A scalable TMS bought under budget, by cutting the functionality nobody would use

Vendor & TMS Selection Multi-mode Logistics and 3PL
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WHO

Business model

A multinational third party logistics provider with many customers and many unique requirements, running several software systems to accomplish efficient warehousing, inventory management, transportation and reporting.

Industry

Logistics and 3PL, where the software has to serve your customers' businesses as well as your own.

PROBLEM

What they felt

The provider wanted to purchase a system to satisfy its customers' needs, replace software currently in use and streamline operations, but avoid overpaying for functionality.

What we found

There are many transportation management systems on the market today. All are somewhat different in both functionality and adaptability. There are no TMSs that can do it all.

Many shippers over buy on functionality that they will never use, causing them to miss budgets. A difficult conversation with finance.

WHAT WE DID

Prep and analysis

Trans-solutions keeps a close watch on this industry and knows which systems provide what functionality and what providers are more willing to work with clients to adapt their systems without charging a small fortune. We performed a gap analysis on the functionality of the current systems and customer and client needs, and compared it against solutions available in the TMS market today.

Execution and coaching

Once the gap was determined, Trans-solutions conducted evaluation meetings to justify requested functionality. After these meetings, the gap was reduced and compared to scalable systems on the market that could satisfy customer and client needs.

We argued the requirements down

The savings came from taking functionality out of the specification, not from negotiating a discount. That takes a conversation with each stakeholder about what they will actually use.

RESULTS

What they got

A narrower choice of TMS, at significantly less money

When it was determined and agreed that less functionality was required, the choice of TMS was narrower but significantly less money. A system was selected that not only satisfied current needs, but provided additional functionality that added value to our client's product offering and further improved the return on the capital investment.

The system is scalable and adaptable, the functional requirements were met, and it came in under budget. The lasting value is control of the operation and the capture of new data the provider did not have before.

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