Highlights
- Automation tools, when leveraged, eliminate redundant manual tasks, saving time and money.
- Choose a scalable TMS software that grows with your company, on both software cost and usership.
- One of the most important facets of any TMS software is guaranteed privacy and security of one of your company's most important assets, your data.
Are you in the process of choosing your first TMS or looking to move to a new TMS provider? If you answered yes, we bet you are asking yourself a few questions. How do I know which TMS to go with? What are the must-have features I should be using to vet each TMS software? While there are innumerable tools and differences you'll encounter when comparing the TMS software available in today's market, here's our TOP THREE initial factors to consider.
Automation
Automation tools, when leveraged, eliminate redundant manual tasks, saving time and money. Some of the biggest time stealers are manual data entry and manual capacity provider searches. This manual labor can be dramatically reduced or eliminated completely when you choose a TMS that brings your vendors into one, interactive environment.
An important part of any Shipper’s logistics operations is spot freight procurement, which traditionally involved repetitive shopping around to find a capacity provider with the best rate and service options. Instead, opt for a TMS that incorporates machine learning giving you the ability to perform a single search based on your price and service criteria that returns a list of premium capacity providers right to your TMS.
Another time-consuming, yet critical cost management task, is running a consistent freight bill audit. But who has the time to match every rate confirmation to each end invoice? Not to mention, when this important freight payables process is run this way, it is susceptible to human error. Choose a TMS with a “freight bill audit by exception only” tool. This tool automatically flags invoices that don’t match up with rate confirmations for further review, saving your company time and money.
Scalability
Choose a TMS software that grows and scales with your company, on both software cost and usership.
A desirable software is subscription based, and has a pricing structure tailored and scaled to each customer’s monthly freight spend. A subscription based model ensures two things. One, that you will always be using the most up-to-date version of the software without being saddled with arbitrary upgrade fees. Two, your per/month subscription cost is based on your company’s freight volume, which means the subscription cost isn’t a one-size fits all, giving you access to best-in-class technology no matter the size of your company.
The other aspect of scalability is usership. Too many TMS software providers have a gated model that grants limited functionality access and a set number of user “seats”, forcing companies to move to the next pricing “bundle” to gain full functionality or impose flat-rate fees for each additional user “seat”. Choose a software provider that offers unlimited usership (users & locations) at no additional cost, and immediate access to full functionality for the life of your subscription.
Bonus, an excellent software provider also includes onboarding, training and setup at no additional cost.
Data Security
One of the most important facets of any TMS software is guaranteed privacy and security of one of your company's most important assets, your data. Choose a vendor that does NOT share or sell your data to third parties and has integrations that ensures you won't need to either.
Ready to explore a TMS that puts these Top 3 critical criteria at the forefront, BOOK A DEMO TODAY!
