MercuryGate Archives

Competing in an Amazon World – Technology is the Key

Transportation | By Karen Sage • 05/30/2017

One of the most discussed topics in supply chain management today is the “Amazon Effect.” Clearly, the Amazon business model has affected many industries, including retail, manufacturing and distribution. Consumers now expect — and get — free next-day or second-day delivery on everything from electronics to shoes. To ask your customers to accept anything less in an Amazon world would be like telling your teenager that their iPhone is going away, but they are welcome to share a landline with the rest of the family. In short, the business environment has changed and for the foreseeable future, there is no going back.

So, how do companies develop strategies to maintain a competitive edge now? Many successful firms are leveraging a page from the Amazon playbook and investing in technology. A Transportation Management System (TMS) is a good first step to reduce cost, gain efficiency and optimize your supply chain.

Why companies invest in TMS solutions
Companies that implement TMS solutions are looking for certain capabilities: maintaining relationships with carriers; improving supply chain management and effectiveness; streamlining operations; adding efficiency and reliability; and accessing more accurate and up-to-date information to enhance strategic decision-making. For example, the ability to analyze the freight spend down to a single customer, at an order or even at a product level, can be a key input to developing competitive product pricing and identifying opportunities for change.

Additionally, TMS solutions help with the customer experience. Improving customer satisfaction is the key to growth. It is predicted that by 2020, customer experience will be more important than price, product or brand choice as a differentiator in purchasing decisions. Having insight to TMS-produced data might be the difference between a happy or unhappy customer whether that customer is a shipper, manufacturer, or end-consumer.

What TMS Provides:
Automation
One benefit to be gained from a TMS is automation. Attack anything that is manual and inefficient and automate it. In transportation management, that often begins with freight sourcing or procurement. With a TMS solution, you can significantly reduce the time and resources spent on the bid process, while factoring in subjective issues as well as historical data to rate carriers. Being able to evaluate carriers based on past performance with your shipments makes a big difference. Sourcing all modes through one platform is a tremendous time saver and very important as companies are looking at more home deliveries than ever before.

An added byproduct of automation can be found in embedded analytics. This essentially is bringing intelligence into the automation to allow the system to learn, make recommendations and take actions as it gains knowledge of preferences and priorities.

Control Tower Visibility and Optimization
A TMS provides control tower visibility across your entire transportation network enabling faster access to the status of freight, greater insight into spot and contractual rates, and opportunities for optimization. For example, with this broad view from a single platform you may be able to combine multiple less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments into a single truckload (TL), reducing costs while ensuring delivery expectations within parameters of cost are met.

With a fleet management solution, you can also compare using a private fleet versus contracted carriers for specific moves. Because many industries and virtually every mode of transportation is subject to some level of regulation, an advanced TMS fleet system can also help you maintain compliance status for drivers and equipment in one place, with automatic notification supporting management by exception.

Because many industries and virtually every mode of transportation is subject to some level of regulation, an advanced TMS fleet system can also help you maintain compliance status for drivers and equipment in one place, with automatic notification supporting management by exception.

Collaboration and Communication
As companies are making smaller, more frequent deliveries, more businesses are adopting regional or even local distribution models since Amazon often requires local pickups. This has led to an entirely different view of inventory management by many companies. In the recent past, businesses operated in lean, just-in-time environments, maintaining as little inventory as possible.

A TMS also has a role to play in inventory management by building a bridge between the order management system and warehouse management. It sounds a little contradictory that a TMS can simultaneously reduce resources and improve collaboration but it’s true. When you integrate one platform like a transportation management system into your organization, the effects touch several departments depending on the breadth of your company.

From scheduling warehouse workers to optimizing routes, the right TMS can serve as one platform that all employees can work from. In doing so, strength is added to inter-department management and your co-workers are equipped to rapidly identify problems, move through processes faster and mitigate decision-making risk while adding increased visibility to the entire supply chain. And, advanced TMS solutions integrate seamlessly with many WMS systems and other tools used by shippers or 3PLs.

Why companies need to act now
With Amazon challenging established past best practices and expectations of supply chains, and TMS becoming more advanced and readily available due to the increase of cloud-based systems, now is the time to leverage technology to be more competitive. Transportation comprises the largest percentage of logistics expenses for the typical company, so integrating a full-featured TMS into a firm’s overall supply chain management approach not only makes sense; it’s an imperative in today’s fast-paced environment.

While reducing freight costs is a standard value proposition for TMS, there are many other forms of direct and indirect ROI that such solutions present, including higher customer satisfaction, improved supply chain visibility, and enhanced operational efficiencies. The value gained from having better data, improving service levels, enhancing in-transit visibility, and managing transportation operations by exception are vital to ensuring continuous improvement and competitiveness. And, these benefits are significant, with or without Amazon or the next market disruptor as part of the equation.

Karen Sage is MercuryGate’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) responsible for the company’s global marketing, communications, sales enablement, and go-to-market efforts. She is a veteran with 20+ years of experience in business-to-business marketing and communications helping several industry leaders launch disruptive new categories, accelerate revenue growth, build leadership brands, and establish marketing organizations that scale globally. She comes to MercuryGate most recently from the spend management solution provider, SciQuest. Prior to SciQuest, she was at CA Technologies where she served as vice president of marketing leading rapid growth initiatives. Her experiences leading growth also include multiple leadership roles during a 15-year stint at Cisco. Karen started her career having invented the NETSYS Performance tools at NETSYS Technologies, Inc., which was acquired by Cisco in 1996.

The Total Cost of Ownership Advantage of Cloud Solutions

Cloud/Software-as-a-Service | By Steve Banker • 03/14/2016

The most important reason to go with a cloud solution is that is has a better total cost of ownership (TCO). These savings are driven by faster implementations, easier upgrades, better system longevity, and lower IT costs. Traditionally these advantages applied to public clouds, increasingly they now apply to private cloud solutions as well.

So what is the difference between a public and a private cloud? A public cloud solution is a piece of software code used by multiple customers. Google Maps would be an example. It is the same code that many users from many companies are using. A private cloud solution is a solution that is hosted but one in which each customer has their own version of the software.

A public cloud system is a true commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions. Over the years many on premise solutions have claimed to be COTS. But historically, even companies that have implemented vanilla versions of the “off-the-shelf” supply chain software will talk about only having 10 or 12 or 15 customizations. With a public cloud none are necessary.

The transportation management system (TMS) market has had public cloud solutions offered by C.H. Robinson TMC, LeanLogistics, MercuryGate, and Transplace for several years. These were true COTS solutions.

In theory, an on premise solution could be put in with no customization. I’ve just never seen it. While customization is also possible with private cloud solutions, there is also a real trend toward foregoing any customizations with these solutions, particularly among small and medium sized (SMBs). Recently I’ve seen presentations by, and talked to, companies that have implemented private supply chain cloud solutions with NO customizations. This is a new development.

I am a very big believer in software that is truly off-the-shelf. Over the years I’ve talked to many logistics or IT executives who thought their operations were unique, and therefore they needed some degree of customization. Other companies felt that they should customize the software to fit the way they conducted business rather than changing processes to fit the configuration workflow. Both are mistakes.

When implementations have dragged on and on, were buggy, and delivered less than the promised results, customization was often a core contributor. Even companies that have had fairly successful implementations, when they finally get around to doing the first upgrade, admit that many of those customizations were a mistake. They subsequently spent time and money to eliminate customizations they initially thought their company just had to have.

In other cases, companies have chosen not to upgrade because of the long and costly upgrade process that would result from their customizations. The warehouse management system (WMS) market provides a perfect example of this. Historically, companies who had customized their WMS software would support the software for some years, even as newer versions of the software with better functionality was introduced. Eventually, the companies decided it was too painful to support the “legacy” software anymore. When they looked at the price of an upgrade, they discovered it would cost as much as a new software license and implementation. At this point, most companies ended up looking at WMS solutions from all the leading suppliers, and often selected a solution from a supplier they had not done business with before.

Because cloud upgrades are so much easier, it is likely companies will retain their existing cloud solutions for longer than they would with traditional solutions. That means users will also continue to have access to new features and functions.

With public cloud solutions, and some private cloud solutions as well, if companies want to continue to use the system, upgrades are mandatory. Users report that many security patches and bug fixes are invisible, a mini-upgrade occurs that users never notice. Larger upgrades may occur once or twice a year. This does require some planning and effort, but much less than would be the case for traditional on premise software. In short, a true COTs cloud solution forces companies to do what is inherently good for themselves.

The lack of customization does not mean that the cloud solution can’t be tailored to a particular company’s operations. They can. Modern enterprise software configuration engines are a marvel. It is even possible to have one instance of modern software manage operations at different facilities, divisions, and regions, with quite different processes.

There are also savings from a cloud solution in the IT department. Companies don’t have to spend money on new servers, or spend money on IT professionals to manage them.

Customization has long been the bane of the enterprise software industry. Fortunately, supply chain and IT professionals increasingly understand that customization should be avoided at all costs.

I recently talked to Fred Erb, the Director of Transportation at SPSCI. SPSCI, a mid-sized company, is a distributor and value added processor of steel products. Their company recently went through an Oracle Transportation Management Cloud implementation. This is a private cloud solution. In many ways, that conversation perfectly encapsulated many of the points I’ve made in this article.

SPSCI began their journey to a transportation management system (TMS) implementation in 2014. One of their divisions had a dedicated fleet and was performing satisfactorily, but the other divisions were struggling with managing their carrier networks. There was a driver shortage and flatbed capacity was tight, especially during produce season when they competed with agribusiness for trucks. Mr. Erb was tasked by the President on how to better manage transportation and make deliveries in a timely manner.

SPSCI looked at several software vendors. The company examined the possibility of a managed transportation service arrangement in which their dedicated carrier would manage all their transportation planning and execution processes. This Third Party Logistics firm used an on premise version of Oracle Transportation Management (OTM). SPSCI particularly liked the OTM user interface.

“Ultimately it came down to whether transportation should be a core competence,” Mr. Erb said. “As a distributor, we decided it should be.”

Once they decided to implement Oracle Transportation Management, they needed to decide how to implement it. Would they go cloud or on premise? As a midsized company, their IT resources are tight. The IT group encouraged them to first look for the best solution,

but was also completely supportive of a cloud based service if it fully met the business’s needs. They decided they wanted to get a TMS up and running without burdening their IT group.

“Cloud was also more cost effective,” Mr. Erb said.

There was absolutely no customization, “that is great.” From a resource perspective, Mr. Erb, an IT analyst, and a transportation analyst were the primary internal resources that worked on this project.

Despite the fact that the different divisions were using the same instance of the software, the software was configured to meet each division’s distinctive needs. According to Mr. Erb, “One division groups orders together so we configured it to bring in the grouping information so the transportation person could create the shipments off of the order groupings. Another division runs more like a manufacturing facility and needed the ability to create shipments off of orders that were not produced at the time they needed to arrange transportation, so we gave them the ability to assign several orders to a shipment, exceeding shipping weights, but then updating the shipments when we produced actuals in our ERP system. OTM was very flexible in adapting to our business requirements.”

Also, “having one instance (of the software) is nice.” The company’s ERP system is utilized differently across each division, so information is re-ported differently. By having one platform for TMS, one division’s data is the same as another division’s data. “From a reporting perspective,” Mr. Erb reports, “that is a real advantage.”

“If cloud was not an option, I’m not sure this project would have happened.” It would have been difficult to free up the necessary internal re-sources, and the business case would have been a much “tougher sale.” Oracle’s cloud solution was “perfect timing.”

Takeaways from the MercuryGate 2015 User Conference

Learning & Leadership | By Chris Cunnane • 09/16/2015

Earlier this week I attended the first day of MercuryGate’s annual user conference at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV. The conference’s theme was “Smarter. Stronger. Faster. Better.” That is what MercuryGate is trying to make their customers, and the presentations I attended all hit on this theme. Since last year’s conference, there have been new product releases and upgrades to existing products with one goal in mind – to make managing your transportation easier. There were three presentations in particular that I felt highlighted how MercuryGate is achieving this goal.

The first presentation that really struck the “Smarter. Stronger. Faster. Better.” theme was MercuryFleet for Shippers. MercuryFleet is something that has been in the works for a while, and the company is happy to let customers know the wait is over. This presentation outlined how MercuryGate TMS can now dispatch drivers, assign and track equipment, send alerts for driver and equipment compliance issues, and optimize fleet routing. There are three main components that the application serves: drivers, equipment, and operations. For drivers, MercuryFleet can log qualifications, certifications, and documents. After setting up the driver in the system, the user can log roadside inspections, safety and incident reports, and any violations. It also tracks license renewal information, so the company will know if a driver’s license will expire while out on a delivery. With this information, the company can use another driver for a long route. It is a single system of record with all relevant information that is needed.

From an equipment standpoint, it keeps specifications, registration, ownership, and service records up to date. This includes container capacity and dimensions, component warrantees, upcoming service requirements, and the ability to track PO’s and costs. It also includes cost analytics, allowing the user to see profitability of drivers, loads, and routes. The final piece is satellite tracking, which enables the user to monitor equipment. The final component is operations. This includes managing quotes, dispatching drivers, and assignment processing. The user can manage quotes while mixing and matching their fleet with carriers. Rates, drivers, and equipment are automatically assigned to loads. The user also has access to a feedback ratings and comments about carriers.

The second session that stuck out to me was about Mojo, MercuryGate’s transportation optimization engine. Over the course of the last year, Mojo has had its fair share of upgrades, including the launch of Mojo Live. Mojo Live is designed for smaller sets of data that are presented on the users TMS screen. The optimization occurs synchronously and quickly allowing the user to direct their workflow. The goal is to have the optimization build within 30 seconds, allowing for near real-time adjustments. Another recent upgrade to Mojo is the inclusion of ALK maps, which extend the mapping functionality within Mojo. It enables a user to select different overlays, including shipments, loads, and routes. Additionally, Mojo now has a script engine API (MojoScript). This enhancement allows the user to change or alter the data and decision making processes in the optimizer. This will customize the way that the algorithms are run and make the outputs more efficient.

The session also described a few MojoScript use cases. Two particular examples jumped out to me. The first example was of a customer’s need to navigate around hours of operation when scheduling deliveries. The problem was that shipments that are routed via pools can only deliver on specific days, unlike direct shipments. The customer developed a location report with hours of operation for both direct and pool locations and a MojoScript of operation based off of direct versus via pool. The customization now allows the customer to efficiently schedule deliveries to meet the hours of operation restrictions in a much shorter time than manually scheduling the deliveries around different operational hours. The second use case was customer load optimizations. By mapping the customer load reference within the optimizer, customers can guarantee that their loads will be kept together. Additionally, it allows other customer loads or shipments to be consolidated onto a route. These are both examples of how MercuryGate’s technology is trying to simplify managing transportation.

The third presentation that struck the “Smarter. Stronger. Faster. Better.” theme was MercuryProcure for Logistics Service Providers (LSP’s). This presentation outlined how MercuryGate can help LSP’s be more efficient when responding to bids and negotiating on behalf of their customers. The goal was create an application that helped users be more efficient and flexible, while giving them more time to focus on analytics. To accomplish this goal, the application has a few interesting features. First, it automatically aggregates lanes from historical shipments. Second, it can create benchmark data for lanes. This allows the user to compare performance against historical costs. Third, it provides support for multiple bid rounds. This allows the user to track the back and forth of rate negotiations. This information can be used for future negotiations. Fourth, it creates email templates. These save time and effort as the user can save frequently used emails when sending out multiple bids. And fifth, users can customize rate tables. This enables the user to customize any fields that will make it easier for carriers to respond. These enhancements are all about making the user smarter, stronger, faster, and better. It makes the bidding process faster, and gives results based on real shipment ratings. These all make the user more efficient.

In conclusion, the MercuryGate user conference was a place to showcase how the company’s technology innovations can make users smarter, stronger, faster, and better. The method behind this goal is to make everything more streamlined and simple. While the technology behind the scenes is complex, the use of it does not have to be. At the end of the day, the company wants to make managing their customers’ transportation easier, more efficient, and more profitable.

This Week in Logistics News (June 6 – 12)

Just for Fun | By Chris Cunnane • 06/12/2015

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with the team at MercuryGate (a Logistics Viewpoints sponsor) about their latest transportation optimization (TO) release. The company’s TO engine, named Mojo, had already upgraded to include multi-pool routing, a secondary costing model, and advanced green calculations. However, the newest release of Mojo has a new product set named Mojo Live. According to the MercuryGate team, Mojo Live is designed for smaller sets of data that are presented on the users TMS screen. The optimization occurs synchronously and quickly allowing the user to direct their workflow. The goal is to have the optimization build within 30 seconds, allowing for near real-time adjustments. The number one use case is that Mojo Live provides a quick, easy, constrained optimization. For example, the user knows which port a shipment is going through. Mojo Live allows them to route the shipment quickly.

MercuryGate has added a scripting language that will make it easier to customize the solution without affecting the upgrade path. This is probably something that MercuryGate will mainly do for customers unless they have really good IT folks. But the customization will be quicker and easier to achieve. Sometimes customization that does not apply to the installed base can have a good ROI. This is particularly true for large shippers where a small tweak in optimization can sometimes add up to big savings.

And now, on to this week’s news.

Walmart’s chain of Sam’s Clubs stores has introduced buy online, pick up in store for grocery customers. However, there was a problem with this option – customers often had to wait too long in the warehouse to pick up their order. The main issue was frozen foods. The company couldn’t keep frozen foods alongside the dry and packaged goods in a customer’s order. This lead to long wait times as store workers picked frozen goods when the customer arrived. On Wednesday, Walmart technologists unveiled a new solution to the problem. Customers can now “check-in” via their smart phone to let the store they are ready to pick up the order. Store employees will then pick the frozen items to accompany the rest of the order. With this new program, Walmart is betting heavily on the future of in-store fulfillment for grocery orders.

Amazon is dispensing with its minimum order requirement for thousands of smaller items and offering free shipping. The policy applies to both Prime and non-Prime customers as Amazon bids to reach price-sensitive shoppers. The key behind this move is to take market share away from eBay, which is currently courting the price-conscious shopper. The new offer gives online shoppers an opportunity to order inexpensive goods one at a time without worrying that shipping costs are more than the price of the item or feeling compelled to buy additional products to meet a free-shipping threshold. The service covers items that weigh 8 ounces (230 grams) or less, which usually cost no more than $10. Delivery will take four to eight business days from a new shipping hub in Florence, Kentucky, specifically stocked for the program dubbed Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light.

After months of unrest, backlogs, and traffic jams, Global Port Tracker is reporting that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports has returned to normal levels following ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement. The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union both voted in May to ratify a new five-year contract agreed to in February. According to NRF Vice President Jonathan Gold, “Despite some lingering labor issues, the volume of cargo and the rate of growth have both largely settled down.” It will be interesting to see how the ports continue to respond as import demand increases.

Dunkin’ Donuts is the latest chain restaurant to jump into the delivery world. The New England based coffee and donut franchise is developing mobile ordering and conducting a private test of delivery. The plan is to conduct a more “public” test next year. However, Dunkin’ Brands Chairman and CEO Nigel Travis has insisted that the company will not rush into a full launch. Instead, the company will explore all “delivery” options that make the process easier for consumers, including curbside service. While many fast food chains are exploring delivery, they need to conduct due diligence. While delivery is a lucrative business for pizza chains, others need to understand the economic ramifications of full-time delivery workers. For coffee and donuts, it just might not make sense. This is one model that could certainly use outsourced delivery drivers as a profitable solution.

European eggs are coming to the U.S. For a country that is chock-full of egg farms, this may come as a surprise. But the widespread avian flu has wiped out the domestic supply, impacting bakeries and wholesale producers. The price for liquid eggs, the product most large scale bakers use in their products, has more than doubled in the last few weeks, and the supply is dwindling. This marks the first time in more than a decade the U.S. has bought eggs from a European nation, and comes as consumers are seeing a surge in shell egg prices as well. The good news is that avian flu cases are on the decline and the U.S. egg market will hopefully rebound shortly.

And finally, spot van rate jumps on capacity imbalance. The number of available loads on the spot truckload market jumped 36% during the week ending June 6 and capacity increased just 5.5%, according to DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT network of load boards. The supply-demand imbalance helped push spot rates up last week. The national average van rate increased 5 cents to $1.90 per mile, the reefer rate rose 4 cents to $2.23, and the flatbed rate edged up 1 cent to $2.19. In the van market, DAT reported that load posts were up 32% but truck posts were up only 7.5%. The imbalance sent the national van load-to-truck ratio up 23% to 3.0, meaning there were 3.0 available van loads for every truck posted on the DAT network. Average outbound van rates rose in several key markets including Los Angeles, up 8 cents to $2.17 per mile, and Atlanta, up 11 cents to $2.17 a mile.

That’s it for the news this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, LA Woman, by the Doors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcS4kV0J–E

Managing Ocean and Air Freight in a TMS

Global Trade | By Doug Surrett • 03/18/2014

The definition of transportation management systems (TMS) continues to evolve. In the early days of TMS solutions, the primary goal was to manage truck-based freight. Over time, point solutions were developed to support particular modes for particular industries such as ocean and air freight.

At the same time, traditional TMS providers began to incorporate basic multi-modal capabilities into “truck-centric” solutions. Migrating from a truck-centric solution to a truly multi-modal solution is no small task and many vendors have chosen to rewrite solutions or “bolt on” other point solutions to bring multi-modal capabilities into their platform.

As more companies seek to take advantage of lower labor costs in developing countries, the need for multi-modal transportation systems has become imperative. Many industries now depend on ocean and air freight as natural and vital links in the supply chain. Industries such as apparel and automotive keep the ocean carriers humming, while pharmaceuticals and high-tech keep the air freight industry busy.

The right TMS can make help multi-modal shippers and logistics companies manage the supply chain more effectively and efficiently. Some recommendations follow:

Consider the schedules: Ocean and air freight differ from truck freight in several ways, but one in particular is the scheduled nature of the movements. When considering which carriers to use, cost and capacity alone are insufficient. Sailing schedules and flight schedules need to be integrated into the TMS to enable logistics practitioners to make informed decisions.
Submit bookings: Choosing the best carrier is important, but if that carrier does not accept the freight, it’s vital to quickly locate alternatives. The TMS should also have real-time integrations with ocean and air freight carriers to submit booking request and process booking responses.
Generate Documents: Document generation may not be the most exciting part of the process, but it is very important. A truly multi-modal TMS will provide document generation capabilities that can support all the appropriate documents such as the Ocean Bill of Lading, Master Airway Bill, Commercial Invoice, Certificate of Origin, Delivery Order and Arrival Notice, among others. Ease of customization of these documents is also important to minimize total cost of ownership of the TMS.
Submit Electronic Bills: Once the booking is confirmed, the ocean carrier will be expecting the shipper or forwarder to transmit the Shipping Instructions. Similarly, the air freight carrier will be expecting the transmission of house and master airway bill information. Transmitting the data electronically reduces the opportunity for errors and may help speed the process of clearing shipments through customs.
Track and Monitor: While many of the major air and ocean carriers provide web-based tracking portals, logging into different portals to manage the supply chain is not optimal or effective. Take advantage of those TMS’s that can accept electronic feeds from the carriers to provide real-time status tracking of your shipments. This data can be used to facilitate an exception management process, monitor carrier performance against KPI’s and proactively notify clients about potential supply chain problems.
Perform Settlement: Maintain good working relationships with carriers by paying non-disputed invoices quickly. A truly multi-modal TMS can automate the process of auditing and paying invoices to keep the flow of goods moving.

Trade is becoming increasingly global. Traditional supply chains are now working in non-traditional ways. Use technology to seamlessly integrate all modes of transportation into your transportation center of excellence to help meet the demands of this complex, global environment.

Doug Surrett is the Vice President, Global Logistics at MercuryGate.

Doug began his career at UPS in 1988. He worked in Operations, IT and Customer Automation. In 1997 Doug joined RedPrairie as Project Manager. He later became Project Director and then VP Global Consulting for TMS. Doug left RedPrairie in 2007 and founded Raelen Consulting, a consulting practice focused on TMS, Global Trade and WMS software selections and implementations. In 2012 he joined MercuryGate.

Guest Commentary: Is Your TMS Pulling Its Weight?

Guest Commentary | By Peter Yost • 12/10/2013

Can you name all eight of Santa’s reindeer (nine, if you count Rudolf)? I did an unscientific survey of those around me and found most could only name Rudolf plus three others. Everybody seemed to remember Dancer and Prancer but most couldn’t come up with Comet and Vixen. It’s a good thing Santa remembers them all because it takes at least eight reindeer to get him off the roof and around the world in just one night. Maybe he could get started with three or four, but could he successfully complete his journey without cutting some corners?

Like Santa’s reindeer-powered conveyance, your Transportation Department has options available to get the job done. But, are you using all of the options available to do the best job possible? If you have a TMS, you’re likely using it to manage rates, select carriers, tender shipments, and to track shipments up to the point of delivery. If you’ve accomplished this much with a TMS, congratulations, you’re doing more than about 65% of all shippers.

Below are eight (one for each of Santa’s reindeer) ways you could use a TMS to improve efficiency and process, and like Ebenezer Scrooge, squeeze every last penny of cost out of your process.

1. You probably started your TMS project to manage shipping costs for your high-value freight, inbound or outbound. Drive savings across your enterprise by using your TMS to manage your transportation network, domestic and international, inbound and outbound.

2. Traditionally, shippers look to their TMS for load and route building and overlook the optimization of their entire network. Some cost saving techniques available include shipment consolidations, eliminating empty backhauls, cross-dock opportunities, zone skipping, simultaneous planning inbound and outbound shipments, what-if analysis and modeling, and managing the carbon footprint.

3. With constantly changing markets and rates, procuring and maintaining the best possible rates can be a nightmare. Your TMS can solicit spot quotes or long term bids from carriers, help you evaluate the bids, select the right carriers and convert them into contracts. It can also reach out to public load boards or to web-based services (ex. Parcel contracts) to find the best available rates.

4. If your shipments cross water or borders, you have additional data to track and documents to create, plus denied party screening and contract management to consider. Your TMS will collect the necessary information to create the import and export documents and then submit them electronically to the appropriate government agencies.

5. Every interaction within your transportation management process creates a data trail. You need visibility to this data from origin to destination. While shipment status and cost are important, don’t lose site of the decision support capabilities that your TMS offers. Perform transportation modeling, optimal carrier selection, performance management, in-transit partner collaboration, and delivery confirmation, just to mention a few. Add analytics to the process and improve your efficiency and customer satisfaction.

6. How do you manage carrier invoices? If you’re outsourcing Freight Audit & Payment, have you integrated your freight pay partner with your TMS so they have access to the most current rates and carrier information? Have you considered managing the process in-house? You can use your TMS to match pay invoices, audit, allocate and manage accruals.

7. When you have a damaged freight claim, is the claims management process integrated with the TMS to collect the data and manage the claim properly to ensure this process does not slip through the cracks?

8. Your TMS is accessible by mobile devices so you can stay in touch when you’re away from the office. Track your shipments, communicate with your carriers, confirm deliveries and continuously monitor important metrics.

In the spirit of the season, and with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, I offer you this adaptation of the first five paragraphs of “T’was the Night Before Christmas”.

T’was the month before the Christmas season, when all through the warehouse
The forklifts were stirring, the trailers here and about.
The shipments were all queuing for their destinations with care,
In hopes that late deliveries soon would be rare.

The orders were placed all complete and double checked,
While visions of on-time pick-ups were updated and set;
And the Warehouse Manager in her sports coat, and I in my coveralls (for some reason),
Had just settled in for a long shipping season;

When out in the lot there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my office to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The sun on the lot full of shiny fifty-three foot trailers
Gave a sparkle of efficiency to the brand new eighteen wheelers,
When, what on my computer screen should appear,
But a browser and buttons, then I knew not to despair,
With a user interface, so easy and fast,
I knew in a moment it must be a TMS.

More rapid than eagles over the Internet it came,
As I clicked and selected, I called the features by name:
“Now, Optimize! Now, Rate! Now, Tender! Now, Audit and Settle!
On, Documents! On Tracking! On, Analytics and Reporting !
To the DC, to the retailer! To the start of a long haul!
Now ship away! Ship away! Ship away all!”

Peter Yost is the Director of Business Development at MercuryGate International. He has 30 years of experience in technology sales & marketing, including 10 years in the logistics industry. He is responsible for MercuryGate’s domestic and international partner ecosystem that is expanding the company’s reach into Europe, Asia and South America. Peter has a BBA in Marketing and Information Technology from Georgia Southern University.

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