A transportation management system (TMS) is crucial to the success of any business that uses vehicle fleets. As a result, companies need to select the best possible TMS for their needs. But how do you know what your company needs? And what types of questions should you ask when vetting potential solutions? We’ve outlined some key considerations for choosing a TMS below.
Understanding the Key Requirements
To begin your selection process, you should first identify the main business requirements. This can be done by mapping out the key stakeholders and identifying their needs. It would help if you then determined your business goals, processes, and drivers to understand where a TMS can help achieve them.
You will also want to analyze the current state of your industry, as well as its future direction. This information is essential for determining which type of system will best meet your needs now and in the future.
Workflow Analysis and Mapping
To select a transportation management system (TMS), you must first map your company’s business processes. A workflow analysis and mapping exercise will help you identify the key processes in your organization and the information flows that occur within each process. This is an important step because it explains what data is required to support each process and how it needs to be managed.
Following this analysis, you should map these processes against software offerings being evaluated by looking at how well they meet your user requirements regarding functionality and ease of use.
Application Evaluation
To select a transportation management system, you need to identify the business requirements, the data flow, and the integration requirements.
Identify the Business Process:
The first step in selecting a transportation management system is understanding how your business works. This includes identifying all processes and departments involved in getting a shipment from point A to point B and identifying any gaps in current operations that can be improved upon.
Implementation Considerations
Once you have implemented a TMS, the next step is determining how to do it. It is always recommended that you consider implementing your TMS in phases. Starting with a small set of requirements and then adding more functionality as time goes on will allow for a better understanding of what the system can do and make it easier for future planning.
Before choosing any transportation management software (TMS), you must understand exactly what functions your organization needs. This includes knowing if particular features would benefit your business, such as predictive analytics or real-time tracking capabilities, which could help increase efficiency within different departments like customer service or supply chain management teams. Additionally, ensure that the software will not only be able to meet but exceed expectations when it comes time for implementation since this can prevent future problems down the road, such as slow response times due to lack of scalability.
Organizational Alignment
Once you have selected a system, aligning the organization with it is important. This will ensure that everyone understands how the system works and their roles in using it effectively.
Some ways of getting buy-in from the team include:
- Ensuring that employees understand how their role impacts organizational success
- Conducting training sessions or workshops on how to use the new tool effectively
- Creating an action plan for each employee who will be using this tool
Conclusion
A transportation management system (TMS) is a key tool for managing your supply chain, but finding the right system can take time. You need to consider many factors, such as the size of your business and its requirements; the location of warehouse facilities; integration with existing systems; and what level of investment you’re willing to make. If you want to save time and money on your search for an integrated logistics platform, get in touch with us today!
