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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Transportation Management Software

By Janet Barr


Travel Software - the world moves faster and faster every day... frequent travelers only recourse to travel overwhelm is top quality Travel Software. Those with responsive travel software stay a step ahead of the competition. For example, most busy business travelers use personal travel software for instant and accurate travel management in one handy travel software plan. These savvy travelers know the most important part of the travel software is the part you don't see - the interface and network access for adding new travel destinations, services, payment options and preferences to their travel software..

Modern transportation management software has standardized into basic functional groups based on the needs of shippers and carriers/brokers. Much of the available transportation management software is sold with these functions as modules that can be purchased separately. Which modules are purchased is usually driven by the size of the company looking for the transportation management software.

Transportation software as applied to shippers can be part of the much larger field of supply chain management or more narrowly focused on supply chain execution. Supply chain management can be defined as the application of information technology to economic order quantity theory. It encompasses virtually every function within a company that deals in tangible products and is usually best preceded by ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning is the company getting its data house in order. It can then think in a more focused way about supply chain management and execution.

As with any major business decision, it pays to research travel software providers and compare the services and tools each offers. An important consideration is choosing a stand alone travel software package installed at your business or home versus a network travel software provide. High traffic business travelers generally prefer the network travel solution with it's "Log On and Book" convenience compared to installed travel software packages that require upgrades and may crash from time to time.

Management of transportation vendors is an important function of supply chain execution software. Shippers usually need a number of vendors to cover their territory or find it beneficial to have vendors competing for business. Vendor management software uses objective measures to point out the best vendor for any given shipment based on price and service accomplishment. The best supply chain execution software allows for effective communication with vendors throughout the shipping process.

Transportation management software as it applies to trucking or broker companies has standardized into three basic functional groups; dispatch operations, equipment management and accounting. Much of the available trucking software is sold with these functions as modules that can be purchased separately. Which modules are purchased is usually driven by the size of the carrier or broker looking for the trucking software. Very small carriers and brokers can manage dispatch and or equipment on paper. Accounting functions at this level are well served by software packages such as QuickBooks or Peachtree. Carriers that grow beyond 10 so trucks and brokers with 20+ loads per month or can usually begin to see the value of having one or more of the transportation management software modules.




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