Today’s transportation challenges require a level of TMS flexibility that can’t be discovered with a traditional corporate buying process. With our 2019 RFP Template for transportation management systems, we’ll help you think beyond whether a TMS has a capability and toward how that capability will potentially work for your operations.
In other words, our TMS RFP Template is designed to help you uncover the what and the how of a transportation management system.
A TMS can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution. It must have the flexibility to adapt to your unique business complexities and enable you to work creatively to achieve company objectives – but this requires a level of intimacy that cannot be uncovered with a traditional corporate buying process. A TMS is a core part of your operations; and like other supply chain execution software, operations usually can’t be described by check boxes or summarized in a statement. There is just too much complexity and too many variables.
The key areas covered in this template include:
- Quote Management
- Order Management
- Vendor Order Management
- Rating
- Planning
- Execution
- Track and Trace
- Freight Payment and Settlement
- Invoicing
- Reporting
- Workflow
- Technical Architecture
- Web Portals
- Integration Functionality
- Data Management/Admin
This RFP is intended to be a helpful starting point for narrowing your list of TMS vendors. As you continue your buying journey, ask vendors about the how of their technology. Get in-depth demos; ask for walk-throughs of your scenarios and really learn how the software fits your specific operations. Understand how it fits in today, and (just as importantly) how you as the user can adjust and change the software as your needs change.
Don’t rely on the check boxes that say a TMS can do it; find out the gory details of what works and what doesn’t.
