According to 360 Quadrant analysis, the following have been identified as the top 10 vendors in the Best Transportation Management Software:

Top 10 Transportation management software

1. Oracle Corporation
2. Sap SE
3. JDA Software Inc
4. Descartes
5. Manhattan Associates
6. Mercurygate International Inc
7. Processweaver Shipping Solutions
8. HighJump
9. Epicor Software Corporation
10. Inet-Logistics Gmbh

What is Transportation management software?

The transportation management software system involves a set of software and services that are deployed to provide management of logistics, warehouses, distribution systems, and order management systems. The transport management software system includes solutions for various transportation processes, such as traffic management, information management, and parking management, which need to be analyzed for efficient, safe, and effective transportation for the customers.

Best Transportation management software systems enable enterprises to automate planning, routing, and scheduling of their transportation processes, leading to reduced freight costs. They also provide enhanced visibility into the supply chain management process by offering features such as warehouse management and dispatch management. Furthermore, they also help in tracking transport information, leading to improved delivery performance.

In a nutshell, transport management software is used to plan, execute, and optimize the movement of goods, thereby increasing the efficiency of the logistics process. The software also assists in keeping the inventory lean, thereby reducing the lead time and storage expenses.

The vendors are placed into four categories based on their performance in each criterion: Vanguards, Innovators, Emerging, and Dynamic. We have evaluated the top 27 Transportation management software vendors that include Oracle, SAP SE, JDA Software Group Inc., Manhattan Associates, Descartes, MercuryGate International, BluJay Solutions, Inet-Logistics, CTSI-Global, TMW Systems, 3Gtms, Logility, Precision Software, CargoSmart, Cirrus TMS, Cerasis, Kratzer Automation AG, Epicor, GTNexus, HighJump Software, Aljex Software, Acuitive Solutions, Process Weaver, LSS Logistics Software Solutions BV, Metro Infrasys Pvt. Ltd., EFKON AG, and Omnitracs. The analysis has been carried out based on specific parameters and the scores have been assigned accordingly.

Vendors who fall into this category receive high scores for most of the evaluation criterion. The vendors in this MicroQuadrant have a strong and established product portfolio and a very strong market presence. They provide mature and reputable traffic management system solutions and services that cater to a wide range of verticals globally. They also have strong business strategies.

They have established vendors with very strong business strategies. However, they are low in the product portfolio. They generally focus on a specific type of technology related to the product. The vendors included in this MicroQuadrant have a good customer base and are providers of software and services catering to other technologies as well.

Innovators in the MicroQuadrant are vendors that have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. They have very focused product portfolio. However, they do not have very strong growth strategies for their overall business.

They are vendors with niche product offerings, who are starting to gain recognition in the market. They do not have very strong business strategies as compared to other established vendors. They might be new entrants in the market and require some more time before getting significant traction.

What’s driving the market?

The real-time economy demands a faster and timely execution of the business processes in every industry, especially in the supply chain, logistics, and transportation industries. Speed, timing, efficiency, and optimization are the crucial factors in logistics and transportation, which are now achievable due to the adoption of digital technologies. Thus, digital technologies are transforming the landscape of the transportation business, thereby encouraging transportation management system vendors and third-party providers to adopt digitized systems for supply chain management and transportation activities.

By using digital technologies, such as Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and collaboration platforms, transportation management system providers are finding ways to face new economic challenges. In developed regions, such as North America and Europe, vendors are investing heavily in technology to automate and streamline the business processes by tracking goods, wireless connections, and handheld devices for the staff. With the adoption of digital transformation, the transportation vendors and third-party providers have reduced the overall transportation costs and the delivery errors have also minimized.

Who uses Transportation Management Software?

Transportation management systems are mainly used by businesses that need to ship, move, and receive goods on a regular basis, including:

• Manufacturers
• Distributors
• Ecommerce companies
• Retail businesses
• Companies providing logistics services

Businesses across every industry from construction to life sciences, use a transportation management software system. The businesses that have an annual expenditure of more than $100 million or more on freight are primary users of Transportation management software. Even smaller businesses are now using affordable cloud-based transportation management software and trying to integrate it into their supply chain.

What are the benefits of using Transportation Management Software?

• Reduced Cost- Cost reduction is one of the major benefits of transport management software. The best transportation management software offers analytics and optimization solutions, that enable you to reduce the overall operations cost. Along with identifying the problems, the software also suggests solutions and provides useful data to make your operations more cost-effective.

• Real-time Delivery Tracking- By using a cloud-based transport management system, it enables users to track shipments and locate drivers in real-time. Accurate shipment location helps in providing details of expected delivery time and helps in creating an efficient route schedule. Additionally, the software helps in comparing the efficiency of drivers and routes.

• Enhanced Customer Service- With transportation dispatch software, overall customer satisfaction levels can be improved. Monitoring real-time performance helps in improving customer service. Additionally, two-end transport management tools offered enables the customers to track their orders in real-time and make the delivery process more convenient for the company and the customer.

• Improved Productivity and Warehouse Efficiency- A well-organized and established warehouse is crucial to enable a constant incoming and outgoing inventory smoothly. Transportation Management Software can be combined with WMS (Warehouse Management Software), which helps in tracking orders, along with their location in the warehouse. Hence, overall productivity and warehouse efficiency can be improved.

• Improved Supply Chain Efficiency- When reduced cost, customer satisfaction, and improved productivity & warehouse efficiency are clubbed, it turns out to be an improved supply chain management process with reduced inefficiency.

• Enhanced accessibility- The software enables one to onboard every single stakeholder involved in the transportation process. Live, real-time data about the shipment is streamed to all the individuals involved leading to accurate information.

• Improved visibility- Transport management software permits real-time communication between every stakeholder involved. Details such as the location, what is happening, how, where and why along with other performance metrics leads to much better visibility.

• Efficient Collaboration- The software enables to share the information quickly across all parties involved. Sharing transport details, scaling and collaboration are incrementally enhanced.

• Simplified billing process- With the help of e-tracking, the software helps in handling the payments more efficiently. As paperwork is avoided it saves plenty of time and worth investing in the software.

What are the key features to be considered in good Transportation Management Software?

• Robust Optimization Engine- Optimized engines recognize and create a shorter, more efficient route plan that decreases time & cost improves overall customer satisfaction. Transport management software with the optimized engine enables us to satisfy multiple constraints without compromising on a vehicle's maximum capacity. Some typical optimization engines in best transport management software include Carrier Selection Engine, Strategic Freight Management Engine, Route Optimization Engine, and Load Optimization Engine.

• Real-time Tracking- Top Transport Management Software offers real-time tracking for products as they move around the network. The real-time tracking feature enables users to accurately track, monitor, and deliver the shipment, which in turn improves and automates the overall management process.

• Management of Career Contracts- Best Transport management software in 2020 offers the ability to combine the contracts in an electronic database by providing access and decision support tools for managing the transportation team. It also allows you to use the negotiated lanes and preferential terms.

• Seamless Integration- Best Transport management software can be integrated with inner sources of data like WMS, ERP, and OMS, which supports your business to attain complete transparency in the shipment process. It enables to integrate the entire supply chain management process into a single portal, which offers a single point of reference for transportation & supply chain management. This integration helps in strengthening end-to-end visibility across various warehouse and shipping functions like record access, general ledger information, and order processing.

• Route optimization- The software enables real-time planning and route execution for numerous carriers by merging the multimodal transport system is a vital feature of the TMS. This is cost-effective and eradicates the needless extra trips thereby reducing transport costs.

• Mode-selection and carrier- Enables to automatic selection of the type of carrier and mode of transport based on parameters such as cost, distance, service demands, and efficiency. The most suitable carrier method is selected from the available central pool of data considering past performance.

• Integrated Warehouse Management System (WMS)- Built-in Warehouse Management System (WMS) provides real-time data about the warehouse inventory entry and exit movement, tracking of goods, carrier dispatching is easily accessible.

• Integrated audit and payment- This consists of calculating available service options, freight charges, overheads and spotting the key areas of improvement. The organization quickly recognizes the pain points and solve these issues with the customers and the shipment. Best Transport management software enables the efficient and automated management of payments.

• Multi-mode transportation- An ideal software should have the ability to look for different modes of transportation available and support geo-coding, multi-transport routes such as air, road, and ocean and enable international transport.

• Business intelligence and analytics- This is one of the most vital features to be considered in Top Transport management software that permits to generate reports about data warehousing such as collecting, analyzing and summarizing the demand and supply of goods. The existing strategies can be better evaluated, the pain points in the process are identified and this leads to making informed data-driven decisions.

The Future of Transportation Management Software

Some of the innovative technologies that companies may choose to integrate currently available include:

• IoT fleet monitoring- IoT is a boom and happening to be a megatrend across all industries. Internet of things (IoT) devices and sensors enable real-time fleet monitoring that consists of in-transit visibility of driving conditions, routes, and assets. Companies tend to lower their fuel and maintenance costs, as well as reduce delays and improve driver safety.

• Digital assistants- Digital assistants, mostly referred to as chatbots, offer immediate, conversational responses to shipment information, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.

• Adaptive intelligence and machine learning- Integrated predictive analytics and machine learning technologies enable us to predict transit time more accurately, plan capacity, identify at-risk shipments (such as goods that are about to expire and time- or temperature-sensitive products), and much more. Advanced AI allows transport management software to provide more accurate and informed recommendations, such as alternate delivery routes during high traffic periods.

• Blockchain- Blockchains are now being utilized to build complex integrations among shippers, customers, and carriers. Applications such as intelligent track and trace increase transparency and traceability across your supply chain, but still ensure accurate and secure information.