Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

Retailers should boost services to avoid "being Amazon-ed," Tecsys says

Software firm says 2018 acquisition of OrderDynamics enables inventory visibility.

Eight months after acquiring the software vendor OrderDynamics, supply chain management software company Tecsys Inc. has integrated the firm into its portfolio in an effort to meet growing demand for the complexities of multi-faceted fulfillment, the company says.

Tecsys is following that strategy to help its clients provide improved service levels to consumers so they can avoid "being Amazon-ed" by mega-retailers offering overnight delivery and low prices, Tecsys CEO and president Peter Brereton said in a call on Monday.


Montreal-based Tecsys acquired OrderDynamics for $13.4 million in 2018, saying the firm's cloud-based distributed order management (DOM) software would complement its own technology for meeting omnichannel fulfillment needs in an age of rising retailer and consumer expectations.

The combined platforms could help reduce operational costs and uncover optimization opportunities for users such as third party logistics providers (3PLs), distributors, retailers, and brand managers, the company said in an April release.

Specifically, Tecsys said its warehouse management system (WMS) has been extended with OrderDynamics' DOM capabilities, enabling distributors to source inventory from the most cost-effective locations and to ensure optimal order routing by unifying their inventory pools across many channels in real time

"We don't think it will be very long before you have the same customer dealing with both the supply chain execution and the distributed order management side of the house," Brereton said. "This is a response to what we see happening in the broader industry, where retailers are needing to get into logistics, and logistics providers are needing to get into retail."

That same trend is blurring the line between 3PLs and 4PLs, since logistics providers at every level are increasingly asked to do more than simply handle the distribution of goods between a manufacturer and retailer, he said. Rather, they are now expected to play a role in direct to consumer (DTC) tasks, since both retailers and brand owners are taking online orders on their own pOréals and outsourcing the fulfillment to 3PLs.

Instead of just running a warehouse that provides shipping and receiving, many 3PLs now also manage order taking, pricing, returns, and more, Brereton said. Offering those extra service layers is the critical step for preserving market share in a world where e-commerce giants increasingly offer next-day and same-day delivery, he said.

In pursuit of that goal, Brereton said, "We take pockets of dark assets, light them up, and open them to a digital supply chain so our users can provide consumers a way to get what they want, when they want it."

According to Brereton, the integration between Tecsys and OrderDynamics enables that vision in several ways: combining the two firms' consulting organizations, tying their research and development departments together, offering a single point of contact for customer service, and merging the marketing and sales groups into integrated teams.

In future steps, Tecsys plans to improve its mobile app for retail associates, and add machine learning algorithms to its demand planning and forecasting capabilities for inventory optimization, he said.

The Latest

More Stories

warehouse workers with freight pallets

NMFTA prepares to change freight classification rules in 2025

The way that shippers and carriers classify loads of less than truckload (LTL) freight to determine delivery rates is set to change in 2025 for the first time in decades, introducing a new approach that is designed to support more standardized practices.

Those changes to the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) are necessary because the current approach is “complex and outdated,” according to industry group the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA).

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

car dashboard lights

Forrester forecasts technology trends for 2025

Business leaders in the manufacturing and transportation sectors will increasingly turn to technology in 2025 to adapt to developments in a tricky economic environment, according to a report from Forrester.

That approach is needed because companies in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing and transportation quickly feel the pain when energy prices rise, raw materials are harder to access, or borrowing money for capital projects becomes more expensive, according to researcher Paul Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.

Keep ReadingShow less
Digital truck

How digital twins can transform trucking operations

This story first appeared in the September/October issue of Supply Chain Xchange, a journal of thought leadership for the supply chain management profession and a sister publication to AGiLE Business Media & Events’' DC Velocity.

For the trucking industry, operational costs have become the most urgent issue of 2024, even more so than issues around driver shortages and driver retention. That’s because while demand has dropped and rates have plummeted, costs have risen significantly since 2022.

Keep ReadingShow less

Something new for you

Regular online readers of DC Velocity and Supply Chain Xchange have probably noticed something new during the past few weeks. Our team has been working for months to produce shiny new websites that allow you to find the supply chain news and stories you need more easily.

It is always good for a media brand to undergo a refresh every once in a while. We certainly are not alone in retooling our websites; most of you likely go through that rather complex process every few years. But this was more than just your average refresh. We did it to take advantage of the most recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI).

Keep ReadingShow less
FTR trucking conditions chart

In this chart, the red and green bars represent Trucking Conditions Index for 2024. The blue line represents the Trucking Conditions Index for 2023. The index shows that while business conditions for trucking companies improved in August of 2024 versus July of 2024, they are still overall negative.

Image courtesy of FTR

Trucking sector ticked up slightly in August, but still negative

Buoyed by a return to consistent decreases in fuel prices, business conditions in the trucking sector improved slightly in August but remain negative overall, according to a measure from transportation analysis group FTR.

FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less