Case Study | Transportation Software Development

About Client

The client is a European lead logistics provider (4PL) offering seamless supply chain optimization services in countries like the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Poland. The company generates more than $3 billion in annual revenue and employs more than 10,000 supply chain professionals. The client has its own logistics facilities globally and operates in 24 million square feet of warehouse and distribution centers. Business lines of the client include dedicated transportation management, brokerage, global logistics, 3PL & supplier management, and intermodal. With A3logics as a transportation technology partner, the client was looking to optimize its supply chain operations by maximizing automation and improving integrations.

Business Challenge

A3logics as its premier technology partner, the client was facing a multitude of challenges like:

Inefficient Operations 4PL sought to streamline its operations related to order handling and management by introducing automation. Its current transportation management software (TMS) was a decade old and underdeveloped to keep up with changing market demands. The limited automation capabilities of existing TMS were limiting its employee’s productivity.
Poor Visibility The customers of 4PL were facing hard times interacting with them due to poor TMS interface and integration support. They were unable to get instant updates about orders, load capacity, and deliveries. Due to poor carrier connectivity, the 4PL was unable to fulfill orders.
Productivity The employees of 4PL were wasting too much time in manual, redundant processes because of the poor performance of its legacy TMS. This was hampering 4PLs ability to deliver efficient, cost-effective, and reliable services in the market.
Route Optimization The legacy TMS of the client was unable to support sophisticated optimization algorithms and data analysis tools for finding the best route in real-time that can be executed. Adding to that, the system was not intuitive enough to be utilized for complex projects.

Given the bulk of technology challenges in TMS, the client was actively looking for a new, advanced TMS solution in the market that can fulfill their business needs. Company’s unit managers, warehouse coordinators, and supply chain analysts were all in unison to find a transportation solution that can speed up integrations, improve automation, and bring visibility to their supply chain processes. After many system reviews in the market, the company selected A3logics to build a customized TMS solution for eliminating its supply chain chaos.

Our Solution

A3logics crafted a customized, intuitive, and multi-mode TMS for the 4PL vendor that optimizes the organization’s transportation operations. The European 4PL giant prefers the A3logics solution as it was robust and provided them the flexibility to configure the system as per their business needs. The other reason behind this engagement was the A3 team’s commitment to delivering a solution that overcomes their key performance bottlenecks. A3logics worked closely with 4PLs supply chain partners and employees to understand their issues for building a TMS that accelerates the order-to-cash cycle within a single system by keeping everyone in the loop.

Transportation Solution with Better Automation, Visibility and Optimization Capabilities

By utilizing sophisticated transportation algorithms, multiple data entry points in the supply chain, and actual rate cost, transportation software development experts at A3logics came up with an intelligent TMS solution that determines the best plans that can be actually implemented. Performing route design, optimization, and execution - all can be done within a single system for handling even the most complex projects. Despite handling complicated projects, the solution from A3logics is intuitive and simple to use.

“We think the TMS should manage most of the transportation administrative process so our people can focus on what’s more important - serving customers. A3logics custom TMS helps us exactly achieve that and unlock real-world savings by providing actionable insights,”-said a business unit manager at the 4PL.

Highlights

Here are some key features of our Transportation Management Software

Simplified Order Processing

With A3logics custom TMS, 4PL teams observe big productivity gains with improved order processing capabilities. They self-customized the TMS to meet customer needs. Orders can be adjusted quickly based on customer demands and load capacity. Minimum manual efforts for load consolidation, route optimization, and finding executable orders. Inconsistencies in orders like missing delivery dates, data mismatch, etc. eluded.

Improved Automaton

With improved automation, 4PLs employees are able to focus on channelizing their time and efforts towards serving customers effectively, as well as, achieving their larger business goals of becoming a custom-centric and sustainable transportation entity.

Better Visibility

A3logics custom TMS provides better visibility into shipments and access to initiative portals for improving the speed and accuracy of routing requests and order management. It became much easier for the client to connect with carriers, track their availability, and optimize capacity based on the availability and route conditions.

Reliable Order Management

A3logics custom TMS consolidates all loads efficiently to avoid the manual work of pushing through orders for 4PL staff. The system is optimized to work in real-time and cater to loads that can be actually implemented in real-time.

Route Optimization

4PL now has the intelligent TMS that smartly calculates all the real-world constraints from start to end in an order to suggest the best routes. As the situation change, it analyzes the effect of those changes on current routes to determine whether there are new options available for faster delivery.

Seamless Carrier Connectivity

In the European market, the problem of capacity shortage exists. Transportation companies are focusing on reducing empty mileage. To avoid it, the 4PL client wanted a self-configurable system that allows it to set capacity that carriers can accomplish. With A3logics custom TMS, the 4PL got greater visibility into carrier availability. Carriers were easily able to communicate with 4PL and notify about load availability,

Intuitive Dashboard

The client and its supply chain partner, including carriers, shippers, and brokers get access to intuitive portals/dashboards with easy navigation options. Exchanging information and executing transactions became much for everyone. The easy-to-use TMS interface allows the 4PL to stay connected with its key supply chain partners and avoid last-minute transportation arrangements.

Sustainable Logistics Solution

One of the primary business goals of 4PL clients is to reduce their carbon footprint through sustainable business practices. TMS solution from A3logics helped the client achieve this goal by reducing the amount of equipment and traveling needed for tracking purposes. This, in turn, improved efficiencies and reduced cost for the company. The sophisticated route planning algorithms and data analysis tools placed inside the TMS optimize the 4PL delivery operations.

Tools & Technologies

Artificial Intelligence

Javascript

Go

Distance API

Direction API

Node.js

Vue.Js

Mongo DB

Google Cloud

Here Are Numbers That Speak For Our Quality Results

40%

improvement in the order-to-cash cycle.

70%

of the order inconsistencies were eliminated.

improvement in supply chain team productivity.

88%

increase in customer satisfaction level.

50%

improvement in customer onboarding time.

Summary

The given case study articulates the technology expertise of A3logics in the transportation industry. With a decade-long experience in transportation software development, A3logics possesses the skills and capabilities to craft truly customized transportation solutions that boost productivity, improve automation, and provide cost savings to its clients. In the highlighted case study, the client was able to realize the cost savings of around $1 million after the 11 months of project implementation. Overall project savings will be around $3 million (base estimation) and at least $7 million (upper case) in the longer run. Such cost savings are now put forward by the client toward business expansion.

If you are also looking to automate and streamline your transportation operations using a single solution, schedule a free call with our technology experts at A3logics. Our transportation software developers have decades of experience in building the most reliable solutions that bring visibility into your supply chain operations, providing continuous savings. We have served companies of all sizes, scale, and capacity - from high-growth startups, mid-sized firms to Fortune 500 giants. Our supply chain experts focus on adding value to your business by delivering the best possible sustainable transportation solutions that are compliant, secure, and certified by industry experts. Drop us a line to know how we can help in your transportation business growth.

Transportation Software Development Case Study