Change is scary but making two changes at once is often easier than making changes twice.
Benefits of Implementing Both Parade and Your New TMS Simultaneously
The sooner new TMS customers can get Parade live, the sooner Parade can get to work for them. The systems begin collecting data from the outset and sharing it back and forth, so customers have the information they need to make smarter decisions for their brokerage.
Here are several benefits that come along with implementing Parade and a new TMS at the same time.
1. It Improves Implementation Speed
When a company implements new software, they generally want to get it up and running and free from issues as soon as possible. They want their team to be able to hit the ground running and they want to avoid the implementation interrupting operations as much as possible.
When you implement Parade and a new TMS at the same time, it adds very little to no time to implementation. Companies can save between 2-4 weeks of upheaval by implementing the new TMS and Parade’s capacity management solution at the same time.
“It’s super easy to just flip a switch and you have Parade turned on in Tai,” said Sean McGillicuddy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Tai TMS, one of Parade’s integration partners.
Helps Parade Capture Key Operational Workflows
During a TMS transition, brokerages will likely be changing their operational workflows and processes. Since part of Parade’s implementation process involves mapping those processes and making sure our program works within them, it helps to get Parade in on implementation from the beginning. It allows our team to ensure that the system can get to work without reps needing to step outside their normal day-to-day work.
For example, brokerages may have their representatives split into teams to cover a specific set of carriers, or they may assign them to specific shipping lanes. By getting in on those conversations early in the implementation, Parade can ensure that quotes and messages are directed to the proper teams.
It takes time and effort to correct these interactions with workflows if they’re missed during implementation, so it works best to see them during development and adapt accordingly. It also saves brokerage staff a lot of frustration when Parade works seamlessly alongside normal workflows from the start.
Saves IT Time and Resources
Talent is in high demand and short supply in the tech space, and even more so in the supply chain. Whether a company is using an internal IT department or contracting out IT for a TMS implementation, company resources are exhausted.
When IT sees the parallels between the new TMS and Parade as early as possible, they’re able to plan for the integration during their build. Implementing both at the same time allows them to build once and implement both systems at the same time.
Working with Parade and your TMS’s tech team to implement at the same time also allows teams to connect with us to ask questions about the whole integration so we can help them get through any challenges that may arise.
2. New Processes Can Be Trained Once
When implementing a new system, getting the software in place is only half the battle. Brokerages have to train staff in the use of the program, and it’s common to get a lot of pushback from employees when they’re asked to learn something new.
Training new processes once instead of twice can be an effective way to help employees cope with the changes they’re being faced within their day-to-day during a new software implementation.
Trainees Can Learn How Systems Work Together from the Start
When you integrate a new TMS and Parade, tons of data flows back and forth between the two systems. When that data flow is outlined in the initial training process, staff will have a much better idea of how to maximize the potential of both systems.
Save Valuable Company Time
When you train once, you save time. You don’t have to spend extra hours in the classroom and even more hours in on-the-job training to implement another new software. It saves time for in-house trainers, as well, allowing them to get back to their typical responsibilities.
3. Improves Adoption of New Processes
When reps see the potential behind new systems, they’re more likely to use them. Buy-in can be difficult to obtain, and pushback from end-users is common in every industry, but maybe even more so in transportation and logistics, where an old-school mentality is still very common.
When reps can see clearcut benefits of using Parade alongside the new TMS to their advantage, such as automated messaging to carriers, Book Nows, and quotes sorted with the best options at the top, they’re more likely to jump on the bandwagon and not try to lean on old tools to get them by.
4. Parade’s Data Collection Super-Charges A New TMS
Even when new customers are reluctant to push too many new processes on their staff at one time, Parade is still doing work in the background when it’s integrated with Tai. It’s still gathering data and inputting it into the TMS; it’s still collecting carrier capacity information; it’s still collecting quotes and organizing them so that reps can get the right carrier on the load for the right price. They can utilize many of Parade’s features without ever stepping away from their TMS window.
For instance, with Parade’s quoting tools, quotes are automatically collected in the TMS. Parade quotes don’t have to be manually entered, and it’s a simple change to ask reps to look at Parade quotes first since they’ve been tailored to the load and the available capacity. Carrier outreach can also be automated with Parade from within many TMS systems, eliminating the time reps would normally spend collecting quotes for loads.
Companies have total control over how they introduce Parade in their everyday workflow. Even if they decide that they’d rather wait to implement the use of the finer points of the Parade system, it’s still working in the background and generating ROI.
Talk to our team to learn more about Parade’s implementation and integrating Parade with your TMS of choice.