Our Technology
Technology plays a leading role in innovation, but it isn't the only factor. What were once disruptive technologies now are commodities. Technology can be the establishing base for innovation, but people are the ones that drive it forward. Technology is really only the mechanics of the process. Real innovation is about great people generating and then implementing new ideas. This quote is exactly how we feel. Our people use technology and innovation to drive and implement great ideas that optimize our performance and our relationships with our clients.
We have invested heavily in technology and the use of this technology has allowed us to innovate new processes that enhance efficiencies at a macro and micro level. Every step of the logistics process has been optimized in an effort toward achieving the "perfect" system. Even though our system is second to none, we have a continuous improvement team always looking for ways to improve. Each freight invoice must pass through a software gauntlet of up to 41 tests, checks and verifications before it reaches final approval.
Here are a few of the system checks that no accounting department has time or technology to check these include:
- Invoicing same shipment with different invoice number. No accounting software will catch this.
- Duplicate bills on same bill of lading number
- Billing from origin terminal AND destination terminal on same shipment.
- Billing from origin carrier and destination carrier on interline shipments
- Ensure that the customer's policy on prepaid or collect determination on the bill of lading is enforced.
- Similarities in invoice data, i.e. same origin, destination, date, bill of lading # but different invoice number.
- Billing for multiple shipments to same destination when all picked up at the same time
- Verifying mileage charged by carrier on truckload and expedite moves. Some carriers charge 5 to 10% more miles than the actual distance and give a lower rate per mile to get the business.
- Accuracy of zip codes since rates are based on zip to zip. A single digit out of place will rate a shipment from 2000 miles away rather than actual location of 250 miles away resulting in significant extra costs.
- Invoices against dispatch records to ensure agreed to rate.
- Auditing the tariff rate on LTL freight bills and correcting bills whenever necessary.
- Double verification of accounting information to catch any data entry or data transfer errors.
- Vender adhere to routing instructions and if not, determine what extra costs have been incurred and prepare a debit memo for the customer to charge them back the extra costs.
Our database software, Oracle is the same used by international giants such as Amazon, Yahoo, AT&T and GM to name a few. Our computerization is the lifeblood of our business and it must be as stable and reliable as is possible.
Our servers all have an uninterruptible power supply with an automated generator-driven power backup system in our building with a 15 second response time. Fault tolerance on all servers ensures 24/7 uptime. Our Data-servers have RAID 5 with hot swap drives (no down time to replace hard drives) and our Application / Network servers have RAID 1 (disk mirroring). We employ live, real-time back-ups to ensure system integrity and store back files off-site for additional data integrity.
For those of you who don't want to be bothered with all the details, the point is, at Vimich, we pay very close attention to the speed, reliability, capacity and security of our critical information services.
For those of you who enjoy the details, here they are.
Oracle Database Server consisting of
- Dell Server with Xeon processors
- Up to 36 Gigabytes of RAM
- Current Storage capacity of 100 Terabyte with unlimited expansion
- Current Server capable of 250 station connections
- Current Capacity of 407,000 transactions per minute
- Oracle database
- Oracle application server
- Oracle is used by Amazon, Yahoo, AT&T, GM etc.
- Oracle Tech Support and Automatic Upgrade Service
- Fully scalable up to full mainframe configuration
- All Servers have uninterruptible power supply
- Database server is completely mirrored by another identical server.
- Our building has automated generator back-up system with a 15 second response
- Fault tolerance on all servers to ensure 24/7 uptime
- Data Servers have RAID 5 with hot swap drives (no down time for replacement)
- Application / Network Servers have RAID 1 (disk mirroring)
- Live Back-ups
