Today’s shippers are in uncharted territory. Margins are razor-thin, and the market is experiencing unprecedented volatility. This disruption has brought transportation spend management practices into the spotlight. In a context where every dollar counts, wrangling with incomplete or inaccurate data, drawn out or unreconciled freight invoices, and other typical dynamics is not just inconvenient: it’s dangerous.
The Tech Transformation in Shipping
In a recent article published in FreightWaves, Trax EVP of Customer Success, Steve Beda, painted an important picture of the state most shippers find themselves in. He readily acknowledged that visualizing transportation spend is a challenging task.
Any established company faces an array of bolt-on solutions that have evolved over the years. This includes a mix of the very low tech (manual processes on paper spreadsheets) to the moderately low tech (digital spreadsheets, stored on hard drives), and early adoption of technologies that have yet to integrate with those previous two.
The Power of Transportation Spend Management Technology
As shippers look to the future, the imperative is clear: technology for transportation spend management (TSM) will support the next season of industry growth. And this isn’t just because the world has undergone digital transformation and shippers must keep up. In fact, there are unique benefits whereby technology doesn’t simply replace low tech processes, it creates new visibility and pathways for success.
The Possibilities Unlocked by TSM Technology
At Trax, our world class transportation spend management software can offer far more than “digital” versions of what you are already doing. Here are some examples.
- Detangling the complexity of carrier data is one key capability of advanced freight audit and payment (FAP) tools, which are part of a robust TSM offering. Steve Beda explains that this often requires “either time or technical capability to be able to access, harmonize and use that data to pay the vendor and manage your transportation network.” Streamlining FAP is priority one toward managing transportation spend better.
Investigate Trax’s FAP solution here.
- Two key points of insight that low-tech processes miss are global and multimodal. Large supply chains have a vast body of Big Data, and if you lack the ability to clearly see all of it — individually and in aggregate — you will miss important opportunities. Technology advances these insights, providing simple, useful tools and data visualizations that transform the vantage point of leaders in this field.
- The aforementioned bolt-on solutions are especially troublesome in large companies. These create tech silos, tech debt, and stymie interoperability. You need systems that work together, giving you a full picture of your transportation spend, so you can manage it. At Trax, we’ve invested more than $30 million to enable integrations, pushing forward into new areas and solving new problems every day. It’s essential to us that you are armed and ready for whatever the future brings.
Explore TSM With Trax
Many shippers are making attempts to use in-house or generic tools to achieve some of the outcomes listed above. But this will not work. The team at Trax has spent decades developing purpose-built tools that elevate your view, sharpen your focus, and equip your team for success.
Connect with us anytime to learn more.
