Waterloo, Ont., Canada—Sept. 7, 2011—Analyst firm ARC Advisory Group named Descartes Systems the leading global supplier of transportation management systems in its 2011 benchmark report, Transportation Management Systems Worldwide Outlook - Market Analysis and Forecast through 2015.
ARC’s report defines TMS as follows:
“A transportation management system (TMS) helps companies efficiently, reliably, and cost effectively move freight from origin to destination. TMS encompasses solutions for moving freight in all modes and also includes intermodal movements. The TMS processes include freight transported inbound or outbound, domestically or internationally, and using transportation assets the company owns or are owned by an outside service provider.”
Based on total revenues, Descartes is ranked as the overall global TMS market leader. Descartes is also ranked highly in other key categories, including the following:
- Suppliers in North America;
- Suppliers to Third Party Logistics Providers;
- Suppliers of SaaS or Hosting Services;
- Suppliers of Fleet Management; and
- Suppliers in Europe, Middle East & Africa.
To eliminate inefficiencies and reduce complexity, businesses are increasingly taking a more holistic view of their logistics operations. “Transportation is inherently a multi-partner collaborative endeavor,” said Steve Banker, Service Director, ARC Advisory Group. “A key strategy for success is to ‘leverage the network’. Network-based SaaS solutions, such as Descartes’, can deliver accelerated time-to-value by enabling inter-enterprise processes so that customers can address their entire transportation management process spanning procurement, planning and optimization, electronic information exchange with trading partners, compliance and advance shipment notice to governmental authorities, freight audit and settlement, visibility and performance management.”
Since ARC’s report was written, Descartes expanded its fleet management capabilities with the addition of real-time telematics functionality by acquiring Telargo. Steve Banker added, “As we mentioned in the report, in the fleet management market segment of TMS, real-time telematics sensor data is helping to close the chasm that often exists between planning and execution for private fleet operations. Today, organizations are better able to holistically plan, track and evaluate actual performance by leveraging the convergence of routing, mobile and telematics solutions.”
