TMS (Transport Management System) Savoye

TMS software: towards better packaged offers to meet finance needs?

In a context where the Supply Chain is becoming digital from end to end, the transport function remains one of the only links that is not fully computerized. This is, however, an increasingly large expense item for shippers.
While it represents a large and growing part of the logistics cost, the environmental requirements of road transport and the customer promise are also needs that must be taken into account.
These also conceal problems of financial control and anticipation of expenditure. How can we help companies dealing with these problems to find answers through tools that are simple to implement?

A still immature market

Most studies agree that only 20 to 25% of shippers are equipped with a TMS module. The benefits of TMS software, however, no longer need to be demonstrated… So how do we explain that only a quarter of shippers are equipped with a TMS to control and optimize their transport activity?

This phenomenon is partly due to the priority given in recent years by companies to the computerization of front-end business development-oriented functions, to the change of store applications and to the renewal of ERP tools due to the digitalization of commerce. Then, IT investments went to improving manufacturing or distribution operations with the renewal of WMS software, whose equipment rate is very high today (>80% in France). Transport therefore appears to be the poor relation, the one that we only take care of once the other processes have been optimized, which is wrong with regard to the potential for immediate gain that it can represent.

We can see however that the trend seems to be reversing, with supply chain departments realizing the increasingly growing impact of transport on the cost of products. Another sign which appears to suggest greater market dynamism: more and more calls for tenders, issued by companies supported by specialist consulting firms, and endowed with increasingly precise specifications.

Transport issues, but not only...

Of course, behind the installation of a TMS tool, there are issues of satisfaction and response to the customer promise. Purely economic gains, however, should not be neglected either. For example, setting up a “billing control” type function saves a lot of money very quickly. This aspect explains why it is increasingly common for project committees to no longer be made up solely of supply chain divisions, but also of finance departments that have understood that the savings made within the transport item have a direct impact on the income statement.

Indeed, many shippers have little or no control over their carriers’ invoices. Invoicing errors of the order of 1 to 3% on their transport budgets can then be generated. But the stake is also to gain in productivity; in companies carrying out manual control, the time lost to control, and therefore to charge to accounting, is considerable.

There is also real concern about the issues of anticipating accounting provisions and “a priori” control.

TMS (Transport Management System) Savoye

Towards increasingly modular solutions in SaaS mode

We are faced with a paradox: a market which is struggling to equip itself on the one hand, and on the other, the observation that very significant gains can be made on “simple” functions that are inexpensive to implement.

Based on this observation, our advice as a TMS publisher is to start, before deploying a complete TMS solution, by responding to the simple needs of pre-invoicing and invoicing control, positions with the fastest ROI in a TMS solution.

Less expensive than a TMS solution with a larger scope, the mere activation of these functions allows companies of all sizes to rapidly equip themselves. The resulting immediate ROI will finance the additional modules of the TMS suite (optimization / consolidation, charter, appointment booking, track and trace, simulation and budget comparisons)

A few words on the solution proposed by Savoye...

Savoye’s TMS solution enables packaged pre-invoicing and invoicing control operations, which can be activated quickly: once the shipments have been made, the issuance of a pre-invoice (automatic or manual) is generated according to the frequency desired by the shipper (day, week, month). This pre-invoice can be sent directly to the carriers concerned. The carrier will then send its invoice to the shipper, which can be checked directly in the tool.

The invoicing control function, on the other hand, will detect any discrepancies and generate credit note requests. Indeed, once the transport has been completed, it is essential for shippers to check their service providers’ invoices. This task offers better transport budget control.

A KPI module provides full visibility of financial data and intelligent management of the financial aspect.

TMS (Transport Management System) Savoye

... what are the results?

This very quick to implement packaged TMS solution is open to companies of all sizes for a small investment and ensures an extremely rapid ROI.
We have validated the relevance of our offer by noting that, once deployed to our customers, it allows, within 3 months, gains of up to 3% of their transport budget to be obtained (versus 8 months for a complete TMS project). Errors are avoided, transport costs are under control.

Offered to the market in SaaS (Software As A Service) mode with a subscription according to use, the solution is illustrated as a real factor in the democratization of TMS.

SaaS helps lower the cost of owning a tool, accelerates its deployment and thus ensures a generally very short ROI, less than a year.