N@N

Sterling Commerce: Sterling Commerce Expands Sterling Transportation Management With Integrated Parcel Capabilities

_{//science-technology.news-articles.net/content/2 .. agement-with-integrated-parcel-capabilities.html}
^{Published in Science and Technology on Monday, November 17th 2008 at 11:01 GMT by Market Wire}  

COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwire - November 17, 2008) - [ Sterling Commerce ], an AT&T Inc (NYSE: [ T ]) company, today announced that [ Sterling Transportation Management System ] (TMS) has added integrated parcel management capabilities to enable companies to plan and execute transportation across all modes. By integrating these modes of transportation in its on-demand platform, Sterling Commerce enables companies to reduce costs, gain better [ visibility ], and track its total transportation spend while still meeting customers' high shipping and delivery expectations.

According to John Fontanella, vice president of research at AMR Research, in a November 11, 2008 article, "While the parcel industry has consolidated to a very few carriers, each has its own rules, regulations, and certification procedures. Traditional TMS vendors have shied away from building software to support the function because it requires not only separate logic and content but must also be continually updated to stay in [ compliance ] with individual carrier rules. However, the opportunity of using the sophisticated optimization routines many TMS vendors possess on parcel shipments is too great for the vendors or their clients to ignore."

With the planning for all shipments managed in one system, Sterling TMS enables companies to gain [ operational efficiencies ] and cost savings through several new capabilities:

 -- A new "lowest cost mode selection" capability builds upon the existing planning tools within Sterling TMS to enable shippers to rate shipments across all modes of transportation and select the most cost-efficient mode that achieves customer service/delivery expectations. -- A unified view of transportation spend across all modes enables shippers to better understand and analyze their overall transportation spend and by mode. -- A single repository for information on all transportation modes that enables shippers and customers to track shipments and better understand costs against budget and carrier performance. -- Support for Zone Skipping will enable a shipper to consolidate parcel shipments going to the same geographic region and line-haul them together closer to the destination before separating them into individual shipments. 

"With the pressure of increasing transportation costs and assessorials, companies will need to innovate in how they manage their transportation operations," said Cory Wiegert, vice president, Applications Product Line, at Sterling Commerce. "By integrating parcel capabilities instead of passing them to a third-party system, Sterling TMS ensures shippers that they are selecting the lowest cost mode while delivering to customers' high service expectations."

With its collaborative [ logistics network ] of more than 8,500 carriers transacting more than 6 million shipments per year, Sterling TMS is the world's largest on-demand transportation management solution. Sterling TMS, part of the [ Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite ], enables efficient planning and execution of both inbound and outbound transportation processes and automates processes like freight audit and payment.

About Sterling Commerce

Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc (NYSE: [ T ]) company, helps customers thrive in a global economy by connecting their business communities, processes, people and technology. More than 30,000 customers worldwide use Sterling Commerce solutions for [ business process integration ], [ multi-channel selling ], and [ supply chain fulfillment ], and payments management to optimize business performance inside and outside their enterprise. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Sterling Commerce has offices in 24 countries around the world. More information can be found at [ www.sterlingcommerce.com ]