Between cleaning out my flooded basement and going on the road, keeping up with this week’s news was a bit challenging. But here’s what we found interesting this week:

• Sterling Commerce Announces Sterling TMS Carrier Mobile App now Available on App Store
• Infor Helps Manufacturers Streamline Shipping and Logistics
• 2009 Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Fell 23.3 Percent from 2008
• FedEx Corp. Third Quarter Net Income Grows as Economy Strengthens
• U.S. DOT Announces Challenge to Researchers to Improve Road Safety Through New Weather Data

It shouldn’t be surprising that Sterling Commerce’s announcement caught our attention. We’ve written about TMS mobile apps many times before (see “An App Store for Logistics Software” and “TMS for iPhone: There’s an App for That!” and “Software for the Masses: The iPhone, Crowdsourcing, and Logistics”), and just last week we highlighted how Google launched its Google Apps Marketplace.

I believe TMS mobile apps will ultimately transform the industry by (among other things) substantially increasing the number of TMS users, which will lead to increased productivity and cost reduction as companies replace spreadsheets and fax machines with apps connected to a software-as-a-service network, and they will enable users to execute transportation processes and access transportation information from anywhere using a multitude of different computing devices. The next generation of TMS users will not be tethered to their office computers.

Sterling Commerce TMS Carrier Mobile App (Source: Sterling Commerce; click to enlarge)

I have not seen a demo yet of TMS Carrier Mobile App, so I can’t comment on its capabilities. But according to the press release, the app, which is available at Apple’s App Store, “enables shippers and carriers to optimize their relationships by responding to tenders and providing real-time shipment status using iPhone.” A couple of customers, Allen Lund Company and Chemlogix, are already using the app, which is only currently available in the United States.

Infor’s announcement about Infor ERP SyteLine Shipping and Logistics caught our attention because in the past “ERP” and “shipping and logistics” were rarely used in the same sentence—i.e., shipping and logistics capabilities have historically been a missing or weak spot of many ERP solutions. Infor has partnered with Pacejet to integrate the latter’s shipping and logistics functionality into Infor ERP SyteLine. I haven’t been briefed on this solution yet, but I hope to learn more soon (you can watch a demo of Pacejet’s solutions online). According to the press release, Infor ERP SyteLine Shipping and Logistics is available in three options: Standard Shipping; Advanced shipping; and Shipping, Warehouse and Mobile.

If the financial and operational performance of transportation companies like FedEx are a leading indicator of the economy, then the company’s announcement this week is very encouraging. Revenue increased 7 percent in the fiscal quarter compared to the same period last year. Operating Income (+129%), Operating Margin (+2.2%), and Net Income (+146%) were also all up for the quarter. FedEx also increased its full year earnings guidance, which sent its stock up 7.5 percent this week, as of yesterday’s closing.

Finally, how weather data can potentially influence supply chain and logistics processes and decisions is something that we’ve highlighted in the past (see “Nestle Waters and Weather-Driven Demand”). The DOT’s announcement this week falls under the same umbrella (yes, pun intended). Research and Innovative Technology Administrator (RITA) Peter Appel summed it up nicely in the press release: “Applications developed using Clarus data [Clarus provides near real-time atmospheric and pavement observations from more than 2,000 environmental sensor stations and 45,000 road sensors deployed by state departments of transportation] could help someone decide not only whether to grab an umbrella, but also when they should travel and what routes they should take. This competition will lead to new safety products and ideas that are bound only by the limits of our imagination.” This is yet another example of how real-time, location-based data can potentially transform fleet management in the years ahead.

Have a great weekend!

(Note: Infor and Sterling Commerce are ARC clients)