“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you chose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

As Dr. Suess said, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you chose. You’re on your own.  And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

Too often, companies think they want a type of software to serve as a ‘shot in the arm’.  But, what they truly desire are outcomes. These outcomes can range from increased market share and revenue growth, to cost reductions and productivity improvements.

Sometimes companies fail to accurately define the desired outcome related to purchasing software.  In other cases, the desired outcome is too short term focused. 

Transportation Management Technology is at the forefront of this challenge and requires a cross-company assessment to define these outcomes.  Is your approach to transportation management centralized, decentralized, regional, or global? Are there any new distribution and transportation capabilities you must implement? What factors currently affect your mode mix, and how will your current mode mix change in the coming years? Which departments will be using the technology, and what decisions will the technology be driving?

From this, you can derive three questions: where are you going, how can you get there, and how fast do you need to get there? 

Take a well-known manufacturing company (that shall remain nameless for confidentiality purposes) for example; they had a decentralized approach to their distribution and logistics.  Each plant managed its own needs.  This company realized that by increasing visibility they could reduce costs, improve their productivity, and establish a more centralized, proactive approach to distribution management. 

Their desired outcome was to cultivate a supply chain network that kept the cost from source to destination at a minimal, actively maintain and improve their service, all while guaranteeing their customers recognized their logistical services as a value-add.

This company had a unique awareness; their biggest obstacle was how to effectively manage an ever-changing logistics network towards a long term outcome.

TMS and the ROI surrounding a TMS are often measured in a ‘rear view mirror’ manner.  Measuring by looking back at the beginning from implementation day to the present, should only serve to show improvement towards the outcome.

Think of 10 years into the future- your network has changed, you are serving different customers, filling orders using different tools, your mode mix has changed, etc.

The question now becomes how you will get there. Do you invest capital in a TMS? If you choose yes, do you purchase an in house TMS or software as a service? Is a blend of managed services coupled with the software as a service (SAAS) the best road for your company?

For this company, they chose to stick to with what they are the absolute best at- developing and making their product. A blend of managed services and an SAAS technology has allowed them to keep their resource focused, while gaining the benefits of a Best-in-Class supply chain strategy.  

It all starts with ‘the outcome’. Spend time to understand the end game, and the map becomes clearer.  Remember, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.