Despite a severe worldwide recession that caused most enterprise software markets to shrink by double digits, the impact on the transportation management system (TMS) market was much less substantial, according to Steve Banker, service director for supply chain management and the primary author of ARC Advisory Group's "Transportation Management Systems Worldwide Outlook."
ARC defines TMS broadly: Such systems are software solutions that facilitate the procurement of transportation services; the short-term planning and optimization of transportation activities, assets, and resources; and the execution of transportation plans on a regional or global basis. They address all modes of transportation, including ocean, air, rail, full truckload, less-than-truckload, parcel and private fleet.
Thus ARC's definition includes planning and execution, fleet management, global trade management, parcel management, and carrier solutions.
"Between 2007 and 2009, TMS sold on a traditional software model declined at a double-digit rate," says Banker. "If it had not been for solutions sold in a SaaS model, which continued to have good growth, the market would be in far worse shape."
