Trucking Software Provider Helps Customer Increase ...



Overview

Country: United States

Industry: Transportation and Logistics

Customer Profile

TMW Systems, based in Beachwood, Ohio, offers integrated dispatch and operations software for the trucking industry. TMW Systems software helps its customers manage load hauling specifics like state regulations and restrictions.

Business Situation

TMW Systems customers have different nonintegrated modules to handle the specific factors that affect interstate trucking. In addition, customers use time-consuming manual procedures to manage the entire trucking process.

Solution

TMW Systems created TMWSuite™ to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains®. The solution allows customers to manage the entire trucking process—from order entry to settlement—from one centralized location.

Benefits

■ Increases shipment volume by 24 percent

■ Improves efficiencies

■ Eliminates redundancies

■ Provides strong support

| | |“The fact that we increased our volume without adding any people is significant…We wanted to be able to grow the business without having to add new costs, and we did with TMWSuite.”

Jim Unger, President, Miller Transfer

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| | | |TMW Systems provides dispatch and operational software for the trucking industry, serving over 500 |

| | | |trucking fleets that represent more than 120,000 trucks worldwide. The company created TMWSuite™, |

| | | |based on Microsoft® software, to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains®|

| | | |(now part of Microsoft Dynamics™) for end-to-end management of the transportation process. With |

| | | |TMWSuite, customers of TMW Systems are increasing profitability, improving efficiency, and more |

| | | |effectively managing their processes. TMW Systems customer Miller Transfer has 17 terminals across |

| | | |the United States and specializes in transporting legal, oversized, and overweight freight. By |

| | | |implementing TMWSuite, Miller Transfer improved efficiency, eliminated redundancy, and increased its |

| | | |shipment volume by 24 percent without having to hire additional staff. |

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Situation

Ohio-based Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner TMW Systems provides software to help the trucking industry maximize operational and dispatch efficiency. Founded in 1983, the company serves over 500 common carriers and private fleets, which represent more than 120,000 trucks worldwide. Customers go to TMW Systems for help with load-management issues, and heavy-haul trucking provides particular management problems. Trucking companies have to consider many issues when planning a load, including routing, length of haul, resource availability (drivers, tractors, and trailers), government regulations, and fuel costs.

Miller Transfer, a customer of TMW Systems, is a heavy-haul trucking company with 17 terminals across the country. The company has operating authority in the United States and Canada, and service to Mexico. Headquartered in Rootstown, Ohio, the company specializes in transporting legal, oversized, and overweight freight throughout North America and coordinates point-to-point delivery via truck, train, or airplane.

Miller Transfer previously used technology that did not integrate dispatch and accounting functions to manage its loads from beginning to end. As a result, the company used time-consuming and repetitive manual processes to handle the orders and requests. Papers were frequently lost or misplaced, and multiple copies of each had to be made for different tracking purposes throughout the company.

For instance, independent operators leased to Miller Transfer had to call the company when they needed an advance for fuel. The driver would call Miller Transfer and speak to a dispatcher who would have to write down payment card numbers on a form and verify those numbers with the driver. From there, the driver had to give those numbers to the person at the fuel desk in order to pay for the fuel. There were several copies of the compensation check, and each had to be stored somewhere different. Copies were frequently lost, and it could often take hours to balance the report that included the number of advances and the amounts of the advances.

Miller Transfer sought a solution that would integrate the dispatch and accounting functions so the manual processes could be eliminated. “We didn’t feel that the technology we were using was letting us move the company forward,” says Jim Unger, President of Miller Transfer. “We were entering information too many times in too many places, and we wanted to be able to simplify our systems while making them more responsive to the needs of the operations.”

Solution

TMW Systems created TMWSuite™ based on Microsoft® software to help its customers manage their trucking processes from order entry to dispatch to accounting and through settlements.

TMWSuite works as an enterprise resource planner (ERP) by pulling information from all of the types of solutions that trucking companies need to run their businesses, like mobile communications, route optimization, and maintenance software. The solution incorporates the information into a central view, where executives, managers, and employees can effectively manage and use it. The software then integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains® software and has an interface similar to Microsoft software so the different products being used are transparent to the customer.

Specifically, the solution has a built-in set of modules including dispatch and Internet load tracking. These modules and others integrate with real-time reporting and profit analysis to manage loads and incorporate that information into Microsoft Great Plains.

Every day requests come in to trucking companies to pick up a product and take it from one place to another. TMWSuite automates the process, from when the requests come in, to billing the customer and paying the driver. TMWSuite takes the information and enters the requests into the order entry module, and then into the dispatch module. From there, TMWSuite does asset planning to find out what trucking equipment is best suited for the load. After the load has been delivered, TMW processes the invoices, calculates the driver pay and then sends all pertinent financial information to Great Plains.

For example, when the process begins, TMWSuite enters information about the transport into the load planner application. The load planner’s main goal is effectively managing assets by making critical decisions concerning the physical transportation of the items. Those things include deciding how full the load should be, choosing a driver, and choosing the necessary equipment for the haul. Certain things have to be taken into consideration when filling up a truck. When a truck carries liquids, it cannot be filled completely because of weight limitations, whereas when the truck carries cereal, it can be filled to the top. All of these considerations are factored into every dispatch decision and TMWSuite provides this information to the customer.

Benefits

With TMWSuite, TMW Systems’ customers have streamlined business practices that handle load management from beginning to end and increased the visibility of Key Performance Indicators that provide real-time insight into customers’ operations and profitability. The solution has helped TMW Systems’ customers improve bottom line results by reducing empty miles, increasing revenues per truck, increasing asset utilization, eliminating redundancies, and maximizing efficiencies.

Increases Shipment Volume by 24 Percent

Since it implemented TMWSuite, Miller Transfer has increased its volume by 24 percent without hiring additional staff. Now that Miller Transfer processes are automated, employees can concentrate on finding new business instead of filling out paperwork. “The fact that we increased our volume without adding any people is significant,” says Unger. “That is the reason we looked for a new solution in the first place. We wanted to be able to grow the business without having to add new costs, and we did with TMWSuite.”

Improves Efficiencies

Because Miller Transfer has 17 outlying terminals, efficient workflow processes are important in keeping business running smoothly. “A lot of other companies have centralized dispatch,” says Ken Rusinoff, Chief Financial Officer at Miller Transfer. “Our company is structured differently. We have decentralized operations. TMWSuite allows us to integrate our terminals and improve our efficiency.”

Since Miller Transfer has been able to eliminate manual processes, its whole system runs smoother. Previously, the permits and load balancing were done manually and did not interact with the accounting system. “The difficulty of our system has to do with the operations involved in moving something large,” says Unger. “There are permits, escorts, and timing issues that we have to deal with. Therefore, a tremendous amount of scheduling is involved, and TMWSuite lets us do the scheduling and then integrates with Microsoft Great Plains so that accounting is easier.”

Eliminates Redundancies

Miller Transfer now has one place to enter and retrieve information. The paper processes have been eliminated, and there are no longer multiple places to enter information or multiple pieces of paper to get lost or misplaced. Previously, Miller Transfer had proprietary programs for everything from dispatch to fuel tax, and all of the information from a trip had to be entered into each of the programs. Employees at Miller Transfer spent a considerable amount of time entering that information into the programs, whereas now there is one entry place for all of the information. There is also a single retrieval point for the information.

One of the TMWSuite modules includes a system from a third party software company that automates the compensation check process. When a driver calls in for an advance to refuel the truck, the amount can automatically be transferred to the debit or credit card he is using, based on the number of miles. “There is no paper floating around, or even the chance of a piece of paper getting lost, so it is simplified,” says Unger. It is also easier for the person balancing the advances, and the process is finished in a half an hour as opposed to several hours per day.

Provides Strong Support

TMW Systems is able to give its customers support for both TMWSuite and Microsoft Great Plains. Miller Transfer did not want to have to keep an IT staff for each solution, and with TMWSuite, TMW Systems is able to provide support for both solutions. “If I have a problem I don’t have to call up someone for the TMW Systems solution and then someone else for the Microsoft solution. I can have someone on the phone who knows both and can help me,” says Rusinoff.

Supports Future Plans

Now that Miller Transfer uses TMWSuite and Microsoft Great Plains, the company has the opportunity to continue to maximize its efficiencies. “Global Positioning is something we are looking into for the future,” says Unger. “That was something that was not an option before, and there are other features that are available to us now that we didn’t have before,” says Rusinoff. Miller Transfer has also looked at an imaging solution to eliminate having to move and store paper. “We would like to eventually have an imaging system that lets us store the images so that when a customer calls for information on their shipment, we just have to enter the order number and it is right there.”

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship

and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:

dynamics

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| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Dynamics

− Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains |Hardware

■ Dell Servers and PCs

Partners

■ TMW Systems | |

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Great Plains, Microsoft Dynamics and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published May 2005 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:

For more information about TMW Systems products and services, call (216) 831-6606 or visit the Web site at:

For more information about Miller Transfer products and services, call (800) 669-6877 or visit the Web site at:

“We didn’t feel that the technology we were using was letting us move the company forward…We wanted to be able to simplify our systems while making them more responsive to the needs of the operations.”

Jim Unger, President, Miller Transfer

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“If I have a problem I don’t have to call up someone for the TMW Systems solution and then someone else for the Microsoft solution. I can have someone on the phone who knows both and can help me.”

Ken Rusinoff, Chief Financial Officer,

Miller Transfer

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