Today's Best-in-Class logistics executives are looking to third-party logistics providers as a value-add extension of their organization that can help deliver value to the customer at lower costs.

There are a lot of parallels between the logistics software industry and the logistics service provider industry. For example, both have undergone a lot of mergers and acquisitions over the past five years, and companies in both industries are looking to further penetrate the small and mid-sized market. And it's also true that the business models of software vendors and LSPs are converging. But an important distinction still remains between these two industries: one primarily sells "products" and the other primarily sells "services." When times get tough, companies tend to outsource more and spend less, which is why LSPs have historically performed better than software vendors during economic slowdowns. Does this mean that LSPs can breathe easy in 2009? Not exactly.