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Ultra Logistics/UltraShipTMS

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2014 American Business Awards

Company: Ultra Logistics/UltraShipTMS, Fair Lawn, NJ
Company Description: Provider of supply chain management solutions including logistics automation software and network optimization consultation. Founded in 2002 as a unit of Ultra Logistics, a 3rd party logistics provider, UltraShipTMS is the only transportation management system provider with extensive hands on understanding of in- and out-bound shipping. We're included on lists of top providers in trade media.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Transportation

Nomination Title: UltraShipTMS™ LoadFusion Optimize

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 525 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date:

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, organizations are focusing on supply chain improvements to gain advantage. That’s why, facing elevated fuel costs and competition for finite shipping resources, transportation managers demonstrate burgeoning interest in transportation management systems (TMS) to automate the shipping process and freight/route optimization software that helps them build the most efficient loads/routes. 

UltraShipTMS™ fielded the LoadFusion Optimizer; the only cloud-based freight/route optimizer designed by and for transportation professionals. True, many TMS providers offer an optimizer as part of their solution.  However, none of them – not even the largest – have a proprietary, cloud-based optimization engine designed to accommodate the specific requirements of the transportation segment of the supply chain.  Why is this distinction important?

Most solutions incorporate a generic optimization engine, licensed by TMS providers and “bolted onto” their TMS application, precluding the ability to offer the accessibility and collaborative benefits the cloud delivers.  Many leading providers license decision management engines like ILOG from IBM which, while exceptionally powerful, is a generic (non-transportation-focused) logic engine applied by multiple industries to solve myriad, complex business problems.  When transportation-specific challenges arise – requiring flexibility and specificity of the optimization software – TMS providers must liaise  between their clients and their optimizer licensor, and changes are not easily pushed across a widespread user base.  This happens routinely as ILOG and others are not designed expressly with transportation in mind.

Moreover, dependency on a third party decision engine like ILOG adds another non-native integration (linking the optimization engine to the TMS application).  While most TMS providers using ILOG (or other 3rd party engines) are adept enough at making this integration happen, they are at a disadvantage when the 3rd party provider issues updates or otherwise changes their software.  Similarly, if users require non-standard functionality, the TMS provider must work with IBM (or other 3rd party) to execute – a process impairing on-time delivery. 

Conversely, the LoadFusion Optimizer employs similarly powerful logic algorithms, performing the complex calculations required to optimize shipments of all manner of products.  Variables include types of freight (minding restrictions about what can and cannot be shipped together in a single load e.g. baby food and chemical solvents), shipping lanes/hours/transit times, fuel costs, product weights/dimensions/densities, state-by-state regulations, accessorial charges, delivery/pickup times, dock/warehouse availability and many other transportation considerations. 

The benefits of the LoadFusion Optimizer – in use currently at several nationwide food and agricultural producers – include:

• Reduced transit times and longer lead times
• Improved order processing efficiency
• Reduced shipping costs and environmental impact
• Maximized truck utilization
• Optimized mode selection, minimizing less-than-truckload shipments
• Reduced carrier-missed deliveries, idle times and detention costs
• Scalability and easy accessibility via the cloud
• Most importantly, agility in the utilization and ongoing modification of optimization software specifically for transportation management

LoadFusion permits business planners to determine how shipping costs impact the pricing of goods, helping users make informed, strategic transportation decisions.  LoadFusion optimizer and the UltraShipTMS together have yielded, on average, 22% savings in transportation costs on hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation spend.  Even for companies using a competitive TMS application, LoadFusion represents an optimizer far more appropriately aligned to transportation needs than other commercially available tools.

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Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Technology leadership at UltraShipTMS is comprised of three executive officers (Ultra Logistics President, Nick Carretta, Director of IT, Darren Graham and Lead Developer Shannon Potter) with a combined 50+ years of experience in enterprise software design specific to supply chain and logistics management. 

Ultra Logistics Transportation division executives with more than a century of combined experience provided authoritative insight and invaluable consultation during product development in such areas as truckload and LTL, rail, air, ocean and multi-modal transport as well as overall strategic and tactical  supply chain management expertise.