RateLinx ERP, WMS & TMS Data Collection Value Proposition

Using Software to Enhance & Improve Your Supply Chain

Supply chain efficiency has forever been a mystery that C-level executives are inundated with deciphering.

Advanced tools are needed to monitor and forecast results, providing executives with actionable business intelligence to ultimately reduce supply chain expenditures.

Crucial metrics are established to evaluate supply chain performance across multiple divisions including inventory, warehousing, transportation, sales revenue, and customer service levels.

Due to the critical need for these metrics to be highly accurate, advanced data collection and analytical tools are required for precise supply chain assessment.

RateLinx has developed a suite of software tools and professional services that continuously enhance and improve supply chain efficiency through increased data collection and key metric-driven analysis.

Since accurate data collection is of the highest importance, the origins of the data need to be recognized to initiate software integration. Majority of the data needed exists within the sales order records and purchase order records.

These records contain a wide variety of data including order quantities, order values, revenue figures, shipping addresses, service levels, product information and more.

Integration with these two sets of records will provide the needed data to monitor all supply chain expenditures, events, and efficiency.

All of this data resides within a company’s ERP or WMS, also known as Enterprise Resource Planning and Warehouse Management System software. Integration with an ERP or WMS will provide the data feed required for supply chain optimization.

RateLinx offers software tools and professional services that integrate to a company’s ERP / WMS, providing rich data for supply chain analytics and visibility.

The most complex cost calculations for supply chain optimization are transportation charge totals and service level transit times. In the transportation industry, multiple modes exist such as small parcel (packages), Less-than-Truckload shipments (pallets) and Full Truckload shipments (entire containers).

In the small parcel market, two main competitors exist, United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx). For Less-than-Truckload, the top 25 carriers control greater than 90% of the total market share.

RateLinx software is certified with both UPS and FedEx technology, along with United States Postal Service and DHL. RateLinx works in lockstep with the top 25 LTL carriers to gain the data necessary to operate effectively with them.

These continual software certifications and carrier partnerships give RateLinx the data and tools needed to calculate all transportation costs and accurately predict future spending based on unlimited supply chain scenarios.

Two data collection tools needed for supply chain optimization are a Transportation Management System (TMS) and Freight Payment & Audit (FP&A) services. TMS software integrated into a company’s ERP / WMS gives access to order, product, sales, and service level details on a line-by-line basis.

This granularity of information provides the advanced data collection needed to analyze the established supply chain performance metrics. RateLinx’s TMS software is not only integrated into the company’s databases directly but automatically manifested to the transportation providers with all details required to perform the expected services.

This data is then verified through the FP&A services, ensuring the transportation provider is billing the correct amount for the services rendered. This financial integration ties directly back to the company’s General Ledger coding, Balance Sheet and ultimately Profit & Loss statements.

This automation and ease of software use provide benefits to the logistics team, transportation providers, material/product suppliers, and the company’s overall profit level. RateLinx’s TMS technology and FP&A services allow for improved supply chain analysis and efficiency through software integration.

An integrated database of all sales, purchase and shipping information provides executives with the data needed to make actionable supply chain decisions. With no events occurring outside of the RateLinx software system, the data is tied directly to the company’s ERP and financial statements.

These decisions utilizing advanced software leads to optimized supply chains, necessary for sustainable growth and future success. The database executed on for shipping decisions and payments can be leveraged to predict any future supply chain scenario or decision.

All sales, inventory, purchases, warehousing, transportation, and service levels costs can be included in the forecasting models, leaving absolutely no data behind to make any assumptions on. This is real world application software that can make a significant difference for a company’s profits or loss.

Any executive or decision maker without these tools will not be able to fully optimize their supply chain, thus operating a company without higher levels of efficiency.

A fully optimized supply chain is one of the best competitive advantages any company can achieve, making for happier customers, employees, material/product suppliers, transportation providers and ultimately profits and value for the stakeholders and shareholders of the company.

There is no other software company that can offer this comprehensive business analytics solution. RateLinx develops 100% of our software in-house, with 100% of the software development and professional services occurring in Madison, Wisconsin.

Related Article: 3 Facts Your Supply Chain Track & Trace Visibility Platform is Not Telling You

Related Case Study Paper

Solving Supply Chain Problems Outside the TMS
In this case study paper, we detail how Rockwell Automation uses RateLinx’s Data-as-a-Service to improve its freight management operations without a traditional transportation management system. Download Now!

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