Are you selecting your first TMS or want to switch to a different TMS provider? If your response was yes, we bet you are contemplating a few things. How do I decide which TMS to use? What essential characteristics should I look for while assessing various TMS systems? While you’ll find many different tools and variations when comparing the TMS software on the market today, in this post, we’ll break down the factors you should consider.
TMS Benefits
Know the importance of this system and how it may help your business before choosing a TMS. A Transport has several advantages, such as:
1. Lower freight costs
Reducing the amount of money spent on freight is among the most significant advantages a TMS offers. A transportation management system uses data that yields valuable information and offers recommendations on how to cut costs. Using analytics and optimisation, this system can provide major savings.
2. Boost supply chain effectiveness
Your company’s productivity will increase if you monitor drivers, inventory, and other activities. This can boost supply chain efficiency and lower inefficiencies.
3. Track shipments in real-time
Real-time tracking of drivers and cargo is possible with the help of a TMS. This gives information about how long a route takes, which can be used to plan a route effectively. Additionally, it shows which drivers and routes are the most effective.
4. Optimise productivity and efficiency in the warehouse
The logistics process depends heavily on a well-organised warehouse because inventory constantly comes in and goes out. Integrating a TMS with a WMS makes it possible to keep a record of orders and monitor their location in the warehouse, throughout transit, and upon arrival. Users will be able to check procedures to make sure they’re effective in this way.
TMS Features
1. Load Planning and Routing That Is Optimised
Excellent load planning and route optimisation technologies are essential for every TMS. These are the features that initially made TMS platforms popular. Ensure it has all the features you require. Then, ensure that your users find the interface clear and straightforward.
2. Tracking and Dispatching
The mainstay of managing connections and particular shipments with carriers and drivers is dispatching and tracking. Dispatching and tracking tools for drivers are a TMS feature for anyone working with drivers directly. Thanks to these functionalities, your operations staff can now access the fundamental who and where information. As a result, dispatch and tracking functions compile the raw data needed to track performance.
3. Services Hosted in the Cloud
In the opinion of many experts, cloud-based software is a need. Choosing a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) TMS platform has several advantages. You will be able to update and upgrade right away to start. A cloud-based technology additionally makes it simpler to build a digital twin. Digital twins are a step toward increased supply chain visibility and digitised records. That represents your actual supply chain virtually.
4. Analytical Prediction
The goal of predictive analytics is moving beyond the presumption that the past will repeat itself. The analytics employ extensive data to predict the future using predictions. IoT devices, internal systems, and outside sources contribute to this data. This leads to better and more knowledgeable operations.
How to Choose the Best TMS
TMSs provide significant potential benefits for shippers in the supply chain, but only if businesses take the time to choose a solution that best matches their requirements and profile. Getting too caught up in features when evaluating new TMS alternatives might occasionally obscure essential factors. Organisations should refrain from highlighting features and instead concentrate on the operational issue. The elements firms should consider when purchasing a TMS system are listed below.
1. Recognise present and upcoming needs
Pay for only the things you need to operate your business. Look for a TMS with a modular or building block approach, allowing you to scale and add functionalities as necessary.
2. Automation
Automation tools remove pointless manual chores when adequately used, reducing time and cost. Manual capacity provider searches and data entry are two significant time wasters. When you select a TMS that integrates your vendors into a single, interactive environment, you can significantly minimise or perhaps eliminate this manual effort.
Spot freight procurement, which traditionally entailed repeated comparison shopping to identify a capacity provider with the best rate and service alternatives, is a crucial component of any shipper’s logistics operations. Choose a TMS with machine learning instead, which will enable you to do a single search based on your price and service criteria and return a list of premium capacity suppliers suitable to your TMS.
3. Scalability
A desirable piece of software is subscription-based, with a pricing model that is scaled and customised to each client’s monthly freight expenditure. A subscription-based model ensures two things. You won’t ever be charged arbitrary upgrade fees and will always be using the most recent version of the software. Two: Regardless of the size of your business, you may access best-in-class technology thanks to membership prices that depend on your organisation’s freight volume.
Usership is the other component of scalability. Select a software vendor who offers free, unrestricted access to all features for your subscription and limitless users (users & locations).
4. Data Protection
Any TMS system should guarantee the privacy and security of your data, which is one of your company’s most valuable assets. Select a vendor that ensures you won’t have to share or sell your data to third parties and offers integrations.
5. Look for a successful system
Request case studies or testimonials from organisations comparable to your own from vendors. TMS providers should be able to provide concrete instances of how they have accomplished particular requirements, such as operating a specific kind of trailer or transporting a commodity with certain requirements.
6. Consider your clients again
Select a TMS that facilitates prompt and precise customer communication. Choose services that offer a secure web portal where clients may track load in real-time.
Conclusion
You will be in the greatest position to select the TMS that is best for your business if you consider the factors mentioned. After all, adopting a transportation management system could help your entire business; therefore, we want to ensure you reap the most significant rewards from your choice.