Gartner defines multienterprise collaboration networks (MCNs) as solutions that support a community of trading partners of any tier and type that need to coordinate and execute on business processes that extend across multiple enterprises. Gartner considers cloud-based MCNs to be a key technology for organizations of any industry, geography, size and maturity, implemented to coordinate, automate, orchestrate and transform an organization’s extended supply chain within the overall business ecosystem.
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 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.