A BUSINESS CASE - How Our Managed Services Can Work For You

There was a great read in the Journal of Commerce’s July 2014 issue called “Managing Your Staff” by Jerry Peck (read here). It seems a colleague of Mr. Peck’s managed the trade and customs operations at her company and was dealing with the loss of two employees in a span of three weeks. With no option to re-hire the empty positions, she decided to go a different route that is on the rise—outsourcing managed services.

The colleague had reached out to her customs broker and found out they were able to provide the same services of the two employees that had left and even more. She was able to save $25,000 by adding additional responsibilities to her current broker agreement and did not have to go through an interview process to get that.

We at ARTEMUS provide similar services but we also provide services based on customer needs. For service providers hiring multiple people to handle IT, data entry, compliance support or consulting—you can engage Artemus to do all that without the headache of the hiring process. And it is customized for your specific requirements.

Our benefit to the industry is that we provide trade compliance support and shipment management. You would only need one partner to handle the job of several employees. All of our staff at Artemus has years of experience in the international trade industry and we do firmly believe that we are “shipping people” that understand your needs. ARTEMUS provides the tools and support for you to do the job as efficiently, effectively and seamlessly as a client would expect.

Now that ARTEMUS has added a Licensed Customs Broker on staff. Just another add on to the list of services we offer. Come to us with your needs and we won’t just offer technology or bundled services. We will offer services as you need them.

Until Next Month….ARTEMUS OUT!

A look inside our Global Commerce, International Transportation and Trade Course (Shipping 101tm)

Our Shipping 101 training course began in 2004, after we recognized a need to provide clients with a better understanding and knowledge of the ever-changing shipping industry.   The business is always changing—there is no way around it.  We at Artemus anticipate the changes, embrace them and prepare for them.

Benjamin Disraeli once said, “In a progressive country change is constant; change is inevitable.”  

 Our course provides the knowledge that is important to keeping up-to-date with the industry, the regulations, the systems, and so on. Since launching the program in Virginia Beach, VA, we have expanded the training courses from Virginia to New Jersey/New York, Atlanta, Houston and Seattle/Tacoma. We have two upcoming courses in Virginia in August and one in Seattle/Tacoma in September. Dates will be announced shortly.

We recently wrapped up a week at the New Jersey Marine Terminal with maxed-out attendance of 21 students with Anita Carty as the instructor We put a high value on feedback from the attendees, and are really motivated when we hear comments like the following from recent students:

“It is quite obvious that the instructor has had a lot of experience in the industry,” and “The class did meet my expectations, primarily due to the instructor’s ability to swiftly and effectively apply every concept in a pragmatic mode.”

Ed Kelly from the Maritime Association of the Port of NY/NJ has been sponsoring Shipping 101 in the NY/NJ area since 2007. Students that attend are from a wide-range of sectors: ocean carriers, NVOCC’s, freight forwarders, Port Authority, FMC officials, truckers, importers/exporters, and more.

In fact, one of Ed’s favorite aspects of the course is how well the industry as a whole is represented. According to Ed: “What I think is great is that you can have a shipper sitting next to someone in rail, which presents networking opportunities that you did not expect.”

Attendees get to enjoy an interactive environment with the instructor and fellow students in an informal classroom setting.

We see about 15-20 students sign up for each course. When I say students, there are some students from local colleges but many are entry-level employees have either been asked to take the class by upper-level management or have gotten recommendations from fellow employees.   Students walk away from the course with a better understanding of their company and the industry, enabling them to perform better on the job and improve customer service with clients.

 Albert Einstein said it best “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

We are committed to providing a comprehensive program that fully prepares our students making them more efficient, more knowledgeable employees. Attendees from the course remarked, “It will help me relate to our business units better and support them more effectively” and “I would recommend it to everyone before their first day on the job.”

Topics include: the Export Process, Equipment Management, Intermodal Transportation and Logistics, Export Documentation, Terminal and Marine Operations and the Import Process.

Students are able to enjoy a port tour mid-week to get a better understanding of what is being taught by seeing the port in person.

You can read details about this course at:

http://www.artemus.us/shipping101.html

Our success stories are what make the course. We hear from students that have taken the course years before and are now working within the industry, many advancing to management level…starting out having never been in the industry before.  When asked about success stories, Steve Pniewski, President/CEO of ARTEMUS talks about two stories, “I had a single mom who was recently divorced and a military spouse so she has just moved to the area, come to me and ask if she could take the course as she wanted to get into the industry.  That was in 2004.  Today, she is a manager at an Ocean Carrier in Norfolk.” 

“Another story is a student who joined our company as an intern, just to work in 100 hours in business.  She took the course in 2009 and is now running the logistics operations of a national freight forwarder/NVOCC in Virginia Beach. Both students believe they could not have accomplished this without that initial introduction to the industry through our course.  We also have been hired by companies such as United Arab Shipping Company, who brought us to their location to teach the course to their employees.”

If you are interested in learning more about the course and when we will be in your area, please contact information@artemus.us or call us directly at 866-744-7101

Until next time, ARTEMUS OUT!

New Partnerships, Business Developments – Outlook for Artemus

It's no secret that when it comes to taking a business to the next level, companies need to look for new deals, partnerships and opportunities for growth.  We at Artemus are no exception.  We knew we had to take it up a notch but we needed to find the right partner to help us do that. 

Up until 2014, we relied on word-of-mouth and our exceptional sales team to build the Artemus brand and grow the business within the highly competitive transportation solutions software and training market.

But how do we build on the success of our sales team's efforts? How do we amplify our Artemus message and generate excitement for our brand? Who speaks our language and understands our mission and how we fit in the marketplace? 

We found the answers in BSY Associates, a full-service public relations, marketing and advertising agency, which has specialized in the transportation industry for 40 years. At the helm of the agency is Barbara Spector Yeninas, a veteran in the transportation business whose passion for the industry may even match my own, which I didn't think was possible. 

It was such an exciting process to collaborate with a like-minded professional to develop a strategic marketing relations program designed to elevate awareness of the Artemus brand. 

Part of what drew me to the agency was our mutual respect for knowledge and experience.  It was quite symbiotic actually--Artemus and BSYA have both grown their respective businesses by providing their clients with unmatched industry expertise in this niche business we call transportation. 

Exciting ventures are ahead. We recently announced the availability of our online training course for Hazardous Certification (read here) and the integration of Japan’s Advanced Filing Rules into our Trade Compliance system (read here). Our new, re-designed website will soon be launched to the public and more announcements to come with our Shipping 101 courses. In addition to those services, we will soon introduce our customs broker services with a licensed customs broker on staff and a national permit to be able to do entries for U.S. cargo. Taking proactive steps in promoting our business has a busy schedule ahead but we look forward to the future and possibilities for Artemus.

Until then, ARTEMUS OUT!

The Future of Customs Brokers: Embracing the Change

Change is often met with a combination of anticipation and dread.  But for the team at Artemus, we are embracing change with excitement about the opportunities and about the unknown.   When I contemplate of the debate about future of Customs Brokers, I think of Bill Gates’ quote:

“This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.”

Artemus believes in the huge value of the Customs Broker and the Customs Broker license…now more than ever.  We don't expect the new direction of centralization and advanced technologies to devalue the Customs Broker in any way; quite the opposite, in fact.  But, we write about it as we believe that many in the Customs Broker industry are missing an opportunity to “truly” embrace technology, centralization and improvements upcoming for the Customs Broker business process.   

That is why, within these last two years, Artemus has made a conscious decision to support one of our team members through the rigors of obtaining a broker license as an investment in the future because we see the enormous opportunities for our clients and our overall business approach.

We believe that our industry is at a critical point in its evolution especially in the area of technology, and, in my opinion, progressing in this direction could secure our industry’s relevance in the future of the US economy and, hey, it’s about time!!!

We expect these new developments to have a positive effect:

·         Compliance will be tighter, easier and more consistent, enhancing the value of the Customs Broker, both in knowledge and in technology.

·         Business will be more streamlined and efficient, freeing up overhead costs that could be re-allocated to invest in training, customer support and quality control, which again, enhances the value of the Customs Broker.

·         The Import Process in the US is still very segmented.  Who better to bring it together than the Customs Broker, especially those who are forward thinking and not scared of getting rid of paper, and adding value to the process.

Change Management, a term made famous by Honeywell 20+ years ago, should be a way of thinking and a part of any position description in our industry.  Customs Brokers should make change and change management a way of life, rather than a constant, “here we go again, doesn’t Customs know anything about what we do?”  “Doesn’t everyone see that you can’t change that?”  “You have to keep this separate!”  All quotes we have heard come from the mouths of Customs Brokers over the last 3-5 years.  No position in a business survives that cannot be changed, streamlined, improved or done differently, every 3-5 years. 

Although change is difficult for any well-established industry, we need to remember what Benjamin Franklin said:

“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”

Until next month, ARTEMUS OUT!