Oracle announced today it is rolling out Oracle Transportation Management 5.5 (OTM 5.5), a Web-based platform that, according to the company, allows shippers to lower transportation costs, improve asset utilization, and optimize asset utilization, among other offerings.

OTM 5.5 is the first product release since Oracle’s acquisition of G-Log, a transportation management software provider, was made official in February. Typical end users for this product are dock supervisors at warehouse facilities, truck drivers, dispatchers, and transportation and logistics managers. OMT 5.5 can be accessed via a desktop or notebook computer or through a wireless device such as a Blackberry or a smart phone.

Oracle senior director of transportation product strategy Derek Gittoes told Logistics Management that OMT 5.5 was developed to help shippers and third party logistics services providers (3PLs) work off a single platform with integrated transportation planning and execution, freight payment, and business automation processes for all modes of transportation.

“Users need an integrated platform to deal with things like the unprecedented rise in transportation costs driven by the rise in fuel prices, the capacity crunch for ocean containers moving goods from China to the United States, and domestic transportation capacity caused by a lack of truck drivers,” said Gittoes.

“Cooperative routing”
OMT 5.5 is comprised of several functions that are designed to augment carrier collaboration between shippers and 3PLs and transportation carriers. A major part of this is what Gittoes called “cooperative routing”— a decision-support optimization tool that helps end users examine network points where they ship products to and from, and analyze them to determine how to best package shipment lanes to provide high utilization freight movements to their private fleets or common carrier providers.

“If a company is shipping from California to New England and vice versa, they want to group these shipments together,” said Gittoes. “The concept of continuous moves has been around for a while but what is different with this product is we are looking at longer-term history and forecasts and analyzing the reliability of the data. This way, it ensures a high probability that companies will have full shipments moving in both directions.”

Less hurry-up and wait for drivers
Another new feature is dock and yard management which focuses on appointment and dock scheduling to minimize wait time a truck driver may face when loading or unloading freight. Gittoes said this feature has a decision support framework that automatically slots appointments based on when freight needs to be picked up, the availability of dock doors, and loading and unloading throughput constraints.

What will fit in the truck?
Also included in OMT 5.5 is a three-dimensional load modeling feature that offers containerized item placement and volume calculations that account for orientation and stacking constraints, according to Oracle.

“This [feature] helps maximize the utilization of trucks and trailers,” said Gittoes. “We have built out a unique approach for this detailed configuration and understanding height, weight, length, and different loading dimensions and constraints for different products,” said Gittoes. “We provide a detailed plan for exactly what will fit [in a truck or trailer] so there will not be too few or too many items accounted for in a load.”

Gittoes said OMT 5.5 matches up well with competitive offerings from Manhattan Associates and i2 Technologies, adding that OMT 5.5, unlike these companies, offers carrier-collaboration functionality and other TMS functions all in the same platform.

“We have a large product footprint within the same product that can do things like dock appointment scheduling, freight payment, planning and optimization, and track and trace,” said Gittoes. “This is helpful and can help a customer manage imports from Asia, a European ground network, and a Latin America distribution network with one product.”

Oracle announced today it is rolling out Oracle Transportation Management 5.5 (OTM 5.5), a Web-based platform that, according to the company, allows shippers to lower transportation costs, improve asset utilization, and optimize asset utilization, among other offerings.

OTM 5.5 is the first product release since Oracle’s acquisition of G-Log, a transportation management software provider, was made official in February. Typical end users for this product are dock supervisors at warehouse facilities, truck drivers, dispatchers, and transportation and logistics managers. OMT 5.5 can be accessed via a desktop or notebook computer or through a wireless device such as a Blackberry or a smart phone.

Oracle senior director of transportation product strategy Derek Gittoes told Logistics Management that OMT 5.5 was developed to help shippers and third party logistics services providers (3PLs) work off a single platform with integrated transportation planning and execution, freight payment, and business automation processes for all modes of transportation.

“Users need an integrated platform to deal with things like the unprecedented rise in transportation costs driven by the rise in fuel prices, the capacity crunch for ocean containers moving goods from China to the United States, and domestic transportation capacity caused by a lack of truck drivers,” said Gittoes.

“Cooperative routing”
OMT 5.5 is comprised of several functions that are designed to augment carrier collaboration between shippers and 3PLs and transportation carriers. A major part of this is what Gittoes called “cooperative routing”— a decision-support optimization tool that helps end users examine network points where they ship products to and from, and analyze them to determine how to best package shipment lanes to provide high utilization freight movements to their private fleets or common carrier providers.

“If a company is shipping from California to New England and vice versa, they want to group these shipments together,” said Gittoes. “The concept of continuous moves has been around for a while but what is different with this product is we are looking at longer-term history and forecasts and analyzing the reliability of the data. This way, it ensures a high probability that companies will have full shipments moving in both directions.”

Less hurry-up and wait for drivers
Another new feature is dock and yard management which focuses on appointment and dock scheduling to minimize wait time a truck driver may face when loading or unloading freight. Gittoes said this feature has a decision support framework that automatically slots appointments based on when freight needs to be picked up, the availability of dock doors, and loading and unloading throughput constraints.

What will fit in the truck?
Also included in OMT 5.5 is a three-dimensional load modeling feature that offers containerized item placement and volume calculations that account for orientation and stacking constraints, according to Oracle.

“This [feature] helps maximize the utilization of trucks and trailers,” said Gittoes. “We have built out a unique approach for this detailed configuration and understanding height, weight, length, and different loading dimensions and constraints for different products,” said Gittoes. “We provide a detailed plan for exactly what will fit [in a truck or trailer] so there will not be too few or too many items accounted for in a load.”

Gittoes said OMT 5.5 matches up well with competitive offerings from Manhattan Associates and i2 Technologies, adding that OMT 5.5, unlike these companies, offers carrier-collaboration functionality and other TMS functions all in the same platform.

“We have a large product footprint within the same product that can do things like dock appointment scheduling, freight payment, planning and optimization, and track and trace,” said Gittoes. “This is helpful and can help a customer manage imports from Asia, a European ground network, and a Latin America distribution network with one product.”