Susan Evans is a first-time guest blogger on the SCIT Perspectives Blog.
We appreciate her joining us today to give her expertise on the global side of
TMSs. Susan is Managing
Director, Tompkins International, EMEA. With more than 20 years of experience
in transportation, logistics technology and global supply chain issues, Susan
leads companies to achieve supply chain excellence. Her first-hand expertise in
Europe and Africa stems from living and
working in these regions for the past 14 years.
-- SCIT
Blog Team
Recently we were discussing Global Transportation
Management Solutions (TMS) and deployment with one of Tompkins software vendor
partners. During our conversation we began to talk about how many companies,
shippers and Logistics
Service Providers (LSPs) are truly running a global TMS solution.
We determined that there may not be as many as you
think.
This piqued my interest to dig deeper and find out
what people really consider to be a “global solution” in the area of
transportation.
You hear the terms – “Global
Trade Management,” “International Transportation,” “Transportation
Management System” – but what really constitutes a global solution?
After some examination, I found a few interesting
points as well as some contradictions that I would like to share with you today.
To begin, there are a number of Tier 1 and Tier 2 Transportation
Management Systems on the market and some of these are able to support
solutions in all regions – the Americas,
Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. And
while some solutions are more geared to North America, in Europe
we find some are very country-specific (available only in French or only in
German).
But what we are looking for here is the number of
shippers and LSPs that are using these solutions on a global basis.
The reality is that some shippers standardize globally
on a single TMS; however, each region’s business is very different, so the TMS has
to manage domestic transportation on a regional basis.
Locally, different carriers are used and different
business rules apply. At the same time, multiple currencies can be used with value-added
tax (VAT) and cross-border issues in Europe, while North
America is more homogenous.
Likewise, LSPs may standardize on a supply chain technology
solution to manage their business, but others may have a list of TMS solutions
that they prefer (some being legacy and others Tier 1 and Tier 2). In actuality,
most are not deploying a single solution for a single shipper on a global
basis. But, there are exceptions to this.
Some companies have embraced a single installation
of a solution that allows central planning which is then executed locally. As a
result, companies that have been able to achieve a single ERP solution on a
single box, are more capable of achieving a single install of a TMS than companies
that have embraced a core carrier program or working with a single LSP.
As I took a deeper look at this subject, I began to
think more about the aspects of ocean and air transportation.
Often, companies that have an international
transportation solution use a domestic
TMS. And while a Tier 1 TMS can support ocean and air, more frequently, deployments
are for road transport following an international move managed outside the TMS.
Yet, some vendors provide integrated networks that allow GTM/international
transportation to feed to domestic TMSs.
So, where are we now?
A global transportation management system has
different meanings to different parties. But most often, companies are moving
to a standardized, single solution or platform that deploys on a
regional/divisional basis.
The exceptions include a few companies that are
implementing a global Tier 1 solution on a single box offering in order to take
advantage of centrally negotiated rates with a more centralized and coordinated
approach.
I hope this helps you as you begin to think about
standardizing your global TMS. For those of you who have already found yourself
in the middle of this issue, let me know how “global” your TMS is.
-- Susan
Photo Credit: The_Tahoe_Guy
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Tags: transportation management systems, logistics service providers, europe