TMS implementation can be confusing and costly.
Often, the confusion traces back to the challenges of TMS selection.
A strong focus on customization becomes the priority, and finding an off-the-shelf solution quickly moves out of reach. At the same time, this can add to total cost of ownership, limit deployment speed, and even contribute to missteps along the way.
To add clarity and keep your TMS buyer’s journey on the right track and get the right results, here are the top 4 indicators of how your successful TMS implementation should look.
1. TMS Implementation Must Follow a Clearly Defined and Documented Schedule
2. TMS Implementation Should Bring Together People Across All Departments to Ensure Nothing Is Overlooked
Any TMS implementation must also work across all teams that will use the TMS or share data with it. Yes, this means every department needs to play a role. However, this is easiest if your change management team comprises individuals from all departments when first beginning the buyer’s journey. This is a cost-effective and proactive step to ensure that your team is able to maximize TMS ROI while using the system and not leave any department out of the event.
3. All Onboarding Processes Should Be Easily Replicable to Scale as Your Business Expands
Another factor to consider goes back to scalability. TMS onboarding processes need to be replicable, meaning they should be easily repeated later on when your business expands. That’s a critical function for adding new carriers, lanes or locations to the TMS. And using pre-configured resources within the TMS can go a long way to making that a reality.
4. Training and Education Must Be Part of Your TMS Implementations – Even After Go-Live!
The TMS is responsible for ensuring the timely sharing of information to get products from anywhere to anywhere. It’s all subject to the unique needs of each customer. Does the customer want to view online, shop in store and have it delivered around the globe? Regardless, the customer expects on-time delivery.
So the TMS should be able to handle functionality and trace the order where it goes, optimizing it along the way and lowering costs. That includes teaching and training all team members from retail workers through drivers how to navigate the system from their interfaces or various work systems. That training should be everlasting and accessible for review later as well.
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Ensure Your TMS Implementation Goes Smoothly by Selecting the Right Partner
There is one other step that deserves much more than a simple indicator of a successful implementation.
The software vendor should be omnipresent and readily available to assist with anything that may go wrong.
That’s why having a dedicated partner with more experience and decades of evidence-based best practices can make all the difference in making your next software or TMS implementation go up without a hitch.
To learn more about the TMS Buyer’s Journey, visit our interactive step-by-step guidebook. Then, consider a MercuryGate demo.
Find out how easily your team can hit the ground running and succeed when buying and implementing your next TMS. Download our brochure to learn more about TMS Implementation.
