Downers Grove, IL August 6, 2002 Online logistics services provider NTE has launched a private trading community targeted at shippers seeking to automate their transportation plan to get improved routing guide compliance, time and cost savings, and better service.
The solution provider also reported record second quarter results spurred by transaction growth.
NTE said its TransTrade is an automated service that enables companies with core carrier relationships to secure transportation services systematically and dynamically using their business rules and core carriers. With TransTrade, a shipper's routing guide is used to drive all transactions using NTE's technologies and Web services delivery model.
John Murphy, NTE's vice president of product and solution strategy, suggested that automating the tendering and procurement functions enhances routing guide compliance and eliminates time-consuming, manual processes as work that previously was done via phone calls and faxes now can be done online or via system-to-system integrations.
"TransTrade enables you to execute your transportation plan as it was originally designed, using your carriers and business rules," Murphy said. "You can ensure strict compliance to your routing guide at predictable costs, enabling you to improve performance and gain supply chain control. The entire process can be automated so you save time and money."
Transportation execution can be configured based on shippers' preferences using flexible tiered or broadcast tendering. For example, a shipper can pick a low-cost carrier for a particular lane and a carrier with the highest service level for another lane. The shipper also can attempt to move the load within a certain time period or at a certain price in the open market using NTE's Public Exchange service, its member-based trading community in which multiple shippers and multiple carriers collaborate and transact.
Toshiba International Corp. was an early adopter of this solution. Earlier this year it began using NTE TransTrade to move more than 100 outbound shipments per day. Toshiba fully integrated its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and six core carriers with NTE, enabling quick, efficient movement of heavy industrial equipment shipments from its Houston manufacturing site to its Kentucky distribution center and to customers throughout the United States.
The benefits: Toshiba carriers get visibility to shipments in advance of pickups, staff no longer has to get freight quotes, transit times and OS&D are improved, and Toshiba is realizing savings. NTE also provides all TransTrade customers with metrics-based measurement capabilities.
"NTE ensures we get the right load to the right carrier," said Al Fitzpatrick, Toshiba's director of customer service. "Then it wraps all executions with value-added service and reports so we can track on-time records, damage claims, billing, customer satisfaction and carrier compliance. We now have an easier and better way to measure performance."
To use the new service, shippers pay an upfront fee for customized system configuration and project support, then a transaction or subscription fee for individual shipments. NTE hosts all applications. Shippers need not purchase special software or hardware nor, according to NTE, devote extensive information technology (IT) resources to the project. Implementations can be done in 30 days or less, the provider asserts.
Meanwhile, privately held NTE also reported record second-quarter revenues. Revenues for the quarter increased by 12 percent, spurred by a marked increase in the number of transactions between shippers, carriers and other supply chain trading partners working through the NTE system.
"We're now processing more transactions in a day than we did last year in a month," said Jim Davidson, NTE's president and CEO.
During the quarter, more than 2,000 companies transacted through NTE most for the first time, according to the provider buying or selling transportation capacity, or tendering orders so shippers could better manage their transportation operations. Most of these companies were suppliers of the shippers that launched the private communities.
