Raimundo Diaz (WKTS): “For a transporter, a TMS is first of all a question of change management”.

Wolters Kluwer Transport Services acquired its TAS TMS from Transics and is to integrate it into its other logistics chain optimisation programmes (Tivios and Transwide). WKTS was therefore already active in this market to some degree, as its CEO Raimundo Diaz explained to us.

Why have you bought TAS from Transics?
RD: “With Tivios, we already had a form of TMS, above all an operational model. We also had a good relationship with Transics, and TAS was already integrated into our Teleroute and Transwide products. TAS performs extremely well in the operational management of equipment, but it is also an administrative TMS. We therefore have a complete offering, with a TMS for shippers (Transwide) and two TMS for transporters which have the additional advantage of being integrated into our Teleroute freight exchange platform.

How are you going to position these various products on the market?
RD: In 2012, all of these products will be brought together under the twin brands Transwide Shipper Solutions and Transwide Carrier Solutions. And while the sales of TAS are principally made by the Teleroute sales team today, the ten persons who were involved in the TAS after-sales service at Ypres have been taken on by WKTS. TAS also has a great deal of potential abroad, because Transics hardly sold anything outside of Belgium. This means that we don’t have to hold back when it comes to distributors outside of Belgium…

Fragmented market

What is your analysis of the TMS market in Europe?
RD: It is a very fragmented market, with many local solutions and a few larger scale suppliers, but a market within which the leader probably does not command a 15% share. With our new portfolio, it is our intention to change things!

Who buys a TMS today?
RD: The heart of the classical TMS market lies in fleets of 20 to 200 vehicles. Above this number, the TMS are either developed internally or integrated into a Supply Chain Management system.

Do you offer the Software as a Service formula?
RD: Yes, and this is particularly interesting for small fleets, but also for companies undergoing takeovers or mergers, because the barriers to entry are easier to overcome when it is a matter of consolidating existing tools into different subsidiaries.

How do you assist your clients?
RD: This involves more than simple assistance with a new product. We have to help our clients carry out change management. And we have precise experience of this type of assistance, having already provided it to shippers with Transwide. But it is only effective if we are contacted at the very beginning of the thinking process. In these circumstances, we can help the client to avoid quite a few pitfalls, and the TAS teams were very effective too in exactly this type of assistance. But if we are only consulted when the RFQ stage has been reached, it is more difficult.

Does TAS now communicate with on-board computers other than Transics?
RD: We don’t close any door to the client, but we nevertheless push clients interested in our TAS towards Transics products. We are first of all going to optimise connectivity with other WKTS products”.

| 15/12/2011 | Claude Yvens