levels of visibility on the details most important to them through Hat eld’s robust tracking-and-tracing capabilities. Hat eld’s clients include both publicly owned and privately owned companies and both manufacturers and wholesalers. “The challenges they face include controlling inbound freight “The include from suppliers from suppliers to warehouses for manufacturing,” Long says. “The most challenging part is visibility of their inbound freight from suppliers and controlling costs associated with supplier movements. Our vendor portal solves this issue and is a platform that communicates to our TMS.” TMS SUCCESS STORY One Hat eld client is a manufacturer who works with more than 450 different suppliers. Before its partnership with Hat eld began, the client struggled to control routings, costs, and correct carrier usage using its internal tools. It also had poor visibility into how its hundreds of different suppliers were managing their transportation and freight. Resulting pain points included incorrect charges, wrong classi cations and improper carrier selection. Inef ciencies abounded. The client then adopted Hat eld’s vendor portal to route inbound freight and its TMS to manage a variety of tasks, such as shipments, getting rates, and dispatching carriers. Hat eld’s TMS includes models called “bid boards” or “e quotes” that allow the client to input the speci cations for a load and submit a bid to the market to see which carrier is the cheapest and then tender the load to that carrier. In addition, the TMS can be bolted onto an enterprise resource system (ERP) so that the TMS can share data about how a shipment should be routed. The client now saves about 30% on its transportation costs and enjoys visibility into all its inbound freight, as well as the costs associated with those freight movements. “The company uses our TMS for all of its outbound freight and to select levels of important robust tracking-and-tracing Hat eld’s publicly companies manufacturing,” most challenging their inbound and controlling supplier solves this communicates
Hatfield & Associates’ TMS provides comprehensive details about each shipment, while real- time shipment tracking information allows users to monitor the status and location of each shipment as it moves through the supply chain.
chain functions, enhancing overall ef ciency and visibility. Scalability and exibility are important factors in the ability of the Fortigo TMS to adapt to changing conditions. “Our TMS is built on a scalable architecture, allowing it to grow and adapt to customers’ changing needs,” Kontoravdis says. “Whether managing a small volume of shipments or a large, complex transportation network, our TMS can accommodate any level of Pairing Fortigo’s TMS with its Freight Audit solution creates a closed-loop supply chain solution that optimizes ef ciency and enhances cost control throughout the transportation lifecycle. “Fortigo’s TMS streamlines the planning, execution, and monitoring of transportation operations, providing end-to-end visibility and control over shipments,” Kontoravdis says. “Our Freight Audit solution allows companies to automate the audit and payment process, ensuring accuracy and compliance while minimizing errors and discrepancies in freight invoices. “By pairing Fortigo’s TMS with their Freight Audit solution, companies can achieve greater ef ciency, accuracy, and cost savings across their transportation operations, ultimately driving toward a more agile and proactive supply chain,” he says. demand and scale accordingly.” CLOSED LOOP SOLUTION
HATFIELD & ASSOCIATES: Customization Takes Priority Shippers who use Hat eld & Associates’ transportation management software know that they have the advantage of using a solution that can be tailored to their unique needs. Hat eld can customize any aspect of its TMS software to t its clients’ preferences, says Austin Long, project manager. “Our software is owned and maintained in house,” he notes, at Hat eld’s corporate headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. All programming is performed in house, too, and each account is assigned an account manager to assist with any issue that a client might face. The company even offers integration staff who speak both English and Spanish. The Hat eld TMS provides management of programming rates, audit and payables, and a spot quote portal/ bid board. The TMS also communicates with Hat eld’s business intelligence platform for reviews of key performance indicators and with its vendor portal platform for inbound freight management. The business intelligence platform looks at any KPI that a company uses and provides visibility to them with reporting and data analysis. Meanwhile, Hat eld can tailor vendor portals based on what a client wants to see on its dashboards, ensuring high
48 Inbound Logistics • May 2024
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