Killer apps for the logistics department?

Sometimes a new technology appears before you know what it’s good for. Usage doesn’t take off until there is a popular application for it. A classic example of a killer application is Excel’s predecessor, VisiCalc.

It wasn’t until the launch of this electronic spreadsheet that personal computers began to be sold on a large scale. Now we can’t imagine life without computers, which have proved themselves useful in so many ways.

What are the killer apps within business systems? ERP systems provided companies with a completely new ability to quickly consolidate the accounts of all their business units. Included in the price was a larger system that could even handle things like production planning and human resources.

Killer apps for ERP, WMS and TMS?

In the world of logistics, especially in the transport sector, there are still best of breed solutions that work with particular tasks when an ERP system doesn’t go the whole distance. While order management often fit into ERP systems, warehouse management created its own category – WMS – since warehouses often require real-time communication using equipment for direct reporting of movements and activities involving goods.

And even when it comes to transport management, ERP systems are not regarded as completely sufficient either. Perhaps this is because the flow of goods is largely outsourced to freight carriers, which creates a flow of financial transactions completely outside the company’s traditional buying and selling of goods. Even if carriers can also be viewed as suppliers who get orders and send invoices, they have characteristics and complexities that set them apart from ordinary purchase orders and supplier invoices.

So what would a killer app be for a transport management system (TMS)? That is, what would be so valuable that it would prompt you to invest in a larger system just to get access to that single application? Here are some examples:

• Transport administration. TA suppliers have made a big impact in Sweden, which is understandable given how these systems have simplified ordering and documentation for all transport purchasers (and even transport sellers). But it’s not a killer app for TMS because the application doesn’t require the larger solution.
• Load planning. Sometimes TMS is equated with load planning functionality. This is completely logical for a carrier that owns its own transport resources (or at least controls them completely). But for shippers this is seldom relevant, since they have subcontracted load planning to independent freight carriers.
• Freight invoice audit. There is big money to be made by auditing freight invoices, but doing this in a serious fashion does require a real TMS. Even if the function appears to be simple, the value grows if the system has the full details on dispatches, contracts and price structures. If it can also break costs down to individual orders, packages and SKUs, this gives the user the opportunity to analyze freight costs in detail.

Essential apps

If a killer app is an application that opens up a market for new technology, then an “essential app” is something that you can’t do without, once you have started using it. There are so many examples of essential apps for smart phones these days, such as calendars, social media and web browsers. There are lots of us these days who find it hard to imagine a life without them, and thus also without the telephone.

I would claim that freight invoice auditing isn’t just a killer app for TMS, but also completely essential. Anyone who has begun using a real TMS for invoice auditing soon comes to think of the system as essential, because of all the money it saves.

Magnus Molin, Technical Director

Read more about freight invoice auditing, and what Primelog can do for you here