The decision is not getting any easier as the fear of a COVID-19 second wave is putting even more doubt into the decision makers’ minds, as virtually every aspect of business operations have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Add to the difficult decision is the number one question we are asked as companies are vetting our TMS technology team is how can they successfully implement a new transportation management software system with a remote workforce. Digging even deeper on the the question bring even more questions like:
Again, those are just some of the questions going through executives minds.
With the background of the issue defined, let’s we walk through the questions and current TMS market conditions leaders can run through their decision prism on whether their action will elevate their company’s success and drive long term business value, while trying to understand the risks added by executing such a project at this time.
The number one question to ask is whether your company will exist after the pandemic.
If the answer is no, then start planning the shutdown and move on to another article.
Cost and time commitments are significantly different at these various stages of a TMS system implementation project. At the earlier stage, where the TMS team is assembling the TMS requirements document, the cost and time is minimal, while the latter stages of implementation and go-live will be the most resource heavy time and budget busting.
With that said, if your company is considering a new TMS or implementing one for the 1st time, it doesn’t hurt to start the gathering requirements and evaluating vendors. The investment is limited and one can quickly roll into cancelling or delaying the actual start of the project.
As for those that are in the implementation phase, the decision is a bit harder. Resources, cost, possible travel and the team working remotely all need to be considered. Once at this stage, we are finding cost to be the number one constraint, as the group has already found the remote workforce to not be that much of an issue.
There is no shame in asking your TMS vendor to suspend the project because of the concerns, but there may be associated costs. Our suggestion is to understand if there are additional costs to putting the project on hold or other contingencies that may play out once the project is restarted.
At this point, be as open and transparent as possible with your TMS integration partner. They have seen this before and know the contingencies and additional cost to consider. You may also be surprised to find the implementation partner and / or the TMS vendor themselves will step in and defer or shoulder some of the cost.
If you are near the completion of the project, the decision is again different. Cost and team involvement will be the highest at this phase. Virtual teams and training is at a whole new level today with video conferencing technology and the tracking ability within the TMS to measure the effectiveness of training by employee. With that in mind, don’t let the thought of not having people onsite be a reason to hold back your TMS implementation.
Even if you are almost to the finish line and budgets need to be tightened, we again recommend being open and transparent about the situation with your TMS vendor and implementation partner. You may be surprised what options they will make available to help. Remember they are trying to hold their team together in these slower times and they also want to get some work done before the peak TMS purchase spree hits the market.
Before closing out this section and with much of it about price negotiations, the one point to make is to tread lightly on asking for concessions on prior billings. The pricing flexibility will come from work to commence, not historical. The prior billings have already been recognized and accounted for, while the budget items moving forward can be managed and flexed easily if the TMS vendor knows about them in advance.
Questions to ask to ensure the TMS is a top initiative both during and after COVID-19:
After going through the above decisions, it’s time to push forward with the core leaders in your organization for a full commitment that includes empirical factors / measurements that would be established at the beginning to keep the project moving, even if there is an unexpected shift in the market conditions from COVID-19. The reason to take on this angle of questioning with the key leadership is you want to establish the high water marks that indicate the company is “taking on too much water” and needs to be put on hold. The purpose is twofold:
If the answer to all the above questions reinforces the need for a transportation management system, the next set of questions are all about the commitment to hold a project team together to make the idea of a new direction a reality.
Given all the other priorities caused by COVID-19, it may be impossible to get time with key decision-makers. A top three requirement for any software implementation is to have the buy-off and support of the C-suite, so if you are finding it difficult to get the attention of the leadership team to walk through the topics in this section, you need to strongly consider putting a pause on the project.
The reason to add this data point to the decision process is the Kiplinger Letter is pointing to a sizable resource issue ahead, which is the ability for even the largest TMS vendors to be able to on-board all the clients that will want to be up on their system.
After being in the TMS software market for a number of years, as a certified reseller and integrator for MercuryGate, we have found the market to have its ebbs and flows on demand. The flow of market demand often caused problems on getting everyone up on the TMS platform in the time they wanted because they all seemed to be buying around the same time.
With all that said, after going through the thought process of this article and you are at a point you know you want to move forward with a new TMS, are are on the fence when to start we highly encourage you to start now. You will avoid the coming log jam and you will be in a much better position to negotiate price.
The questions to ask are internal and external in nature and can be hard to draw a clear conclusion with because of other contingencies your logistics and supply chain teams do not control, but understand you are not alone out there. There are many resources to help you through the process.
We’d love to be one of those resources for you, so if interested in discussing this further please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
InTek is a Certified Reseller of the MercuryGate Cloud TMS, which is consistently ranked as a top 5 TMS in the market by Gartner in their Magic Quadrant Analysis.
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