Event
Summary
Just a month since it merged with QuoteShip, Logistics.com is continuing
to grow its organization and increase brand awareness. With a total headcount
of 137, the Burlington, Massachusetts based logistics management software
vendor continues to grow rapidly at a rate of 10-15 employees every month.
Founder and CEO Yossi Sheffi is an experienced veteran of the transportation
and logistics software industry, having been a cofounder of LogiCorp,
Syncra, eChemicals, and the Princeton Transportation Consulting Group,
a company he sold to the Sabre Group in 1996.
The
new Logistics.com expects to become the leading provider of information
technology and e-commerce solutions for the transportation and logistics
industries. Its Internet-deployed applications span solutions that offer
decision support capabilities for carriers and shippers, transportation
auctions, public and private exchanges, and collaborative transportation
management.
Market
Impact
Logistics.com possesses a grander vision than most logistics software
vendors, which typically focus on a limited portion of the vast scope
of global logistics. Logistics.com has built a comprehensive suite of
logistics applications and is working feverishly to join them together
to provide an integrated solution. Key differentiators of its suite include
support for air, truck, rail, and ocean transport modes, decision support
capabilities that provide maximum flexibility in specifying costs associated
with different transportation alternatives, and a wholly Internet-based
ASP delivery model.
Logistics'
customer base, assembled from industry leading carriers and shippers throughout
its 12-year operating history, is another factor in the company's favor.
References from satisfied clients carry considerable weight in buying
decisions. Among the shippers who have purchased its software, Logistics'
boasts Georgia-Pacific, Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble, and Colgate-Palmolive.
Carrier partners include J. B. Hunt, Tyson, and ABF.
While
there is no clear leader in the global logistics software market, Logistics.com's
offering will undoubtedly place it in competition with companies like
i2, Manugistics, and, in some functional areas, Internet startups like
GoCargo, NeoModal.com and G-Log. Logistics.com has put together a well-apportioned
suite of applications, delivered via the Internet, and with its impressive
client list, should fare well in the fragmented and highly competitive
logistics software marketplace provided it invests in marketing and brand
recognition initiatives.
User
Recommendations
Shippers and carriers engaged in global logistics operations should evaluate
Logistics.com as an option among other vendors. Users should also request
client references from among Logistics' client partners and inquire about
the company's services it employs in conjunction with its applications
as these form a large part of its business and are integral to its solutions
delivery model. Prospective users should also ask to see solutions of
interest demonstrated together so that they understand the extent to which
the applications have been integrated, an activity that Logistics' concedes
is a work in progress.