Air cargo shipping system refers to the systems used by air carriers to manage their cargo operations, either in the cargo holds of passenger planes or dedicated cargo aircraft. These systems enable businesses such as freight forwarders, logistics companies, and e-commerce companies to digitally share schedule data and confirm cargo bookings with air carriers. These systems facilitate the booking of cargo space, provide real-time tracking of each shipment, including booking, tracking and offer the capability to manage shipping documentation and compliance. They provide up-to-date information on the location and status of shipments, enhancing visibility and customer satisfaction.
Freight audit and payment (FAP) services consist of invoice collection, preaudit, processing, payment and analytics of transportation invoices across multiple modes and regions. These services have expanded over the years to include transportation procurement services, benchmarking, advanced analytics and supply chain consulting expertise to provide customers with key insights from their freight spend data. The transportation industry faces continued volatility, causing organizations to look for insights and better control over logistics spend. As a result, demand for freight audit and payment services continues to rise due to lack of internal competency.
Ocean cargo software enhances and simplifies the process of ocean shipping. It automates the comparison of rates from different carriers, enabling businesses to secure the best deals. The software offers real-time tracking to improve shipment visibility and streamlines documentation management to ensure compliance with international regulations. It also aids in planning efficient shipping routes, reducing time and costs. Furthermore, it promotes effective communication among shippers, carriers, and customs officials, and provides data analytics to support better decision-making and operational efficiency. In essence, ocean cargo software is an invaluable tool for logistics companies and shippers to optimize their operations.
Gartner defines the real-time transportation visibility platform (RTTVP) market as platforms that provide real-time location and status insights into orders once they have left the warehouse. This includes other facilities, such as those of a brand owner, supplier, contract manufacturer or service provider. Such platforms, owned and managed by third-party software vendors, represent part of the supply chain visibility market that predominantly — but not solely — addresses domestic road transportation modes. RTTVPs obtain data through integration (via API or electronic data interchange [EDI], for example) with carrier systems, direct feeds from telematics (in-cab or in-trailer devices) or other technologies or apps.
Gartner defines supply chain planning (SCP) solutions as platforms that provide technological support to enable a company to manage, link, align, collaborate and share its planning data across an extended supply chain. An SCP solution supports planning, ranging from demand planning through detailed supply-side response planning, and from strategic planning to execution-level planning. It is the planning decision repository for a defined end-to-end supply chain. It is also the environment in which end-to-end-integrated supply chain decisions are managed. It establishes a single version of the truth for planning data and decisions, regardless of the underlying execution technology environment.
Gartner defines transportation management systems (TMSs) as software that supports multimodal planning and execution of the physical transport of goods across the supply chain. It allows a shipper to manage varying levels of transportation complexity across multiple transport modes and geographic regions. TMS solutions are utilized by shippers of differing sizes, operational complexity, industries and geographic locations.