Logility Delivers Completely Automated Transportation Management System
ATLANTA (March 10, 2003) – Logility , a leading supplier of collaborative solutions to optimize the supply chain, today announced the availability of Version 6.5 of its Voyager Transportation Planning and Management solution. Voyager helps companies achieve greater visibility across the supply chain with expanded event management, private freight exchange and performance management capabilities. Recognized as one of the most robust, multi-modal Transportation Management Systems in the industry, the latest release of Voyager Transportation Planning and Management solidifies Logility’s leadership in the transportation marketplace by incorporating exception-driven workflows that can completely automate the shipment planning, shipment management and freight accounting processes. As orders are received, they can be incorporated into the shipment planning process with the best carrier selected and the load tendered, shipped, tracked to point of delivery, audited, and authorized for payment in accounts payable without manual intervention. “Logistics executives are called upon to focus on cost management, supply chain process improvements and customer service,” according to Bill Pritz, vice president of Logility’s Transportation Group. “In the past, many companies were limited to communicating by phone and fax. With Voyager Transportation Planning and Management Version 6.5, you can eliminate phone and fax and completely automate the transportation business processes to allow logistics professionals to focus on improving customer service and resolving critical issues.” Voyager Transportation Planning and Management establishes process workflows for activities such as load tendering, track and trace, and freight bill auditing. It then monitors transactions for all of these activities and generates exceptions when business rules are met, triggering alert notification to drive more rapid resolution activities. Adds Pritz, “Voyager Transportation Planning and Management is paving the way for greater visibility and better customer service through proactive alert-based notification of key events. For example, Voyager uses advanced algorithms to evaluate an in-transit shipment to predict the likelihood of a late delivery and proactively alert a customer service representative. After all, preventing a potentially late shipment is better than reporting a late shipment.” Logility Voyager Transportation Planning and Management 6.5 Highlights: * Event Management and Alert Notification: New event management and alert notification capabilities allow companies to receive notification of specific business conditions. As orders and shipments flow through Voyager Transportation Planning and Management and EDI transactions and web-based communications take place with trading partners, exceptions can occur which trigger alerts to notify users or trading partners. This alert capability supports the unattended operation of Voyager, and enables logistics professionals to focus on the exceptions. To maximize productivity, users need only subscribe to the exceptions relevant to their responsibility. For example, a customer service representative might subscribe to exceptions such as “Appointment Changed” or “Estimated Late Delivery.” When an alert is received they can quickly drill down to review the detail and resolve the issue. With automated process workflows and exception-driven management, Voyager Transportation Planning and Management will elevate a company’s logistics operations to a new level of operational excellence. * Private Freight Exchange: Web-based capabilities allow companies to synchronize operations with their trading partners and service providers so that carriers can accept or reject loads, bid on loads, schedule shipments, provide in-transit information, record actual delivery information, communicate equipment availability, and check payment status over the web. Now, smaller carriers, armed only with a WEB-browser, can provide the same information as their larger competitors who use EDI. More importantly, with technology no longer an issue, companies can be assured of compliance from their entire base of carriers. * Greater Visibility across the Supply Chain: New Web-based track and trace feature provides customers and suppliers secure inquiries into the Voyager Transportation Planning and Management database to view both historical and current order/shipment status information. For example, customers can inquire on orders they expect to receive, while vendors can check the status of their shipments. Additionally, customers can drill down to SKU-level detail of purchase orders, customer orders, or shipments for manpower planning, production scheduling, or delivery confirmation. * Performance Management: Voyager Transportation Planning and Management also includes performance management tools to assist logistics professionals in analyzing and evaluating their operations. Voyager’s modeling subsystem can help evaluate new distribution strategies, customer service policies, sourcing strategies, customer profitability, and carrier pricing proposals. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can provide a daily or weekly pulse of the transportation operations, while the flexible reporting system can generate useful historical performance and activity reports. * Enhanced Integration Capabilities: Supports real-time integration with order management systems, warehouse management systems (including Logility WarehousePRO(R)), and shipping systems using XML messaging. For example, as an order is changed in the order management system, the updated information is immediately reflected in Voyager Transportation Planning and Management. Voyager Transportation Planning and Management was developed for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs to manage the transportation component of their supply chains. Its capabilities include the industry’s leading rating engine that supports TL, LTL, rail, inter-modal, parcel and air shipping. Voyager’s rating engine is supplemented by a library of industry databases that are provided by Logility and which include carrier and CZAR Lite LTL tariffs, LTL transit times and points served, rail routes, parcel/air rate information, and an extensive geographic database. Voyager’s rating engine is fully integrated with PC*Miler(R) from ALK Associates, Inc. and Milemaker(R) from Rand-McNally for mileage computations. Offered also as a standalone module, the rating engine is called from many of the functions within Voyager where carrier cost or carrier alternatives are needed for a shipment. Voyager Transportation Planning and Management Version 6.5 is available today for deployment on Windows NT/2000. About Logility Logility is a leading provider of collaborative solutions to optimize the supply chain. Logility Voyager Solutions enable networks of trading partners including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers to collaborate, integrate and synchronize their planning, production and logistics operations. Logility customers have realized substantial bottom-line results in record time. Logility is proud to serve such customers as ConAgra, Heineken USA, Huhtamaki UK, McCormick & Company, Mill’s Pride, Pernod-Ricard, Pharmacia, Timex and VF Corporation. Logility is a majority owned subsidiary of American Software .
Source: Logility
