Plan, procure, execute, & track transportation for every shipment across your supply chain & logistics operations
A SaaS solution to help grow your business by achieving 100% perfect order execution at high volumes
Increase vehicle capacity utilization and customer promise adherence
Grow your business with omnichannel presence and automated pickups
Consolidate shipments for hub to hub movement across land and air
Real-time customer communications and collect accurate PODs
Orchestrate logistics operations with multiple 3rd party carriers
Achieve cost effective, scalable, sustainable, and customer centric deliveries
Orchestrate all your cross-border logistics operations with ease
Improve address accuracy, ensure first-attempt delivery success, reduce costs and boost customer experience
Gain end-to-end shipment visibility, get proactive alerts, and send customers live tracking links
Grow business in a dynamic world and manage operations across First, Middle & Last mile
Delight customers by seamlessly managing store and online orders across own fleet and 3rd party
Reduce freight costs & get end to end visibility across shipments
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If we consider logistics as a lever system, TMS is the fulcrum that results in the movement of goods and services from one place to another. Now, how well you position this fulcrum and how smartly you balance the load, keeping the constraints in mind, determines the overall efficiency and operational success of your logistics ecosystem. This is why opting for the best TMS solutions continues to be an agenda for supply chain management professionals.
Accelerated by technological adoption, the TMS market is one of the fastest growing in the world. In a 2020 report, Gartner claimed the global TMS market was growing at a CAGR of 11.1% in 2018 and is expected to cross $1.94 billion by 2022 while capturing around one-third of the supply chain execution market.
A SaaS-based TMS software helps businesses optimize the logistics process, provides 360-degree visibility of day-to-day operations and deals with compliance and regulatory commitments. As a result, businesses can ensure an uninterrupted flow of work for on-time delivery of shipments.
The best TMS solutions leverage advanced technologies like cloud computing, machine learning, and the Internet of Things to offer a range of features, which makes them a perfect fit for distributors, manufacturers, e-commerce businesses, retail firms, and even logistics service providers.
In this blog, we will explore the features and benefits of the best TMS solutions. But before that, let us first understand why you need them.
TMS helps you organize transportation data, which, in turn, helps to draw the right strategies for efficient supply chain operations. The best TMS solutions enable your business to gain a competitive edge with smart logistics operations and efficient delivery orchestration.
Next, we discuss the three core application use cases of TMS solutions.
A Transport Management System equips you with smart functionalities, such as planning routes for quicker deliveries at cost-effective rates. You can get custom solutions for all your transport-related needs, such as fleet management, planning deliveries as per loads, vehicle capacity, type, driver, etc.
The best TMS solutions detangle the supply chain complexities by connecting a logistics provider with the right stakeholder at the right time. They also offer additional features like evaluating merchandise and reviewing past shipments, increasing operational efficiency.
Given how e-Commerce firms are not letting geographical divides get in the way of expansion, logistical partners require a platform that provides them with a real-time view of the shipments. The best TMS solutions allow businesses to track freight, receive timely updates, and be intimated of any unexpected delays.
They also offer functionalities such as multi-modal transport management, order management, carrier management, etc via a single dashboard interface.
A transport management software paves the way for seamless operations with actionable insights and in-depth report capabilities. Let us consider the example of a company that looks after the shipping process for 20 locations, each of which pushes out five shipments every week.
At the end of every week, the company has to create and evaluate 100 invoices. A robust TMS seamlessly stores all the voices under a single purview and creates customized reports for each of them. The reports shed light on any discrepancies between costs and invoices, acting as a single source of truth.
Now that you’ve had an idea about the capabilities of a TMS let us look at how it can usher in new efficiencies for your business.
TMS solutions help reduce costs via smart features, such as visibility on shipments, carriers, and planning routes based on quotes and transit time. They help businesses choose the most profitable service provider every time and also offer actionable data insights for improving the processes over time.
All the billings, invoicing, contracts, and transactions are managed digitally and the reliance on manual elements for transportation management is reduced.
Businesses can save a significant amount of time and resources by automating the tracking of shipments and other menial tasks. The best TMS solutions come with centralized interfaces that provide real-time inputs about shipments, send alerts about unforeseen delays, and get detailed insights into the movement of each order.
Also, the businesses can plan the deliveries keeping multiple constraints in mind for every shipment, thereby reducing costs and improving operational efficiency.
With a TMS, logistics providers get access to next-gen technological features for improved delivery times, automate time-consuming tasks and identify gaps for improvement with insights.
Various features, such as predictive and dynamic routing, dispatch execution, geofencing, etc. help manage and plan operations in a smart manner, which results in quicker deployments, improved security, and a positive customer experience.
A key USP of TMS solutions is how they help businesses use transportation data for actionable business insights to identify potential pitfalls in their strategies. This is largely made possible by the rising use of technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud solutions in transport management systems. Thanks to automation, transport management tends to be less time-intensive, and businesses can devote more time to strategizing.
These insights enable businesses to spot not just loopholes but also the most optimal ways to cut costs, minimize shipment delays and ramp up their ability to scale.
However, before investing in a TMS, businesses must identify the challenges they are facing and the goals they want to achieve. The following section discusses various factors one should consider before investing in a TMS.
Choosing the best TMS solutions might not be easy, as each business has a different set of requirements. Therefore, the definition of the best TMS software solutions varies for every business.
Hence, we are sharing the key considerations that every business or fleet manager must keep in mind while choosing a transport management system.
A TMS that can be accessible by the entire team irrespective of their location is a definite advantage for a business eyeing global expansion. With remote working becoming the norm, cloud solutions offer businesses the right tool to manage systems efficiently and cost-effectively, from anywhere, at any time.
The last thing a business needs is a platform that its teams have a hard time understanding. The best TMS solutions have a user-friendly interface that is easily navigable for users. A low-code SaaS platform makes it easier for stakeholders to get used to the nuances without expert training, saving time and reducing the TCO.
The functionalities of the best TMS solutions aren’t limited to being a standard routing guide. Instead, intelligent TMS platforms offer automation and data analytics to optimize workflows and provide visibility with process-oriented dashboards for making smarter decision-making with minimal resources.
An intelligent transportation management software mitigates customer queries with intuitive AI-enabled chat platforms. The chatbots handle the regular queries, while the more complex ones are forwarded to the customer support team.
Buyers should be provided with delivery-related options for a positive CX. For end consumers, the best TMS solutions must offer features such as rescheduling delivery, sharing delivery feedback, real-time tracking, and live ETA updates.
For the uninterrupted flow of the supply chain, logistics providers must remain informed about the whereabouts of the shipment at all times. This way, businesses can prevent any route deviation and receive instant alerts in case of potential delays. IoT-enabled trackers also provide insights regarding the condition of the shipment or container, such as temperature or nearby weather conditions.
Now that you know the key considerations, let us move on to the list of the best TMS solutions for 2023.
Shipsy is an AI-enabled logistics management platform that offers a smart transportation management system. It equips businesses with cutting-edge tools to automate, optimize, track and streamline logistical and supply chain operations.
By integrating Shipsy’s intelligent TMS, businesses can boost digital transformation across their supply chain, simplify cross-border logistics, and reduce costs without impacting the customer experience.
Kuebix offers its users a multimodal network of carriers that includes both domestic and global companies. The platform offers businesses real-time access to reports and dashboards for informed decision-making.
Oracle is a cloud-based transport management system that helps its users minimize freight costs while optimizing services and logistical efficiency with automation capabilities.
The users can manage both inbound and outbound shipments on the platform. The platform offers flexibility to businesses for tackling unforeseen challenges by integrating collaboration tools for both carriers and suppliers.
MercuryGate is a feature-rich TMS platform that balances power with usability and helps businesses drive their ROI. It offers multimodal support for different kinds of freight and software suites for creating, changing, and validating shipments.
While the above-mentioned TMS solutions offer amazing features, it is important to know that opting for partial automation of your transportation or delivery operations only leads to average results, in terms of cost savings, optimization, and profitability.
Hence, it is better to invest in smart end-to-end delivery management platforms like Shipsy, that automate and orchestrate all types of deliveries with smart in-built algorithms.
Shipsy is a smart logistics management tool that can iron out the most critical issues in transport management by combining future-forward AI and cloud-enabled capabilities. Businesses can plan, execute and optimize their operations with Shipsy’s wide range of features and accelerate business growth.
With a growing network of 20,000+ shippers and 50+ third-party logistics companies, Shipsy arms businesses with the right information and intelligence to steer growth at scale.
For more information about how you can partner with Shipsy and leverage one of the best TMS solutions, get in touch with experts and schedule a custom demo today.
The transportation management system of any business is responsible...
Multimodal visibility facilitates real-time tracking shipments to help shippers know the exact status of the shipment and avoid delivery delays, increasing transportation costs, and other problems.
