For shippers around the world, one innovative solution is making waves: a fully integrated transportation management system (TMS), or a combined freight audit and TMS solution. Freight audit systems and TMSs are each powerful on their own, but shippers who look past their valuable synergistic effects could be missing out on transformative operational efficiencies.
Together, freight audit solutions and TMSs yield impressive benefits, including more efficient cost allocation, reporting, and process management. Additionally, with centralized data living in a single ecosystem, shippers can ensure consistency, accuracy, and speed across the board.
Customize technology with ease—and maximize insights along the way
With a completely native TMS—CTSI-Global’s Honeybee TMS, for example, which was built entirely in-house—shippers can easily tailor their technology to their specific needs, all without third-party approval. Typically, developing a TMS from the ground up is time-consuming and complicated. Each feature or modification may require a number of separate workflows, including design, testing, and deployment. However, when shippers implement a native TMS, they can add on the features and functionalities they need—including freight audit and payment services—without diving into tedious technical and bureaucratic processes.
A fully integrated TMS also allows shippers to maximize visibility into the entire supply chain, optimizing costs at every touchpoint. By keeping all data in a single repository, shippers can gain crucial insights into spending, expenses, and carrier performance—and boost efficiency across the entire shipment journey.
Reduce unnecessary bottlenecks
One lesser-known benefit of a fully integrated TMS? Faster implementation and deployment, right from the get-go. At CTSI-Global, the vast majority of data used to implement Honeybee TMS already exists within the freight audit and payment database, meaning shippers on the freight audit platform can integrate the TMS without delay.
With real-time data integration and visibility across the entire shipment life cycle, shippers can start realizing newfound value faster than ever.
Reimagine cost allocation capabilities
Freight cost allocation can be intricate and time-consuming—especially without the right technology. A fully integrated TMS dramatically improves flexibility and control by:
- Enhancing general ledger (GL) coding by capturing more information about every shipment.
- Performing dynamic on-demand accrual reporting for orders that have been shipped, orders that have not been invoiced, orders that have been invoiced but not paid, and more.
- Standardizing data capture and visibility for inbound shipments through CTSI-Global’s inbound vendor portal.
- Allocating freight costs at the purchase order (PO) and stock keeping unit (SKU) levels.
Make the most of integrated TMS insights and reporting
Siloed TMS and freight audit technology tends to provide a one-sided look at specific operational processes. With a fully integrated TMS, however, shippers can gain full visibility into end-to-end shipment life cycles—and reap new insights along the way.
Smarter, more comprehensive reporting enables shippers to:
- Incorporate KPIs into the entire order life cycle.
- Improve cost-to-serve analysis—and get a glimpse into how much it costs to service customers.
- Speed up invoice approvals and carrier performance reporting by integrating in-transit tracking information.
Streamline process management
A fully integrated TMS enables a number of process management improvements, allowing shippers to improve on-time delivery rates and reduce late fees. Other process management benefits include:
- Fewer back-end freight invoice exceptions, with data validations in place at the time of shipment.
- Simpler improvement workflows, thanks to “expected vs. actual cost reporting” insights.
- Easier spot quote integration for auditing invoices.
Unlock the power of a fully integrated TMS
TMSs and freight audit technology are each breakthroughs in their own right. But combining them—especially with an expert provider like CTSI-Global—yields powerful results when it comes to savings, efficiency, precision, and more. With CTSI-Global’s Freight Pay + TMS solution, shippers can make unprecedented strides in customer relationships and ROI—and reap scalable benefits for years to come.
Interested in combining TMS and freight audit and payment technology? Contact CTSI-Global today.
