Choosing the Best Transportation Management System for Your Business
A lot rides on your choice of transportation management system for your business. Also known as a TMS, the effective use of the right system can save your company time, money, and a lot of hassle where the shipping of freight is concerned. How do you choose the right one for your business, though? Read on to get some tips.
Assess Your Needs
It’s important that you take a long, hard look at your shipping operations before you even begin shopping around for a Transportation Management System. Ask the following questions to get a better idea of what a new system needs to accomplish in order to be successful for your organization:
- How does shipping fit into your overall supply chain management operations?
- How many loads are you shipping?
- How many locations are you shipping from?
- What kind of integration with other supply chain systems will be necessary?
- What are the main challenges you’re facing in transportation currently?
- How could a TMS solve some or all of your shipping problems?
- What are your goals for a TMS?
Really zoom in on your organizations’ goals. Maybe you want simplified processes, less room for error, better insight into your current processes, or maybe you want to be able to plug and play new associates and have them able to effectively use the system. Maybe ROI is your most important goal so that stakeholders will be appeased at the expenditure.
Get Educated on Transportation Management Systems
Start with some basic research on the available systems on the market. What can they do? Do they do what you would need them to do? Check out the available features and determine whether you can purchase piecemeal from a complete TMS so that you’re only paying for what you need or if you’d have to buy the entire system. See which systems will effective integrate with your
One way to get an idea of whether a TMS will work for your company is to check out reviews and testimonials. These reviews are a great way to gauge the effectiveness of integration, customer service offered, and the user-friendliness of a system.
Get Some Quotes
The last step before you choose a TMS is to get a few quotes from systems that you’ve already determined will likely be effective for your organization. Be sure you ask any and all questions that you may have.
