Case Study: Blackberry

Blackberry

Context

BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian multinational company specialising in enterprise software and the Internet of things. Originally known as Research In Motion, it is best known to the general public as the former developer of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones, and tablets.

Challenges Encountered

• 1200 users to create and email their own ship requests to the shipping department for international shipments of heavily regulated devices.
• The customs documents and the commercial invoices were always filled out incorrectly with missing information.
• Customs Specialist Department needed to take control of Customs clearance regulations and documentation prior to shipping.
• Lack of centralization across the globe made this very time-consuming and manual process. There had to be a faster, more efficient way.

Strategies Employed

• 2Ship customized an international customs pre-clearance solution which centralized and standardized all shipping processes.
• Allow Specialists to view each order, update commodity information for IMEA #s, serial #s of devices and specifics for Lithium Ion Batteries.
• Allow Specialists to pre-prep all customs paperwork prior to marking orders with a "Ready to Ship" status.
• Create a chat environment and alerts for assigning responsibility and updating orders within the supply chain.
• Have all customs pre-prepared documents upload electronically at time of shipping.

Outcome

• Today, users quickly, easily and accurately create ship requests on their customized shipping screens.
• Customs Specialists have all the controls and visibility they need.
• Blackberry’s shipper spends much less time verifying ship requests and preparing outbound packages.
• The 2Ship solution has significantly reduced the workload of Blackberry's Head Office shipper and 22 global/mailroom/DC's, streamlined the shipping process, eliminated shipping errors and helped this growing Canadian success story keep doing what it does best.
• Reduction in customs clearance fines and delays.