News | November 21, 2005

CombineNet Introduces Self-Service, On-Demand Tool For Optimized Sourcing Of North American Truckload Transportation

CombineNet today announced the release of its first self-service On-Demand solution for optimizing the sourcing and award of North American truckload transportation services. Delivering robust "expressive" bid collection, bid optimization and award scenario analysis capabilities, CombineNet Truckload enables corporate supply chain and logistics teams to quickly and easily configure, publish and manage a domestic truckload transportation sourcing event using Web-based optimization and multi-user/multi-organization collaboration technologies.

"Facing increasing transportation costs and tight capacity across their supply networks, shippers need a tool that enables them to keep costs low without sacrificing service quality and their carrier relationships," said CombineNet CEO Tony Bonidy. "CombineNet Truckload ensures that our customers get the absolute best value from their carriers while meeting their internal business needs, and does so in a self-service format that enables them to configure and complete a sourcing event in a very short timeframe."

CombineNet Truckload uses CombineNet's robust optimization technology to help shippers achieve the absolute best value in transportation based on their unique business needs by balancing carrier costs, service quality and internal business constraints through an easy to use Web-based tool. Incorporating years of best practices in managing large, complex transportation sourcing events for Fortune 500 companies, CombineNet Truckload offers an array of intuitive features that reduce complexity and help guide transportation sourcing decisions:

  • On-Demand, ASP delivery means no software to install or integrate with IT infrastructure. Businesses and their carriers can access CombineNet Truckload from any desktop computer using a Web browser.
  • Lane Configuration enables shippers to easily define lane attributes and shipment related display items to represent their business needs by identifying O&D pairs (choose from multiple levels of granularity to match your data -- ship to/from, state, city, 3 digit or 5 digit zip code etc.), equipment type (dry van, refrigerated, intermodal), volume (# loads, weight, cubic feet; frequency, surge) and special service requirements.
  • Offer, Negotiation and RFI Configuration ensures that carriers submit the bid information needed to make award decisions. Shippers can select multiple bid collection information options, such as $/mile, minimum charge, mode by service type (truck team, solo, intermodal), transit time, O&D ramp, multi-stop charges, and capacity (enabling carriers to share capacity on multiple levels to set upper-bound capacity on a regional or lane-by-lane basis).
  • Route Plan Output takes the process from award scenario analysis and final allocation to tendering with easy export of results to the shipper's transportation management system, improving the ease of exporting sourcing information to your execution system further reducing time to implementation.
  • Expressive Bidding delivers greater value by enabling carriers to offer creative bids that leverage their strengths, letting them offer conditional pricing, equipment alternatives, and package offers. CombineNet's Expressive Bidding capabilities are collaborative by design, enabling true win-win scenarios for carriers and shippers. CombineNet is consistently cited by carriers as the most preferred, easiest to use, and most collaborative of all the best of breed advanced sourcing solutions.
  • Scenario Builder helps companies mitigate risk and make better decisions faster by identifying award allocations that meet their business needs. Advanced scenario analysis helps companies understand the cost impact of each business rule and stakeholder preference for quantifiable decision-making across multiple users and organizations in a collaborative environment.
  • Optimization Power -- CombineNet delivers the most powerful and robust optimization engine available on the market today -- orders of magnitude faster than competing optimization technology -- enabling the analysis of potential award scenarios comparing unlimited numbers of expressive bids, bid attributes, and business constraints in seconds.

CombineNet Truckload is available now for shippers, logistics teams and supply chain consultants to configure and implement domestic truckload sourcing events. For more information, visit http://www.combinenet.com/truckload.

About CombineNet
CombineNet is revolutionizing the art and science of making decisions. The company's core technology platform is a proprietary, patented combinatorial optimization engine that enables decision makers to quickly analyze disparate data in problem-solving scenarios, instantly sorting through the millions of options they could select to find the one they should select. Leveraging the power of CombineNet's Web-based Decision Guidance Tools are applied across the enterprise in the fields of strategic sourcing, transportation and logistics, telecommunications, energy planning and advanced optimization applications. CombineNet has delivered an average 30x ROI for the largest businesses in the world including Heinz, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, the United States Postal Service and others. For more information, visit http://www.combinenet.com.