Custom Transportation Management Application Development
Features, Integrations, Benefits, Costs
ScienceSoft applies 11 years of experience in building supply chain management systems and 8 years of experience in fleet management software development to deliver effective transport management solutions.
Transport Management Software: The Essence
Transport management software (TMS) helps businesses plan, organize, monitor and analyze transportation of their inbound, outbound and interfacility orders.
Custom transportation management software streamlines the sourcing of transportation providers and automates the creation of business-specific shipping documents. The solution offers fleet planning capabilities for fleet owners, real-time tracking of international and domestic shipments and last mile deliveries, analytics-based route optimization, and more.
Custom TMS is particularly helpful for companies that operate globally, use both private fleet and third-party transportation services, ship sensitive or highly regulated products.
- Necessary integrations: ERP, WMS, an order management system, accounting software, etc.
- Implementation time: 9–12 months for custom transport management software.
- Development costs: $200,000–$600,000+, depending on the solution’s complexity.
- Annual ROI: 700%+ for large enterprises.
Transport Management Software: Key Features
Transportation management software development helps introduce solutions with unique functionality to serve specific transport management needs. Below we have summarized fundamental transport software features based on ScienceSoft’s experience with TMS projects.
Essential Integrations for Transport Management Software
To streamline transportation planning and execution and ensure end-to-end visibility across shipping activities, ScienceSoft recommends setting up the following integrations:
TMS + ERP
- To accurately plan interfacility inventory transfers (e.g., inventory shipment between warehouses and locations where operations are conducted).
- To leverage relevant transportation data at all levels of operational, financial and strategic planning.
TMS + order management system
- To plan the transportation of outbound orders.
- To automatically input relevant data into transport orders (e.g., the number of items ordered, their volume and weight).
Alternatively to order management software, TMS can be integrated directly with sales channels (e.g., a company’s ecommerce platform).
TMS + shipping carriers’ systems
For facilitated exchange of transportation documents, tracking shipment progress.
The integration can be enabled by APIs or EDI (for trucking, rail, maritime shipments, parcels) and by APIs or e-AWB (for air freight), depending on the connectivity option each particular carrier supports.
- To accurately plan warehouse labor resources, equipment, yard, loading docks, cross-docking operations.
- To ensure optimal item consolidation for outbound and interfacility orders.
TMS + procurement software
- To plan the transportation of inbound orders.
- To automatically input relevant data into transport orders (e.g., the number of items ordered, their volume and weight).
TMS + accounting software
- To record transport order and carrier invoice transactions in the general ledger and A/P ledger.
- To pay shipment invoices.
TMS + billing software
To automatically apply transportation charges when creating customer invoices.
TMS + hardware
(e.g., GPS tracking devices, RFID devices, ELDs)
For private fleet owners to track in real time vehicle location and performance, driving conditions, goods storage conditions, and more.
ROI Drivers for Transport Management Software
Relying on 11 years of experience in designing and implementing supply chain solutions, ScienceSoft’s consultants have defined a range of factors that determine TMS success.
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Advanced analytics to accurately predict transportation demand, transport spend, order delivery time, and other essential transportation parameters and get AI recommendations, e.g., on optimal freight modes, carriers, shipping routes and their alternatives in case of shipment disruption. |
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The use of RFID technology for the private fleet to enable the real-time tracking of goods transportation conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, vibration, etc.), which is critical for sensitive and highly regulated products. |
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Integrated electronic logging devices (ELD) to monitor driver rest periods and maintain hours-of-service records for in-house fleet to ensure compliance with legal regulations (e.g., DOT requirements for the US). |
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Easy-to-use APIs and EDI capabilities to smoothly connect to shipping carriers’ systems and/or shipment data platforms for facilitated shipment tracking and document exchange. |
How to Develop a Transportation Management System
Transportation management software development requires an accurate step-by-step action plan to ensure project implementation within the expected timelines and budget.
Below, ScienceSoft shares a sample project roadmap to provide you with a general idea on how your transport management software development process may look.
1
Business needs analysis and requirements engineering for the transportation management system.
2
Designing the functionality, architecture, and tech stack for the solution.
3
Project planning: scope, deliverables, teams, duration, budget, etc.
4
Transportation management application development.
5
Quality assurance.
6
Establishing integrations with the required corporate and third-party systems, including hardware systems.
7
User training in a convenient format.
8
Continuous support and evolution of the transport management solution (optional).
Transport Management Software Development Costs and Financial Outcomes
The cost of TMS development varies greatly depending on:
- The number and complexity of a solution’s functional modules, including the degree of automation (implementation of AI-powered features).
- The number and complexity of integrations (with ERP, WMS, procurement software, an accounting solution, shipping carriers’ systems, etc.).
- The volume of data that needs to be migrated from the spreadsheets and/or existing TMS.
- Required application types (web, mobile, desktop) and a number of platforms supported (for mobile).
- TMS software availability, performance, security, latent capacity and scalability requirements, and more.
Based on ScienceSoft's experience, building a custom transportation management software of average complexity costs around $200,000–$600,000.
TMS drives significant transportation cost savings and can bring 700%+ annual ROI for large enterprises.
Benefits of TMS
Off-the-Shelf Transport Management Software ScienceSoft Recommends
SAP Transportation Management
Best for
Global enterprises with complex, large-scale distribution networks.
Features
- Trend-based transportation demand forecasting.
- Automated order consolidation across multiple customers for bulk shipments.
- RFx management.
- Rule-based carrier selection and shipping route planning.
- Automated calculation and allocation of transportation costs.
- Real-time tracking of inbound and outbound international and local shipments.
- Template-based creation of transport orders, shipping schedules, forwarding instructions, transport reports, and other documents.
- Native integration with SAP S/4HANA, SAP EWM, SAP Global Trade Services, and other SAP products to manage global logistics end to end.
Recognition
A leader in the global market for TMS (as per Gartner)
Oracle Transportation Management
Best for
Large businesses that use both private fleet and third-party transportation services.
FEATURES
- Intelligent suggestions on optimal combinations of a private fleet and third-party carrier services.
- Analytics-based planning of multi-leg and multi-modal shipments.
- ML-powered ETA prediction.
- Automated generation of multi-language, multi-currency bills of lading, commercial invoices, packing lists, and more.
- Built-in fleet management capabilities.
- Automated load consolidation.
- Notifications on pre-defined milestones, delays, unforeseen disruptions across inbound, outbound, interfacility shipments.
- AI-powered digital assistant for customers.
- A mobile app for shippers’ drivers.
Recognition
A leader in the global market for TMS (as per Gartner)
Blue Yonder TMS
Best for
Large and midsize companies that rely on carrier and CEP services.
FEATURES
- AI-powered transportation planning and optimization.
- Real-time monitoring of global and domestic shipments and last mile deliveries.
- Parcel delivery scheduling and tracking.
- Comprehensive analysis of carrier performance and risks.
- Rule-based RFx responses evaluation and transportation provider selection.
- Shipment contract management.
- Automated invoice processing.
- Calculation and analysis of transportation savings based on RFx data.
- Built-in BI for facilitated visualization of transportation analytics.
Recognition
A leader in the global market for TMS (as per Gartner)
When to Opt for Custom Transportation Management Software
Custom transport management software provides unique functionality bound to each company’s specific needs, smoothly and cost-effectively integrates with all required systems, and ensures compliance with all relevant global and local regulations.
ScienceSoft recommends building a custom transport management system in the following cases:
You need TMS providing case-specific functionality, for example, custom formulas to calculate transportation provider ratings and transport costs or AI suggestions on optimal multi-modal shipment scenarios.
You need flexible transportation management software that is easy to evolve with new features and advanced techs, e.g., AI-powered shipment optimization or RFID-enabled monitoring of goods transportation conditions.
You need to integrate transportation software with legacy internal systems (ERP, WMS, an order management system, an accounting solution, etc.).
You have large teams involved in transportation management processes and want to avoid a costly subscription for platform-based shipper TMS, which scales with the number of users.
You operate in a highly regulated industry (e.g., healthcare, defense, government sector) and need TMS to meet specific compliance and security requirements.
You require a blockchain-based logistics system for facilitated order shipment tracking across multiple modes and transportation providers.
FAQs about Transportation Software Development, Answered
How do you create a transport management system? What are the cooperation options?
Depending on your needs, ScienceSoft can fully outsource the TMS development process, provide a dedicated team of professionals for a part of your transportation software development project, or augment your in-house team with our best talents.
What are some of the most valuable TMS functionalities?
Transportation planning and control, vendor/driver management, and shipment document management are the core TMS features you shouldn’t overlook. If you want advanced functionality to maximize the efficiency of your transportation management processes, consider powering TMS with AI-supported analytics, voice user interfaces, and EDI capabilities, as well as integrate your solution with IoT-based systems for fleet and inventory tracking.
What are your practices to optimize TMS development cost?
Some examples of ScienceSoft's cost optimization practices are:
- We rely on iterative development to speed up TMS implementation and drive faster payback.
- We thoroughly plan the solution's technical design to maximize its value and avoid costly redevelopment.
- We rely on proven frameworks, third-party services (e.g., cloud storage, authentication) and employ prebuilt components where possible.
Development of Transport Management Software with ScienceSoft
In supply chain management software development since 2012, ScienceSoft helps companies build reliable transport management solutions.
TMS consulting
- Analysis of your transportation management needs.
- Suggesting optimal features, architecture, and tech stack for custom transportation software.
- Preparing an integration plan with ERP, WMS, an order management system, accounting software, etc.
- Implementation cost & time estimates, expected ROI calculation.
TMS development
- Transport management solution conceptualization.
- Architecture design.
- Developing custom transportation software.
- Integrating the solution with the required systems.
- Quality assurance.
- User training.
- Continuous support and evolution (if required).
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. We help organizations build effective transportation management software tailored to their unique needs. Being an ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified company, we apply a mature quality management system and guarantee that cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers’ data security. If you are interested in getting a reliable TMS, feel free to turn to ScienceSoft’s team.