The last couple of years has taught us that change is constant. And, amid all the chaos – whether it’s spurred by disruption, inflation, business growth, new markets, new product lines, mergers and acquisitions, or evolving customer requirements – the supply chain is not a background actor but often at the heart of what drives failure or success.

As the transportation sector becomes more layered and complex, transportation management solutions must respond in kind with more advanced in-app functionality and logistics planning. Most standalone transportation management systems are too limited to encapsulate the tiered complexity of an international, multi-segment supply chain, but technology that can integrate and converge transportation with other supply chain functions, such as order management, set the new industry standard.

What you look for in a transportation management system should vary depending on a variety of factors, including but not limited to:

• Distribution area (regional or global)
  
• Network size
  
• Existing operations for enterprise resource planning (ERP)
  
• Communications with in-house and/or 3PL Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
  
• Multiple sourcing and distribution channels
  
• Product type and regulation and/or storage constraints
  
• Varying service level agreements (SLAs)
  
• Exception events
  
• Regional stability