Value Chain Execution – Oracle For the long haul DOWNLOAD

Logistics leaders are all too familiar with the big challenges their organizations are facing today. Fuel prices are volatile – and steadily trending upward. Meanwhile, capacity is stretched thin, with many smaller carriers going belly-up in recent years. Add the extended global reach of many supply chains and a marked increase in overall transportation complexity and you’ve got a lot to worry about.

There is a host of capabilities built into Oracle Transportation Management. But in reality, most organizations only need a portion of them. It can be easy to get lost pursuing features and benefits that don’t match up with your business strategy. That's why we bring an industry-focused approach to our clients with our Value Chain Execution services for Oracle technology. Because we know your industry, we are able to more quickly determine the right roadmap for implementation, bringing leading practices in at the start. And when it’s time to implement, you can depend on us to know the ins and outs of the technology itself, as a preferred provider of Oracle and its OTM solution. Learn more about the offering.

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Meet our people 

• Mark Bryson, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Related offerings

• Application Upgrades – Oracle 
• Supply Chain Transformation – Oracle
• Technology Services – Oracle
• Value Chain Planning – Oracle

Learn More About the Offering

As the cost of transportation makes up a growing percentage of the cost of goods sold and customer demand for faster and better service grows, challenges like these are increasingly in the spotlight. The C-Suite is looking at transportation not just as a supply chain cost to be managed more efficiently, but as a source of competitive advantage.

The Right Fit
Given the increased importance and growing complexity of transportation management, it’s no surprise that many companies are turning to new software technologies like Oracle Transportation Management (OTM). These solutions are designed specifically for the challenges of transportation management and can be instrumental in helping companies address business issues ranging from setting better rates with carriers and scrutinizing fuel surcharge costs to tracking freight movement, managing capacity and increasing overall supply chain visibility. But having a demonstrated technology in place is only part of the battle. Just like any serious technology investment, if it doesn’t function as a seamless part of the organization’s business and processes, its impact will be minimal – or worse, it could cause disruptions in your supply chain. That’s where we come in.

How we can help

There is a host of capabilities built into OTM. But in reality, most organizations only need a portion of them. It can be easy to get lost pursuing features and benefits that don’t match up with your business strategy. That's why we bring an industry-focused approach to our clients with our Value Chain Execution services for Oracle technology. Because we know your industry, we are able to more quickly determine the right roadmap for implementation, bringing leading practices in at the start. And when it’s time to implement, you can depend on us to know the ins and outs of the technology itself, as a preferred provider of Oracle and its OTM solution.

Here are some of the specific capabilities we deliver to our OTM clients:

• Enhanced transportation planning and event management
• Advanced freight payment capabilities
• Better freight tracking and visibility
• Flexibility of system configuration and interfaces
• Better ease of use, which translates into quicker user adoption and time to benefit
• Advanced business rules and compliance standard requirements
• Leading-edge reporting capabilities

Bottom-line benefits

• Fewer errors, leading to reduced order processing time and cost
• Lower transportation costs as a result of better shipment planning and execution
• Increased efficiency of supply chain partner interaction based on better shipment execution processes
• Reduced freight payment costs through a streamlined payment and audit process
• Better customer satisfaction levels
• Lower operation overhead through automation
• Increased shipment visibility
• Advanced transportation reporting capabilities
• Improved compliance

Five ways to get more value now

We’ve helped some of the most advanced logistics operations in the world become more effective with OTM. Here are a few things we’ve learned along the way:

Partner up. Once implemented, OTM should create better relationships with supply chain partners. So it makes sense to work with carrier and logistics providers early and often to smooth the path to solution design and implementation.

Mind your data. It’s been said a hundred times before, but it’s worth saying again: if you want a data-driven solution to work properly, the data has to be up to the job. Understand the strengths and shortcomings of your data and take the necessary steps to make it clean, consistent and useful.

Have a map – and stick to it. It can be easy to wander off the path in pursuit of short-term objectives. Resist that temptation, and stick to the roadmap throughout the phased implementation process. Otherwise you’re in for a lot of rework down the line.

Avoid customization. A highly-customized solution can get in the way of application support and upgrade capabilities. Before you decide to customize, make sure you’ve weighed the options.

Don’t try to do everything. OTM comes loaded with functionality, but that doesn’t mean you need to use all of it. Instead, take the time to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of the features you’re likely to use, then weigh the benefits against the cost of implementing and sustaining them. From there, start with high-benefit, low-cost functionality.

Oracle Transportation Management in action

• A government client was seeking to transform its transportation planning and execution functions into a centralized operating company model as part of a broader cost reduction and business transformation initiative. We helped this client use OTM to streamline its processes across business divisions, provide increased visibility across systems and automate a host of manual processes conducted outside of legacy systems.
• When a leading consumer products company grew significantly through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, its logistics challenges multiplied and its existing technology couldn’t keep up. We helped integrate custom-built, non-integrated point solutions into an OTM platform, greatly reducing the technical complexity of the company’s logistics systems and providing a steady stream of clear information for better decision making. End-users benefited from easier, more intuitive interactions with the application, increasing productivity and increasing operating margins.
• A large manufacturer was supporting different transportation routing and tracking capabilities across multiple business units and facilities. The company needed to replace this unnecessarily complex web of solutions with a single application. Using OTM, we helped the company transform transportation planning from a local approach that utilized a number of legacy systems and non-standard processes to a centralized approach built on OTM. Today, the company benefits from increased visibility, cost savings and supply chain synchronization across the enterprise.

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.