Take the guesswork and anxiety out of the selection process with our objective approach to solution selection.
Our transportation system evaluation and selection process increases success in finding the right partners and reduces risk through our experience with the market available tools and our experience designing and implementing transportation planning, execution, and settlement solutions, including integrating with carriers and other service providers to improve in-transit and supply chain visibility.
The transportation systems market is complex – there are several deployment methods and partner types, as well as innumerous niche embedded and integrated software as a part of the overall solution. Navigating these players, and tying back the desired outcomes based on functional and technical requirements, is very difficult.
Shippers and logistics service providers are faced with strategic decisions and questions, such as… Do we partner with solutions offered by our current ERP or WMS partners? How do we think about on-premise vs. hosted vs. true multi-tenant software-as-a-service providers? What should we think about the up-and-comers? How do rating engines, mileage calculators, visibility solutions, and freight-pay solutions integrate with the transportation software?
System selections and implementations are complex in transportation due to the number of solution scenarios and the integration complexity involved. Transportation touches so many parts of the organization (internal) as well as many trading partners and service providers (external). Designing the appropriate solution and approach to implementation is daunting; however a well-defined process supported by market expertise leads to an overall more successful outcome at a lower risk.
Managing software vendors as they propose their solutions is also a complex process because each shipper and logistics service provider has unique needs and pricing models vary from the software solution providers.
Evaluating the quotes and value of the one-time costs (implementation and/or licensing) and on-going costs (subscription, hosting, maintenance [vendor-provided or client-side supported]) should be tied back to the business case and expected total cost of ownership; aligning these can be difficult and requires recent experience in these negotiations.
Our transportation consultants can help you pick the best transportation system that fits your business.