ATLANTA, May 4, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Americold (www.americold.com), the global leader in temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics to the food industry, announced today the launch of the next generation of its temperature-controlled supply chain visibility and reporting tool, i-3PL.
"Americold continues to make significant investments in its technology to ensure our position as the premier provider of supply chain and logistics solutions for our customers," commented Thomas Musgrave, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Americold. "We've made strides each year to improve our technology platform, and on May 4, 2015, we continue this progress with the external launch of the latest evolution of our i-3PL supply chain visibility and reporting tool."
The company's i-3PL application offers customers a portal view to track inventory throughout more than 145 Americold facilities across the U.S. The depth of information available and the scope of Americold's nationwide facility network is unmatched by any other temperature-controlled warehousing and distribution provider. Customers can view and manage their inventory, check the status of shipments, enter and update orders, place orders on hold, run reports and manage alerts based on data from across the U.S. Americold network.
All data is available through EDI integration, making the information resident within a customer's ERP system, but it's also available instantaneously through Americold's online portal www.i-3pl.com as well as dynamically on any web-enabled smart device. This places real-time analytics into customers' hands wherever they may be, and empowers more qualified decision making by providing direct access to inventory levels, reporting, pallet tracking and alert management. As customers increasingly adopt management-by-exception, Americold's i-3PL solution will proactively notify them should an order fall out of tolerance. This is a huge efficiency advancement for customers.
Americold's original i-3PL product was launched in 1999 and was precedent-setting in the management of temperature-controlled supply chains. Since then, it has grown to over 30,000 monthly user logins, generating more than 100,000 monthly customized reports that track 3.5 billion cases annually.
In preparation for the launch, Americold held focus sessions with customers to ensure that the user interface, streamlined navigation, and features of the redesign exceeded expectations. In addition to customer suggestions, key enhancements include support for all web-enabled handheld devices, role-based functionality, personalized dashboards tailored to a user's specific needs, and a performance boost to increase report calculation response times. To support this release, enhanced training and reference videos have been produced for customers to simplify the transition to the upgraded system.
"i-3PL provides our customers with the ability to manage all inventory across their entire enterprise. It streamlines their supply chain management process and enhances the levels of service provided for our customers' customers," said Keith Goldsmith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Offer at Americold. "The latest release of i-3PL shows our continued investment in our market-leading technology platform, and we will continue to advance i-3PL with additional functionality that allows our customers to manage their business with even greater efficiency."
An overview of i-3PL is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrFMeYx_Zmw
About Americold
Americold is the global leader in temperature controlled warehousing and transportation solutions to the food industry, offering the most comprehensive suite of storage, distribution and value-added logistics services in the world. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Americold owns and operates over 175 temperature-controlled warehouses, with more than 1 billion cubic feet of storage, in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, China, Argentina and Canada. Americold's warehouses are an integral component of the supply chain connecting food producers, processors, distributors, and retailers to consumers. Americold serves more than 3,000 customers and employs 12,000 associates worldwide.
More information about Americold is at www.americold.com.