enterprise solutions, and its offerings include transportation and logistics software solutions and related services. The company provides state-of-the art, web-based solutions built on J2EE platform to freight forwarders, non vessel-owning common carriers (NVOCCs), warehouses, customs brokers, shipping liners, transportation and 3PL/4PL, and shippers/manufacturers.
The company’s major product portfolio includes freight forwarding solutions (4S eTrans), contract logistics solutions (4S eLog), shipper logistics solutions (4S VisiLog and 4S VisiLog Plus), solutions for shipping liners (4S iShipping), and customs brokerage solution (4S eCustoms). While the freight forwarding solutions address air, sea, and road transportation operations, the warehouse management solutions cover the full gamut of order-to-invoice cycle operations. The collaborative shipper logistics solutions provide end-to-end logistics-visibility. The web-based customs brokerage solution has plug-and-play modules for different countries and multi-lingual support.

Four Soft, with 10 development centers, has more than 400 customers and 50,000 users across 120 countries, catering to the needs of Tier 1 and Tier 2 customers in the supply chain industry,

The Business Model

Four Soft’s business model includes software licenses, application development and implementation services, support services through annual maintenance contracts of the above software products, and software as a service (SaaS). Typically, the company offers the 4S suite of products to large Tier 1 and Tier 2 customers. While it engages with existing customers by providing application development and implementation services, the company offers small, Tier 3 customers access to the 4S suite of products through SaaS.

The Growth Model

Four Soft’s business strategy is multipronged: grow through strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions; nurture the existing client base; acquire and build skill sets; adopt new technologies; and expand markets and portfolio of offerings. In other words, think global, but understand local requirements.

About Four Soft

Founded in 1999, Four Soft is headquartered in Hyderabad, India. Since its inception, the company has grown both organically and through mergers and acquisitions. It acquired Cargo Mate International, Comex Frontier, DCS Transportation and Logistics Solutions, FWL Technologies, and Transaxiom Holding, companies headquartered in Europe and Asia. The company’s customer base includes marquee freight forwarders, agents, shippers, and 3PLs across the globe. The company’s clientele includes 10 of the world’s top 20 transport and logistics players. Four Soft’s strength lies in its more than 600 domain and technical experts from premier technology schools and in its 10 development centers worldwide that cater to its customers’ needs. The company has demonstrated its ability to meet customers’ expectations. Four Soft has wholly owned subsidiaries in UK, the Netherlands, US, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan with sales and support offices across Asia, Europe and NA.