- High technical debt, inefficient processes like manual paper-based tracking and storing, duplicated data entry with partners, and difficulty tracking across services can hamper your organization’s ability to improve or add services.
- The effects of the pandemic are still apparent within the transportation industry, including service disruptions and shortages of skilled labor.
- Driver and customer safety and environmental, social, and governance factors are becoming more and more critical. Without an effective TMS that addresses those areas and enables adaptability, transparency, analytics, and integration with suppliers and partners, you risk being left behind as the industry progresses.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Gain real insight into the features and market for transportation management systems (TMS) and how different solutions are designed to address the needs of a particular type of business, whether that be a single or multimodal transportation business. Transform your business processes to future-proof your business by selecting a holistically integrated and automated solution. Delight your operators and customers with real-time insights.
Impact and Result
- Identify the kinds of tools and activities that are most important to customers right now.
- Prioritize tools and technology that will meet your needs based on critical features and functions that can be leveraged to increase efficiency and profitability, lower cost, and enhance collaboration.
- Align the team: After establishing what technologies are needed for your TMS solution, form the team that will be needed for the selection and implementation.
Enable the Next-Generation Goods Transportation Management System
The time for transportation and logistics companies to modernize their TMS solutions is now.
Analyst Perspective
The next-generation transportation management system (TMS) solutions are here.
“The reality about transportation is that it's future-oriented. If we're planning for what we have, we're behind the curve.”
– Anthony Foxx (BrainyQuote)
Many goods transportation and logistics businesses have built their success with good business principles that were tremendously successful for more than 40 years.
Now they find themselves stuck at the crossroads where the amount of change that is necessary has become overwhelming.
The new reality: Those companies that fail to modernize their operations will be faced with rapidly eroding profit margins as the competition becomes much faster, more accurate, more cost effective, and less burdened by technical debt.
Info-Tech's approach focuses on investigating the challenges in the market and assessing the solutions that can accelerate your transition to a modern TMS.
Kevin Tucker
Principal Research Director, Manufacturing Research
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
Your ChallengeUnderstand how the TMS will integrate across the business. The CIO must work closely with the operations leaders in the business to drive success. Effectively manage the changes needed for goods transportation processes within the business. Design processes that cater to unique customer demographics but have similar capabilities. Identify the most cost-effective leapfrog strategy for conducting a TMS transformation initiative. |
Common ObstaclesA wide array of homegrown legacy applications: Whether public or private, legacy applications that are either standalone or include proprietary integrations add complexity. Reluctance to change: Staff and operators have been conducting their daily tasks the same way for many years and have become accustomed to the perceived predictability and simplicity of their jobs. Legacy processes: Hiring and retention are critical for replacing proprietary, old, and complex systems. Network reliability: Reliability is necessary for seamless live information sharing with customers and employees. |
Info-Tech's ApproachImprove your TMS capabilities by using this report to understand the needs of the business and the top tools in the market. Use our tools to structure your evaluation and demonstration process for selecting the best tools for your business needs. Adopt a capability-based approach that considers standalone and platform solutions that leverage cloud and edge services. Leverage Info-Tech’s strategic and tactical decision-making advisory services. |
Info-Tech Insight
Goods transportation and passenger transportation are two of the hottest sectors for digital transformation due to the volatility brought about from the pandemic, which caused a radical change in the mindset of the world both environmentally and technologically.
Source: “Understanding COVID-19’s Impact...” Deloitte, 2020
What is a TMS?
A transportation management system (TMS) is a software solution that helps with planning and executing the physical movement of goods. It can be used to coordinate movements across different modes such as rail, ground trucking, air, and sea. A control tower is used to capture data about the goods that can then be used for planning and orchestration of the goods’ movements toward their destination.
Sources: AltexSoft, 2022; Research.com, 2022.