Learn why you need a comprehensive TMS solution to handle all the nuances of procure-to-pay freight management processes.
Published on August 15, 2024 • 9 mins read
Rohit Lakshman
Learn why you need a comprehensive TMS solution to handle all the nuances of procure-to-pay freight management processes.
Can you deny that manual and paper-based methods of freight management aren’t synonymous with a nervous breakdown? If a mismatch occurs in day-to-day sourcing and payment, you can realize the chaos down the logistics networks. There are too many loopholes in manual freight management, with millions and even thousands of millions of bottom-line impact. As businesses grow, the scale and complexity around pay-to-procure only double, which requires efficiency for supply chain visibility and unified data-driven decisions.
Connected transportation that supports greater control, visibility, and business process efficiency allows for end-to-end transportation management and facilitates modern logistics. A comprehensive TMS solution fulfills these ambitions. With integrated TMS features, transportation management software drives operational efficiency, streamlines overwhelming workflows, improves connectivity, and boosts cost efficiency.
Let’s explore what essential TMS features are must-haves for maximum productivity gains and logistics efficiency.
A TMS solution is a comprehensive application that manages end-to-end transportation activities or handles the entire procure-to-pay life cycle of transportation to support the inbound and outbound shipment of goods across the supply chain.
TMS or transportation management systems provide support for the following processes:
Transport sourcing and procuring: Helps secure freight capacity with optimal bid workflows.
Transport planning and execution: Enables intelligent load planning, capacity optimization, and freight shipment.
Logistics automation: Provides greater visibility on the movement of goods and risk prevention.
Transportation analytics: Provides real-time data to improve logistics performance and shipment efficiency
A holistic TMS solution is designed to support scalability. Whatever critical processes may come, you can streamline vital supply chain operations and unlock essential benefits.
Your current system may be clunky and highly unlikely to improve process efficiency. A TMS is critical to navigating the challenges of functional silos across the logistics networks and help unlock tangible business values. Here is why you should use a TMS:
Improved visibility: AI/ML-driven TMS solutions build a single source of truth for all stakeholders to facilitate shorter lead times, faster delivery, and greater customer experiences.
Cost control: TMS solutions automate manual processes and boost cost-efficiency by optimizing freight capacity, reducing empty miles, and paying only for services rendered.
Agility and efficiency: Logistics automation embedded in TMS unifies data to automate workflows for existing or new use cases and streamline intricate processes for better efficiency and supply chain agility.
Data-driven decisions: TMS ensures you can gain advanced data analytics and insights to improve freight procurement and carrier management decisions while also streamlining transportation activities.
As you tend to harness these benefits, you must consider comprehensive TMS features to manage the nuances of transport management in the supply chain.
Procure-to-pay for freight management can be intimidating. It is feasible to prioritize TMS features based on functional and platform capabilities. This approach makes it easy to select TMS solutions specific to your business needs to drive supply chain productivity and efficiency.
1. Freight Procurement
A comprehensive TMS solution can facilitate the following objectives.
Freight sourcing
A TMS solution's intelligent freight sourcing feature uses AI to build automated quotation workflows based on historical patterns and help develop bid projects. It reduces overheads and gives you better flexibility to negotiate prices and collaborate with the best carrier pool.
Digitized rate management
Freight management software like TMS provides a digitized rate manager engine that digitizes all your freight contracts. This helps you automate contract renewal for expiring lanes and manage fluctuating accessorial charges to anticipate final shipping costs.
Automated procurement events
With a transportation management system, you can gain complete control over the procurement lifecycle by automating the negotiation of carrier contracts, pricing, and terms, initiating procuring transportation as needed, and renewing or terminating an existing contract.
2. Transportation Planning
A freight management software system meets the following purposes for logistics:
3. Transportation Execution
With a TMS solution, you can control the following workflows:
4. Freight Audit & Payment
TMS solutions make the following processes seamless.
5. Carrier Collaboration ( Unified Platform)
A TMS solution efficiently helps build a unified platform to collaborate with carrier networks across multi-modal shipments. With improved visibility, TMS enables you to prevent discrepancies, avoid shipment issues, and optimize inventory management for optimal utilization of fleet services.
A robust transportation management system enables you to harness powerful business analytics, which helps with transportation forecasting in tandem with future demands. Predictive analytics help detect logistics risks to prepare contingency plans, while market intelligence improves carrier selection with preferred attributes.
Your TMS software must embrace automation and AI to streamline manual processes and reduce workloads for increased efficiency and productivity. AI Copilot is a new-age generative intelligence that automates decision-making across the freight procure-to-pay cycle to drive significant productivity and decision accuracy.
Your TMS solution must integrate with business-critical applications such as warehouse management systems, ERP, CRM, etc. Harnessing real-time data analytics allows you to detect demand and optimize inventory management to avoid stockouts or overstock by efficiently managing shipments.
Global supply chain operations are no less than a tough battle. They are full of uncertainties and nuances. Transportation management system software allows you to transition to modern logistics by increasing process efficiency and productivity. With essential TMS features, you can automate a plethora of workflows on the pay-to-procure life cycle and gain a competitive advantage. Hence, TMS solutions are not nice to have but must-haves.
To learn more, explore TMS advantages for supply chain efficiency on Pando.
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