SCT Advisory provides RFI and RFP support for Transportation Management System Selections that help our clients establish key requirements and business priorities, driving consensus and mindshare in program objectives and resource requirements while navigating the broad array of TMS providers in the marketplace considering cost, capability, and culture.
Sourcing Strategy, RFP Oversight, & Vendor Selection
As SCT lays out a broad view of the provider landscape, it is often necessary to short list those providers that are more likely to participate in the proposed architecture. This may include large TMS vendors, real time transportation visibility providers, smaller niche providers of adjacent solutions, freight auditors, or market analytics providers (amongst others). Vendor identification and interviews allow our clients to hear the stories and prioritize activities in a way that will provide the needed insight to develop scope for the evaluation and program planning exercises.
Vendor demonstrations are a critical step in vetting potential partners and ensuring consensus on success factors and preferred vendors across the organization, which in turns delivers a critical success factor to the overall program. SCT provides vendors with guidance on your organizational priorities and what we see as critical differentiators so you can get a 360 degree view of the options before you. Briefing sessions following the demonstrations translate vendor claims into valid expectations, and roundtable discussions unveil any reservations from the team that can be addressed in future conversations by the vendors.
RFP Management
Managing vendor communications, scoring responses, consolidating evaluations, and tracking contract progress can be time-consuming and complex. Our proven methodology streamlines this process, keeping it efficient and transparent—while providing clear updates and recommendations to your executive team.
Vendor demonstrations are a critical step in vetting the solutions and ensuring consensus on success factors and preferred vendors across the organization which is critical to the success of the overall program. SCT provides vendors with guidance on your organizational priorities and while presenting what we see as critical differentiators to you for a 360-degree view of the options to choose from. Briefing sessions following the demonstrations translate vendor positioning into valid expectations, and roundtable discussions unveil any reservations from the team that can be addressed in future conversations with the vendors.
Program Planning
Company-wide projects require careful collaboration, roadmap development, milestone planning, and executive engagement. With hundreds of supply chain projects completed, SCT knows which questions to ask, critical success milestones to track, and KPIs to monitor—helping you build a strategic program plan that drives lasting value across your organization.
Following vendor demonstrations, as the preferred solution is materializing, Scoping workshops allow our customers to dig deeper into capabilities and setup requirements to more fully develop an appreciation for solution capabilities and the effort required to achieve them. SCT facilitates workshops with 1-2 vendors to walk through the day in the life of warehouse operation (end to end given the surrounding system architecture), implementation methodology, roles and responsibilities, and critical success factors.
Scoping, Scheduling, and Roles & Responsibilities
Aligning project and program objectives with high level estimates of effort allows a best in class approach to take shape. Iterations allowing the evaluation of complexity and projected results allow refinement of scope to deliver optimal value. Considerations of staff availability and supplementation options allow time and cost tradeoffs to be evaluated, delivering an ideal balance of speed and value.
Program Justification & Business Case Preparation
Investment priorities will be scoped and sequenced, providing clarity on transformation strategies and business justification. Cost estimation and returns on investment will be combined into a time phased justification for your program, and combined with soft benefits and insights to socialize effort & procure funding.
