Kinaxis has been confirmed as one of the leading transportation management system vendors in the market by Nucleus Research. The assessment of 20 providers led to each company’s categorization as either a Core Provider, Accelerator, Expert or Leader. A strong performance across both usability and functionality metrics resulted in Kinaxis being positioned as a Leader.
The report sought to find who has best kept up with the needs of the current transportation management market. Nucleus Research concludes that the sector is now characterized by the introduction of generative AI capabilities, the role of partnership building, and–pivotally–the shift towards more comprehensive supply chain management suites and away from point solutions.
This need for end-to-end connectivity and visibility was met strongly by Kinaxis, with the report commending both the platform’s standard and additional features. Traditional functions across event management, freight auditing, multi-leg planning, multi-modal rating, real-time alerts, and in-app execution management were said to contribute to order agility and last-mile optimization. Meanwhile, additional capabilities across order management, inventory planning and performance, warehouse capacity, financial control rules, reverse logistics, and supplier order performance were all cited as key to mitigating disruptions and championing sustainability.
Demand for better supply chain visibility and control alongside a simplified IT ecosystem points to vendors that are able to bring these elements of supply chain management together as one complete suite. The integration of planning and execution with real-time feedback from transportation milestones and activities were all praised to this end, not only by Nucleus Research, but by Kinaxis customers within the report’s deeper dive value assessment. Here, huge workforce efficiency improvements and cost savings were fed back as evidence of ultimate value. In fact, Nucleus found that, on average, TMS’ reduce transportation costs by 11%.
Kinaxis TMS capabilities are part of a unified, end-to-end platform for managing the full order life cycle. This was also acknowledged in the report: “Over the last few years, Kinaxis expanded its supply chain management offerings by acquiring MPO, a move aimed at integrating end-to-end supply chain operations across multiple business networks. This acquisition enhanced Kinaxis' capabilities by adding order management, transportation management, a logistics control tower, and multi-enterprise visibility to its existing suite of solutions… This development represents Kinaxis' effort to provide a more integrated and seamless approach to managing complex supply chain activities, from business planning to last-mile execution.”
Recent product announcements were lauded as part of the report’s Kinaxis summary. They included configuration management capability improvements which enable users to migrate configurations between various environments, and the introduction of new APIs for inventory and available-to-promise data. Compliance-based updates targeted at improving approval processes for order and master data addressed regulatory innovations while the new interface of Kinaxis platforms confirmed the usability side of the assessment.
Improved customer service, enhanced order management, and increased employee productivity are all listed as benefits that customers should expect when adopting Kinaxis TMS. The scope of the solution was surmised, confirming that “customers can use Kinaxis TMS to optimize and streamline orders across numerous manufacturing sites, distribution centers, sales channels, and all modes, including truck, rail, ocean, air, last mile, and parcel. Kinaxis connects to diverse and global carrier and forwarders networks. Additionally, users can connect their multi-enterprise networks across all parties and systems, such as ERP, WMS, eCommerce, and 3PLs, to provide end-to-end real-time visibility and control across the entire order lifecycle”.
Kinaxis has now been confirmed to have a leading vision for intelligent supply chain orchestration that embeds transportation management within that process. It is an approach that empowers businesses to unlock greater value across the full order life cycle, to truly deliver the best service, at the best cost, with the least environmental impact.
For further insight into the TMS Technology Value Matrix 2024, and why Kinaxis has been recognized for strong, holistic transportation management, please download your complimentary copy of the report below. In addition, you can read the document, Assessing the Value Kinaxis TMS Brings to Customers.
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