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Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Reviews & Product Details

Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain
AL
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The Descartes/ITMR4 solution is quite robust and offers a lot of automation in reporting, billing, closing files etc. The support & Helpdesk availability are great and the staff are always there to assist when needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Some of the system capabilities are limited to all or nothing set up. The Ideas Portal often doesn't amount to a result in ITMR4. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

The ITMR4 solution helps our business run more efficiently and saves a lot of manual work for our employees. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Overview

What is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Descartes Forwarder Suite™ is an intuitive platform that enables freight forwarders to effectively coordinate air and ocean import and export shipments. The solution is extensible and can provide customer-facing web-based visibility, complete multimodal shipment management, advanced accounting and financial analysis as well as smart workflow automations with expert technical support.

Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Details
Product Website
Languages Supported
English
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Product Description

A comprehensive solution empowering forwarders with unparalleled control throughout the shipment lifecycle. This comprehensive platform not only enhances operational efficiency but also elevates competitiveness, offering advanced back-office tools for seamless management of every aspect of the shipment process. With top-tier price management capabilities and real-time visibility into freight movements, forwarders can optimize margins while ensuring superior service quality.

How do you position yourself against your competitors?

Descartes Forwarder Suite™ provides deep domain knowledge as well as expert customer support and implementation. LSPs are choosing the premiere solution provider with 30+ years helping forwarders move freight and coordinate air and ocean import/export shipments.


Seller Details
Company Website
Year Founded
1981
HQ Location
Waterloo, Ontario
Twitter
@descartessg
3,197 Twitter followers
LinkedIn® Page
www.linkedin.com
1,575 employees on LinkedIn®
Ownership
NASDAQ:DSGX
Total Revenue (USD mm)
$486,000,000
Description

Descartes (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG) is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, security and sustainability of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, track and help improve the safety, performance and compliance of delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world's largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world.


JH
Overview Provided by:

Recent Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Reviews

Verified User
C
Verified UserMid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
4.5 out of 5
"Easy to complete the tasks"
I like the most the reports and the softaware we are using for billing purposes.
Verified User
A
Verified UserMid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
5.0 out of 5
"Best Canadian Customs System on the Market!"
The Descartes/ITMR4 solution is quite robust and offers a lot of automation in reporting, billing, closing files etc. The support & Helpdesk availa...
Trevor B.
TB
Trevor B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
4.5 out of 5
"Great malleable software, for a price"
Software is very easy to use. Currently training my wife and she is liking it too.
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Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Media

Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Demo - Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite
Descartes Forwarder Suite™ is an intuitive platform that enables freight forwarders to effectively coordinate air and ocean import and export shipments. The solution is extensible and can provide customer-facing web-based visibility, complete multimodal shipment management, advanced accounting an...
Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Demo - Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite
Descartes Forwarder Suite™ provides deep domain knowledge as well as expert customer support and implementation. LSPs are choosing the premiere solution provider with 30+ years helping forwarders move freight and coordinate air and ocean import/export shipments.
Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Demo - Descartes OneView Forwarder Enterprise
Descartes Forwarder Suite™ features advanced accounting and financial analytics to help you help the pulse of operations.
Play Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Video
Play Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Video

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27 out of 28 Total Reviews for Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite

4.3 out of 5
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Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite Pros and Cons

How are these determined?Information
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Pros
Cons

Overall Review Sentiment for Descartes Forwarder Enterprise SuiteQuestion

Time to Implement
<1 day
>12 months
Return on Investment
<6 months
48+ months
Ease of Setup
0 (Difficult)
10 (Easy)
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Gary S.
GS
Business Development
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

We process air, ocean, and intermodal shipments and Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite (DFES) greatly assists our customs compliance for cross-border shipments. We additionally use DFES for our financial billing and accounting process, allow us to send invoices directly to clients, service providers and carriers. Typical administrative day-to-day activities include quoting, rating, booking of shipments, ETA's/ETD's of vessels (tracking is vital and it provides invaluable information). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

When I first encountered the platform, I thought the process was complex and thought it would be a long learning curve. However, I picked up speed after the initial hesitance.

Customization process for templates for documents again, initially baffled me. But a little repitition and it was far easier than I had initially thought. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

In logistics we have to address critical business issues on a daily basis, having administrators process a variety of modes of transportation. Having something as flexible as DFES means we have across company solutions for our various administrative departments.

With customs brokerage, dealing with so many governmental agencies, means customs comliance is of utmost importance. DFES pop-up alerts for message directly from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and may other government agencies is incredibly helpful to our employees. Because of these alerts, our staff can immediately address issues that were not immediately aware of, and be proactive in correcting them and retransmitting entries and/or many other responsibilities.

The DFES dashboard is a wonderful tool for keeping an overview of each employees files, and overview of which clients have open shipments, which trade lanes they are using, which clients have processed payment or are outside of credit terms. This particular tool is very useful to our sales department who can track if a client hasn't shipped anything for a while, and perhaps need a retention visit. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain
AL
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Organic Review from User Profile
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Software automates Denied Party Screening and enables operations and accounting and collections to be linked providing visibility to payment for freight release. It enables a lot of customization and ad hoc reporting. Reports can be automated to run daily etc. and tracking is integrated and provides visibility to customers through online portal. Wildly customizable. Customer support is prompt. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The hardest part of the software is the initial set up. To get basic documents to generate such as a bill of lading or work order or invoice etc. the templates need customization. also many of the tools are a bit unintuitive. I think they are just 1 generation away from a really slick UI that will make life easier for users. In its current state there are great tools but it feels more like database management than us user centric interface. There are some canned reports but the formating as PDF or Excel isn't always usable for further number crunching due to formatting. We have had to make our own custom reports which fortunately one can do. It lacks tracking based automations. We are looking forward to their implementation of tracking based data automation such as vessel sailing and arrival dates being populated from tracking data but this is still not yet possible. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Compliance and standardization are essential to efficiently manage a large volume of freight. The systems standard UI makes it easier to organize and manage a multitude of shipments in a systematic way. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Davis S.
DS
Director
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The Enterprise Suite is easy for individuals of all technical capability levels to use. It is very straight-forward, and has a lot of additional modules, tools, and service areas that you don't immediately see when using it. Typically, if there's an idea of something different to try, it likely already exists in Descartes. I use the reporting functionality a lot, and the custom scheduled reports is a feature that has been extremely useful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Product support, specifically on the customer-facing and integrations side, seems like it could use some improvements. We are a small company with limited personnel resources, so we have to rely on our forwarder suite support for some of the more technical projects or tasks.

The interface is outdated, which is typical of such a massive, widely used product like this that's been a major player for so long. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

It is our primary operating system where we house documents, create delivery orders and other shipment documentation, manage workflows, bill our customers, and run accounting reports. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Trevor B.
TB
President
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Software is very easy to use. Currently training my wife and she is liking it too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Global back end tables are not maintained by Descartes (Sublocation codes and PGA tables, for example)

There is no way to generate a paid invoice for customers that prepaid. This leads to lots of phone calls and duplicate payments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Customs clearance with integrated accounting Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

TM
VP Finance & Administration
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The simplicity of use within the software. Compared to other products within our industry, most users find it the easiest to navigate. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Reporting has it's downsides and we often have to make use of outside sources to collect data needed. Loading of data within Oneview to get day started lags too long. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

More recent additions in past fews years of AES filing, some EDI capabilites, Consolidated Screening Lists to avoid using outside sources to get the tasks completed is extremely helpful. Whenever data can be captured all within the same system it is most beneficial to the company and it's employees. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Megan P.
MP
import/ exporter
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

finding everything in One view in one place is so helpful Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

nothing it's all very helpful and i dont think anything is disliked. . Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

they had added all the features that we were unaware that we could have Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

FB
Operational Excellence Analyst
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

I like how easy Oneview is to navigate and use for operations, accounting, and reporting. Each tab is easy to find and the resources are great! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The one thing I dislike would be some of the visual aspects of Oneview such as the color scheme. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Oneview allows us to schedule reports that our customers frequently request from our agents. The feature allows us to automate the reporting function and allow our agents to focus on the clients other needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain
CL
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

I like the most the reports and the softaware we are using for billing purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

It takes time to customise what we need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Descarte can solve any problem but still takes time which time sensitive for us as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

MA
Branch Manager
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The BOL screen is laid out like it will be on the printed BOL so you can see if you miss something. Customer support is always right on top of any issues. It's very user friendly for everyday use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

I don't like in Import where the year/make/model/vin wont appear on the 7501 unless you add it as a note. Also there are some reports I would like to be able to run daiy/weekly with out having to bug accounting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

the day to day activities of freight forwarding and customs clearance. It's what we do every day. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain
UL
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

The program is easy to use, fast responding and customer support always do the best to halp you solve any situation you may have. I use it as an everyday tool and works properly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite?

Program freezes some times and makes work flow slow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Descartes Forwarder Enterprise Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Documentation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.