Oracle Transportation Management

Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) provides a single platform for companies to manage all transportation activity throughout their supply chains. The solution allows companies to minimize cost, optimize service levels, and create flexible business process automation within their global transportation and logistics networks. Designed to support the needs of both shippers and logistics service providers (LSPs), OTM creates an information bridge across functional silos, geographic regions, languages, currencies, and business units, and supports customers from basic transportation needs to highly complex logistics requirements.

Global control, local execution, central management
Oracle Transportation Management enables companies to manage their transportation networks on a global basis in terms of supply chain flows (outbound finished goods, inbound supplies, inter-facility/company shipments, returns), modes of transport (over the road, air, ocean and rail) and geographic area (domestic and international). It provides simultaneous support for multiple languages, currencies,units of measure and business functions that may vary by business unit and
geographic region. As a result, companies can support the nuances of their global operations while reaping the efficiencies provided by a single transportation management solution.

The foundation of excellence
Oracle Transportation Management provides support for the following key transportation business functions, and can easily integrate with your finance and other supply chain management applications:

• Transportation order management: Integration with external order management, purchasing, warehouse and other systems for purposes of managing transport demand. Transportation order management functions can be provided to external parties in the supply chain, such as suppliers who provide “ready to ship" information to release purchase orders.
  
• Rate management: A global repository and rating engine for service provider contracts for transportation and related services. Oracle Transportation Management enables companies to manage all rates centrally, including support for truckload, intermodal, less-than-truckload, parcel, air, rail and ocean. Oracle Transportation Management supports full "sell' side rating for logistics service
  
• Shipment management: Plan and execute shipments for maximum operational efficiency. Automated decision support for a full range of transportation scenarios from simple, direct shipments to those involving multiple legs and multiple modes. Decision support for least cost carrier, mode and service level, application of routing guides and core carrier programs (i.c., carrier commitments). In addition, Oracle Transportation Management provides robust functionality to manage exceptions during execution (e.g., tracking planned vs. actual, diverting shipments, and expediting delivery).
  
• Booking and tendering: Collaborate with transportation service providers using multiple communication formats - email, web, mobile device, and XML. Share transportation plans and manage service provider responses (e.g. conditional bookings, tender acceptance). Automated support for multiple types of tender processes (e.g. sequential tendering. broadcast tendering).
  
• Visibility and event management: Proactively manage the lifecycle of orders and shipments through automated milestone monitoring. Automatically expedite shipments when pickup confirmations have not been received within a specified tolerance interval. Receive status updates from transportation service providers using multiple communication formats - web, XML, mobile phone or tablet.
  
• Business process automation: Maximize productivity by automating processes using unique workllow agent technology. Workflow agents enable companies to model simple or complex processes to improve efficiency. For example, automatically re-plan shipments based on related order changes; or notify involved parties of delayed shipments.
  
• Freight payment, billing and claims: Eliminate unnecessary charges and automate the time consuming and error prone processes of freight payment, customer billing, and managing freight claims. Using actual shipment data captured throughout the transportation lifecycle, the Freight Payment, Billing and Claims capability of Oracle Transportation Management ensures that companies are paying, billing, and tracking only the transportation services provided. 
  
• Transportation intelligence: Create a transportation dashboard for operational and strategic performance indicators by leveraging the operational data stored in Oracle Transportation Management. By taking operational data and converting it into meaningful information, one can avoid future inefficiencies and make changes to plans and parameters that are causing unsatisfactory results. The transportation intelligence capability of Oracle Transportation Management eliminates the need for a separate, siloed data warehouse in support of transportation metrics. 
  
• Forwarding and brokerage operations: Automates the freight forwarding and brokerage processes used by logistics service providers to improve process efficiency and profitability while improving the service delivered to their customers. The forwarding and brokerage operations capability of Oracle Transportation Management provides complete support for the following processes: quoting, job management and consol management.
  
• Reporting & document management: Oracle Transportation Management utilizes Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher to create reports and documents. Examples of standard reports and documents include: Cost savings, projected late orders, carrier performance by lane, bill of lading, commercial invoice, and packing list.
  
• Integration with Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) and Oracle Cloud Supply
  
  

Chain Management (SCM) applications: OTM and EBS integration supports synchronization of sales order and shipment data. OTM and Oracle Cloud SCM sample integrations are available through Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC). OIC process flow templates include pre-defined flows such as transportation planning and execution, export documentation and order and shipping compliance. It also includes automated provisioning, back-up, patches, and upgrades, with a comprehensive library of adapters/APIs for Oracle and third party applications.

The power of a complete transportation solution
Oracle delivers the industry's broadest and deepest transportation management platform, and customers can derive additional benefits from related product options,
including:

• Transportation Operational Planning: Apply specific business rules and logic in conjunction with powerful algorithms and optimization engines to optimize orders and shipments based on cost, service level, and asset utilization. Scenarios for multi-stop consolidation, pooling, cross docking and three dimensional load configuration are supported. Manage dock appointments for greater warehouse efficiency with advanced scheduling and collaboration capabilities. 
  
• Transportation Sourcing: Utilize sophisticated optimization algorithms to model sourcing rules and constraints to minimize costs while streamlining the procurement process for transportation services. The Transportation Sourcing capability of Oracle Transportation Operational Planning utilizes historical shipment data to build bid projects and then seamlessly turns awarded bids into executable rates. It also provides functionality to support the task of rate maintenance. Together these capabilities serve to greatly enhance the accuracy of a bid project as well as reduce the time and overhead it takes to manage the procurement cycle. For more information,refer to the Transportation Operational Planning data sheet.
  
• Cooperative Routing: Strategically examine and optimize the use of third party carrier and internal fleet resources in the supply chain. Identify historical shipping patterns and determining optimal asset utilization via efficient lane combinations of freight (i.e., cooperative routes). This strategic plan is utilized within Oracle Transportation Management's operational planning process, ensuring that the fleet and carrier resources are deployed properly and the benefits are realized. 
  
• Fleet Management: Manage private fleet and common carrier networks on a single platform for increased asset utilization, lower transportation costs and reduced environmental impact. Oracle Fleet Management provides support for all aspects of managing a fleet for shippers with a private or dedicated fleet and logistics service providers who employ their own assets in providing services to their customers. Business functions supported include: driver and equipment assignment, dispatch, asset tracking and event management, and financial settlement for driver payroll, supplier payment and customer billing. For more information, refer to Oracle Fleet Management data sheet.
  
• Logistics Network Modeling: Provides high-fidelity scenario analyses, all using your real-world, operation data and constraints. Intrinsic to Oracle Transportation Management, the analysis is performed using the rich operational details of your transportation network and your rules and policies, and uses the very same optimization and planning algorithms that you employ in your transportation operations. This leads to highly accurate results showing you the actual impact of the changes to your operations. Since everything is in the context of your actual operational network, identified changes/responses are easily deployed as needed. 
  
• Logistics Digital Assistant: Get real-time access to order status and shipment tracking with updated location and ETA information from Oracle Transportation Management. The digital assistant is able to receive and respond to inquiries instantly and 24/7. It enables companies to reduce support expenditure, improve customer satisfaction, and increase supply chain visibility by leveraging new channels for communication. Logistics Machine Learning: Obtain an accurate estimated time of arrival (ETA) using machine learning capabilities in OTM. Leverage industry leading algorithmand infrastructure, create business-specific machine learning models, get full insight into model statistics, and configure automatic workflows to predict ETA for shipments in everyday transportation management processes.
  
  

Unlock the business value of a best-in-class trade and transportation platform
Oracle offers a holistic approach to logistics management using a single system approach. With Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Global Trade Management, Oracle provides visibility to trade and transportation order and shipment data in one application. This unified platform enables process synergies that are often difficult to achieve with separate and independent products. It becomes easier to produce data and documents, allowing trade and transportation teams to work off a single source of truth and maintain complete visibility over shipments. A robust supply chain event management and workflow engine allows companies and their trading partners to effectively control and execute cross-functional logistics processes.

Complete trade and transportation lifecycle support: Together, Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Global Trade Management support the full lifecycle of cross-border shipments and manage all the aspects of moving goods across trade boundaries in a seamless and logical manner. The solution can be easily configured and customized by the user, and ensures goods are not sent to the port unless trade documents are in order by generating and filing the proper customsdocuments.

• Document management: Determine and produce the necessary trade documents and certificates for each transaction. Validate the availability of key data elements. Use auto-assignment logic to help populate missing fields. With both Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Global Trade Management it is easy to produce documents that require both trade and transportation data to complete and produce.
  
• Shared data model, workflow, and services: Data objects are shared between Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Global Trade Management allowing trade and transportation teams to work off a single source of truth and maintain complete visibility over the shipment as it progresses. Shared workflow and services allow for execution of cross-functional processes and seamless sharing of documents and information.

Figure 1. Oracle Transportation and Global Trade Management features and capabilities
With this powerful combination, improve customer service, reduce costs and achieve
higher productivity by automating business processes within your global logistics
network, while ensuring compliance, and accelerating customs processes.


Key features

• Transportation procurement
  
• Transportation order management
  
• Carrier and rate management
  
• Fleet and driver management
  
• Order and shipment planning
  
• Shipment booking and tendering
  
• Visibility and event management
  
• Visibility and event management
  
• Freight audit and payment
  
• Strategic and tactical analyses of transportation network
  
• Reporting, documentation, and business intelligence
  
  

Key business benefits

• Reduced transportation and logistics costs
  
• Increased customer service levels
  
• Business process automation
  
• Increased supply chain performance and reliability
  
• Rapidly evaluate supply chain options
  
• Improve supply chain agility
  
• Build supply chain resilience
  
• Improved environmental sustainability
  
• Greater business process flexibility and adaptability
  
  

Related products
Oracle Transportation Management is a key component of Oracle Cloud Supply Chain Management solutions that work together to provide with a broad array of capabilities:

• Oracle Global Trade Management
  
• Oracle Order Management
  
• Oracle Inventory Management
  
• Oracle Warehouse Management
  
• Oracle Internet of Things applications
  
• Oracle Intelligent Track and Trace