TMS Implementation: Avoiding pitfalls after the pick

You finally made it. Over the past few months, you’ve evaluated and decided you need a transportation management system (TMS). You developed your RFP; identified potential vendors; reviewed RFP responses; and selected a vendor for implementation.

The good news is that if you did a good job on developing the RFP, then the implementation will be smooth. However, there’s still an opportunity to grind your operation to a standstill if it isn’t managed correctly.

When thinking about the implementation rollout, there will be three key items to consider: 

Timeline: How fast can you and the vendor operate?

Resources: Do you have the right people and decision makers in place?

The Business: Seasonality, maintenance, or growth?   

All of these can impact how smooth the TMS implementation will go. To ensure the implementation goes as designed, there are a few steps that can be taken to help with this process.

Strong Project Management Team: Like most projects, it’s critical that a team be put into place to support the TMS project that’s focused on getting things done. This includes data requests, workflows, team meetings and milestone confirmations.

The team needs a strong leader able to attend most meetings and build a good relationship with the vendor team. This leader will be an escalation point where the vendor can go and feel comfortable discussing the project if there are any delays.

Front Load Work and Data Requests: Data is not only needed, but required to program the TMS. During the on-boarding process there will be many requests for data. These requests are needed to build and maintain the TMS and its databases.

These data points will help add speed to processing and help make sure that all of the orders are processed correctly. An example of this is when an order is placed into the TMS and a shipping or consignee location is not in the database—then someone or the system will need to build that location. If there’s a process and data is already in the database, then the order will follow through the system without delay or human interaction.

Scenario Testing: Testing is a cornerstone of a smooth implementation. It’s also a step that many companies overlook. Most companies have freight flows that follow the 80/20 rule and think if the 80% works, then they only need test a few of the 20% and they should be good to go. This is incorrect.

Many times, the 20% will be where a small deviation from the normal workflow causes the most problems. The more scenarios tested, the fewer process gaps will be missed and the smoother the implementation and execution will be.

System Training: New systems require that users be active and learn how orders flow before they go live. The best opportunity for this is during testing and system design. During the onboarding calls with the TMS vendor, select a few super users to help develop the “train the trainers” teaching sessions. Not all users have to be super users on day one, but a few will go a long way during the first week or two after go-live.

Allocation of Resources: Bring in all the resources you can for the project. This could be moving people over full-time for the first 3 months to 6 months from a different division or allocating 10 hours a week from Bob in accounting.

Review each of the process flows and identify a manual process to be followed should an error occur to ensure the data flow doesn’t stop. Examples of this would be in data entry for order details or carrier updates (loaded or unloaded and in-transit check calls). Each of these bottlenecks will need to have resources allocated with the ability to be fluid enough to support all possible scenarios.

Carrier Management: Since your carrier base is such an important part of the transportation process, they can be seen as holding a pivotal role in the success or failure of the project. Most carriers deal with multiple transportation systems and can be a great resource of best practices. If you have a broad carrier base, it would be good to create a carrier guidance committee.

Ultimately, your team needs to make the final recommendation, but carriers have a good knowledge. And if they are part of the process, then they will be more likely to take ownership. The carriers are responsible for accepting freight, updating the load and FA&P issues. The better the TMS flow, the better the carriers will respond and work with your team.  

More details the better

The more detailed your teams are with these processes, the better the testing and rollout plan that can be designed and executed. It’s easier to build the TMS from a detailed requirements document on the front end rather than to go-live and amend it later.

Most TMS vendors will process any change requests as priority while the customer is on-boarding or while in hyper-care. After these stages it becomes more complicated and difficult to execute, not to mention more costly.  

There are hundreds of different areas where a requirement can be missed. The best way to have a smooth implementation is to produce a detailed RFP and make sure your teams are participating in all meetings. While these steps will not guarantee a flawless TMS implementation, they will help provide your company with the best opportunity for success.