Tactical support at Regional level:
Phase 2 addresses the tactical decision-making needs of the regional office and helps regional managers identifying opportunities and exploiting them.

These features will also help managers proactively spotting potential problems and address them before they become major issues. Tactical decision-making addressing short-term and multiple locations within the region are enhanced by the information and analysis provided by the system.

The following features provide insight into the functionalities that Q-FLX delivers to regional management.


1. Setup and Access Control
The system is enhanced to provide and manage web access to customers through a system administration tool. Data security in Phase 1 is limited to security across locations but in this phase – thanks to the web access facility – it is extended across companies and customers. The modules available are:

   a. Customer Administration
   b. Data Security


2. Strategic Planning
In this tactical phase of the system, a unique feature of Budgeting and Business Plan modules is provided. The user is able to project and create his/her periodic operation, commercial and administrative budgets. In addition to it, the budgets can be made at the level of location, service or client. Based on the budget, users can draw up over a long-term period business plans and forecasting planned potential against clients.

In this tactical intelligence level, the system will facilitate tasks like service planning through feasibility and viability analysis.

The three modules available are:
   a. Budgeting
   b. Business Planning
   c. Operations Planning


3. Sales and Marketing
Through interaction among modules, Q-FLX allows activation of a sales plan based on the business plan. The variance analysis module will proactively measure and report variances in planned budget and actual trade.

The module available is:
   a. Variance Analysis


4. Operations
Q-FLX provides a unique Chartering management feature where in users can proactively manage chartering contracts from the time a vessel is chartered until it is redelivered. Other features include automatic generation of request for quotations, selection of quotation and preparation and dispatch of work orders.

The facility of exception management will record and report business exceptions arising from operations.

The unique modules available under this group are:
   a. Chartering
   b. Exceptions
   c. Requisition and Purchase


5. Tariffs & Contract Management
The Yield Management module is an analytic tool that enables decision makers to plan actions aimed at maximizing future revenues. The application is intended for a regional office level deployment. It allows users to input data from external business environments on factors such as risk, booking patterns, cancellations, supply factors, market assessment etc. In addition, the application can access the other modules to get current and historical data on customers, cost, revenues and contribution. Thanks to the synergy obtained, the user can plan on allocating the right type of capacity to the right type of customer at the right price in order to maximize revenue or ‘yield’.

Defining the right pricing strategy can “make or break” the overall profitability of a company. Dynamic pricing consists in adjusting prices based on variables such as sales history and available capacity in order to maximize revenues in an uncertain market place. The Dynamic Pricing application allows users to work out tactics like discounting the current pricing, long term spot rate pricing or entering into forward rate agreements based on inputs of market scenarios, trade seasonality, volumes or other exceptional circumstances. This tool is a true value-adder when a customer does not want standard tariff based pricing.

The modules available are:
   a. Dynamic Pricing
   b. Yield Management


6. Booking and Documentation
In this second phase of design & implementation, the booking module is extended to incorporate Web based booking, providing features such on-line booking, on-line cancellations, notifications and status reports.

The modules are:
   a. On Line Booking
   b. On-Line Documentation


7. Financial Management
Q-FLX has a unique Revenue Control System that is designed to record and monitor the projections of the organization’s receivables and payables over a period of time.

Via the analysis of reports generated, the user is able to plan his/her credit management, working capital and collections policies.

The Statutory Compliance module will facilitate the formatting, creation and recording of financial statements & records according to the location and registration of the organization and/or its branches.

The RTP Cycle in phase 2 continues from where it was in Phase 1 of implementation. The application facilitates the recording and handling of activities such as:
   • Receiving a Purchase Order
   • Inputting it into the General Ledger
   • Actually collection the invoices
   • Checking of invoices
   • Generating the Payment advice
   • Remitting
   • Reconciling and
   • Closing of the transaction.

The Results module is an analytic tool that measures the overall operational & financial performance of the organisation. The system integrates data from across operations, commercial and financial processes along with the collection of information on actual and expected revenues & costs. Using an index cost and experience factor methodology, a highly accurate estimation of contribution and yield is obtained. Estimates can later be validated and compared with the budgeted & planned incomes and profits.

As highlighted above, the modules available are:
   a. Revenue Control System
   b. Results
   c. Requisition to Pay Cycle
   d. Statutory Compliance


8. Customer Relationship Management
The Customer Service module caters for the after sales service, allowing customers to register their issues directly in the system. The module then allocates those issues to the customer service staff and tracks them until closure. Analysis facilities are also included.

The module is named:
   a. Customers Service


9. Human Resources Management
In phase 2 of the system design, modules on Human Resources Management (HRM), Customer administration and Data security are introduced. The HR user can record and update employee’s data, record job profiles & role details, establish hierarchy, record the history of employment etc. Other value-added services such as employees appraisal, leave record, etc. are available.

Under the Payroll feature, the system is able to import each employee’s updated records. The user can define and customize payroll components for a specific employee. Pay slips can be printed. The master file may be sent to a bank for transaction and money transfer to employees’ accounts.

Those two key modules are called:
   a. HRM
   b. Payroll


10. Knowledge Management (Reports)
Flexi reports as defined under Phase 1 are configurable reports. In Phase 2, reports required by the regional office level managers can be configured, stored and shared by them directly. The manager is able to store as “favorite” his preferences as well as those shared by other users in order that they do not need to be reformatted. A simple recall & update of a field is sufficient to run a new report.

Analytic reports allow the users to conduct introspection into the business and examine the results with a selection and combination of variable trade parameters. This is a strong support for planning tactics and implementation strategies. The module delivers various kinds of analysis reports such as comparative analysis, time series analysis, trends analysis, simulations, etc.

Available in this module are:
   a. Flexible Reports
   b. Analytics