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“In order to be aware of a problem it must be visible. Developing visibility is a process of combining technology and partnership throughout the supply chain ecosystem. Technology is at such an advanced stage that we can in theory see and measure virtually every aspect of the supply chain. To be used effectively, however, the available technology needs to be shared with openness and trust amongst partners up and down the supply chain. Supply chain visibility enables companies to deploy early warning systems that alert relevant participants when events are deviating from the plan” (Millar, 2015, Global Supply Chain Ecosystems).

All of the customer I handled, had their head office either in Europe, Middle East, Australia or New Zealand; i.e. I did not have any touch points with GT Nexus, a PO Management Visibility Solution provided by a third party, preferred by many US Companies.

I also got to learn that there are single tenant and multi tenant solutions; their differentiators are (Different user rights can be given for both kinds of PO Management Visibility Solution.):

Multi tenant solutions, from my point of view, are more user friendly for service providers with one URL and one set of login credentials allowing the user to select from a list of accounts (either by search function or by customer code). Each user logs in to the same URL, e.g. the website from the service provider. Often, colour codes of the service provider are used, adding the logo of the customer on each of the pages.

Single tenant solutions are tailor-made solutions for the customers, creating and providing a unique URL for each and every customer. They use a custom set of colours (to match the customer’s) design. For service providers, this could be seen as unfriendly – depending on the number of customers handled one could could end up with several hundred URLs and various number of logins depending on the location of the user.

Often, customers require the service providers to enter the data on their systems or upload container consolidation plans manually – often required during the implementation period of a new account and until EDI connections are up and running.

There is no right or wrong as to that it is better to have a personalised URL for each customer; some people may say it is easier to have one set of login credentials only and to login via the site of the service provider.

I, for one, like multi tenant solutions better than single tenant solutions (from a service provider’s point of view), because one only has only one URL to to go to, one set of user credentials to handle several clients.

Another thing I have learnt is that there can be different categories within each of the Visibility Solution:

Visibility solutions only tailored to the requirements of the customer, but not any service provider in the tailoring process. All Purchase Order and Shipment Records will directly flow into the PO Management System, without linkage to any Transport Management System (“TMS”). This can be frustrating for the Operations and Finance Team – they need to draw data from multiple data bases. From my understanding, each of the service providers would have to establish electronic data interchange (EDI) connections to the service provider directly.

Visibility Solutions which receive all the data (Purchase Order and Shipment Records) via the TMS and communicate back and forth with it globally. The advantage of this kind setup makes it easier for both operations and finance teams to draw the data. Another advantage is, that even single shipment customers can have track-and-trace visibility of their shipments (a simple shipment view); sometimes referred to as category 1. This is what you get free of charge; for advanced features like Vendor Follow-up, Purchase Order Visibility by SKU, etc. (category 2 – 8), extra charges apply.

In recent years, more and more third party providers offering PO Management Visibility Solutions compete against those, which are part of the service offering of Logistics Service Providers. This makes a lot of sense, because retailers (and other companies) may want to change the logistics provider due to more competitive logistics and transportation rates, but do not want to change the Visibility Solution each time (each time, hundreds of man hours from both sides may be required to set up EDI between a variety of company systems).

Eventually it all comes down to integration and how tech savvy the logistics service providers are you want to work with (how can they integrate your data and their data – either manually or via EDI). Not every transportation company has the financial or human capital to afford developing their own Visibility Solution – on the other hand they may be good in origin services and transportation. With Third Parties offering Visibility Solution, the playing field may be a bit more leveled.

What are your thoughts on the topic?

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