TMS platforms: What to look for when evaluating a solution

Today, more and more businesses leverage supply chain automation to blow their competition away. These businesses save time and money on what used to be a very tedious part of the economy.

Now, companies who want those same things are looking for solutions to their supply chain woes in the form of software.

Shipwell provides dozens of solutions from tracking to ordering to finance, all within a single pane of glass cloud solution. When you are evaluating your supply chain, here are some major value points that will skyrocket your business to the next level of productivity.

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Visibility on every shipment

Whether you're a shipper or a 3PL, you probably have a lack of visibility in your incoming and outbound freight.

One of Shipwell's biggest initiatives is the ability to offer real-time freight tracking from beginning to end of each shipment. Even if a shipment is a full truckload running multiple drops, the shipper will get notifications at each point.

Now, shippers can not only see delays in real-time but know why the shipment was delayed. Carriers can send messages in the Shipwell app about long detention, traffic congestion, or a break down if it happens. Shipwell users can also make estimations based on looking at the tracking map location.

While some businesses pay one company for tracking software and another company for TMS solutions, Shipwell has both and all in an easy-to-use platform. "Keeping visibility at the top of our SaaS evaluation will unveil route optimization, better load matching, and full journey analytics," says Ken McCann, Shipwell's VP of SaaS Sales.

Implementation

Migrating to a new TMS platform presents many internal logistics challenges. From setting it up, importing carriers and products, to setting up rates, some solutions can take months to even start using.

When seeking a new platform, leveraging the cloud is a major timesaver. Because Shipwell is hosted in the cloud, it's always updating so users run on the latest version at all times. Because it's not hosted on your network, there's no setup for your internal IT teams needed to get up and running fast.

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Furthermore, when leveraging the flexibility of REST APIs, platform users have endless customizations available. Shipwell is no different - we're powered by REST APIs for the ultimate flexibility in how you can use the platform to best fit your needs.

Capacity and connectivity

Some supply chain managers might be saying, "We are running a tight ship. We know everything we need to know and make things work." But what if you found out you were missing out on hundreds if not thousands of data points that can optimize and automate your supply chain even more?

Shipwell's mission is to make supply chains more connected, more communicable, and completely transparent for everyone. We have integrations with the major ELD providers including KeepTruckin, Peoplenet, Verizon Connect, and more, so most carriers are compatible with the Shipwell platform.

ELDs offer a single source of truth around where your freight is at any given time, in real time. Updates are happening in the platform as your freight is picked up, in transit, or being dropped off without a single manual update needed.

Then, we offer this data to you to monitor critical analytics on supply chain efficiency.

Our data provides insight into carrier lane preferences, equipment, and other important considerations to match the shipper and carrier together for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Centralization for better communication

Centralizing your freight management can make or break a company's supply chain.

If you are still running on spreadsheets, you need to get a TMS. When you aren't centralizing your data, you can't run proper analytics.

Ken McCann, Shipwell VP of SaaS Sales

But what does centralization really mean? For Shipwell, it's bringing in shippers, carriers, and 3PLs into one solution to communicate, provide updates, and ensure that everyone is on the same page for every shipment. It's about sharing important information in one central space.

Shippers and 3PLs can create their own private load board directly within the Shipwell platform. Once they populate the load board, approved carriers can bid on loads or book instantly with a fixed rate, automating the matching process.

Also, businesses can import product codes, preferred carriers, and more from a spreadsheet that will seamlessly integrate into the Shipwell platform. Best of all, you can run your finances through the app with our Quickbooks integration.

Proven success in major companies

When you are evaluating a SaaS solution for your supply chain, we recommend looking to companies with proven success. Those who use Shipwell recommend our services to other major companies so that our economy can become even more connected. In the freight space, 8 of the top 10 logistics companies use our service at any given time.

Shipwell has what you need in solving your freight problems, and we can't wait to start working together. Check out our newsletter for more information, or sign up today and get introduced to the best thing to ever happen to your supply chain.

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