We use technology and networks to simplify complex business processes. We are
primarily focused on logistics and supply chain management business processes.
Our solutions are predominantly cloud-based and are focused on improving the
productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers
use our modular, software-as-a-service ("SaaS") and data content solutions
to route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and
execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access and analyze
global trade data; research and perform trade tariff and duty calculations;
file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous
other logistics processes by participating in a large, collaborative multi-modal
logistics community. Our pricing model provides our customers with flexibility
in purchasing our solutions either on a subscription, transactional or perpetual
license basis. Our primary focus is on serving transportation providers (air,
ocean and truck modes), logistics service providers (including third-party logistics
providers, freight forwarders and customs brokers) and distribution-intensive
companies for which logistics is either a key or a defining part of their own
product or service offering, or for which our solutions can provide an opportunity
to reduce costs, improve service levels or support growth by optimizing the
use of assets and information.
Logistics is the management of the flow of resources between a point of origin
and a point of destination – processes that move items (such as goods,
people, information) from point A to point B. Supply chain management is broader
than logistics and includes the sourcing, procurement, conversion and storage
of resources for consumption by an enterprise. Logistics and supply chain management
have been evolving over the past several years as companies are increasingly
seeking automation and real-time control of their supply chain activities. We
believe companies are looking for integrated solutions for managing inventory
in transit, conveyance units, people, data and business documents.
We believe logistics-intensive organizations are seeking to reduce operating
costs, differentiate themselves, improve margins and better serve customers.
Global trade and transportation processes are often manual and complex to manage.
This is a consequence of the growing number of business partners participating
in companies global supply chains and a lack of standardized business processes.
Additionally, global sourcing, logistics outsourcing, imposition of additional
customs and regulatory requirements and the increased rate of change in day-to-day
business requirements are adding to the overall complexities that companies
face in planning and executing in their supply chains. Whether a shipment is
delayed at the border, a customer changes an order or a breakdown occurs on
the road, there are increasingly more issues that can significantly impact the
execution of fulfillment schedules and associated costs.
Descartes Logistics Technology Platform unites a growing global community
of logistics-focused parties, allowing them to transact business while leveraging
a broad array of applications designed to help logistics-intensive businesses
thrive. Descartes Logistics Technology Platform is the simple, elegant synthesis
of a network, applications, content and a community.
The Logistics Technology Platform fuses our GLN, an extensive logistics network
covering multiple transportation modes, with a broad array of modular, interoperable
web and wireless logistics management solutions. Designed to help accelerate
time-to-value and increase productivity and performance for businesses of all
sizes, the Logistics Technology Platform leverages the GLNs multimodal logistics
community to enable companies to quickly and cost-effectively connect and collaborate.
Descartes GLN, the underlying foundation of the Logistics Technology Platform,
manages the flow of data and documents that track and control inventory, assets
and people in motion. Designed expressly for logistics operations, it is native
to the particularities of different transportation modes and country borders.
As a state-of-the-art messaging network with wireless capabilities, the GLN
helps manage business processes in real-time and in-motion. Its capabilities
go beyond logistics, supporting common commercial transactions, regulatory compliance
documents, and customer specific needs.
The GLN extends its reach using interconnect agreements with other general
and logistics-specific networks, to offer companies access to a wide array of
trading partners. With the flexibility to connect and collaborate in unique
ways, companies can effectively route or transform data to and from partners
and deploy additional Descartes solutions on the GLN. The GLN allows "low
tech" partners to act and respond with "high tech" capabilities
and connect to the transient partners that exist in many logistics operations.
This inherent adaptability creates opportunities to develop logistics business
processes that can help customers differentiate themselves from their competitors.
We believe that our customers prefer a technology provider that understands
the unique requirements of logistics organizations and can provide a comprehensive
set of solutions. Our customers are looking for collaborative solutions that
help connect their enterprise to the multiple trading partners, logistics services
providers and carriers that work with them. The Logistics Technology Platform
helps our customers address those needs and provide a base for continuous innovation.
Logistics Technology Platform
The Logistics Technology Platform combines a network, applications, content
and a community. It is a comprehensive technology infrastructure that Descartes
customers and their trading partners use to extend the command of their logistics
operations.
Network
Descartes GLN is the foundation on which our applications and community are
built. It was designed with logistics operations in mind. It is differentiated
by its management of data semantics, message delivery, transformation of data
pertaining to regional or global operations and its ability to work across wired
and wireless technologies.
Content
Descartes global trade content solutions offer comprehensive access to market
leading data and tools to research, analyze and act on import/export movements,
trade regulations and market trends; avoid the risk of transacting with denied
or sanctioned parties; increase trade compliance rates; optimize sourcing, procurement,
and business development strategies; and minimize duty spend.
Community
Our global logistics community is a large, multi-modal network of logistics-intensive
companies. We have historically enhanced our current solutions and added additional
applications and community members through organic growth and acquisitions to
strengthen our Logistics Technology Platform.
Applications
With the GLN as the connectivity foundation, we have been expanding our logistics
application functional footprint to offer a broad array of modular interoperable
web and wireless logistics management solutions.
We provide applications that help companies better manage their logistics book-to-bill
process and purchase order-to-dock process, track inventory, meet regulatory
requirements, optimize fleet performance, manage deliveries, and effectively
communicate and collaborate with their logistics partners. These applications
can be principally categorized as: (i) Routing, Mobile & Telematics; (ii)
Transportation Management; (iii) Customs & Regulatory Compliance; (iv) GLN
Services; and (v) Broker & Forwarder Enterprise Systems.
Routing, Mobile & Telematics
Descartes Routing, Mobile & Telematics suite supports the closed-loop process
associated with planning, tracking, measuring, delegating and optimizing the
use of assets and people that are involved in the movement of goods. These solutions
can improve productivity and reduce fuel, vehicle and labor costs. The suite
helps address business challenges including the following: (1) strategic planning;
(2) daily planning; (3) pickup/delivery reservations; (4) dispatch and vertical
specific mobile solutions; (5) commercial fleet navigation; (6) reporting and
measuring; (7) sales and merchandiser management; and (8) telematics and compliance.
Strategic Planning: Descartes Sales & Territory Planner™ and Descartes
Area Planner™
For strategic planning of recurring pickups or deliveries, Descartes Sales &
Territory Planner performs complex service scheduling that simultaneously considers
daily, weekly and multi-week deliveries, as well as holidays and other non-working
days. It also evaluates geographic distribution and sales potential for each
customer to help establish optimal territories and routes. Factors considered
include minimizing travel time and related costs, and balancing opportunities
across members of the sales team. Additional parameters such as stops, distance
and sales volume can also be used to help determine routes and route schedules
for sales, delivery or both.
For strategic planning of highly variable pickups and deliveries, Descartes
Area Planner utilizes historical demand with algorithms to create models of
demand density patterns. Those patterns are used to create territory and route
plans. Descartes Area Planner takes into account service levels and delivery
product types and is able to test the territory and route plans resilience
to change. Descartes Area Planner typically is used to generate multiple plans
to fit daily, seasonal or business cycle driven demand variability.
Daily Planning: Descartes Route Planner™, Descartes Route Planner RS™,
Descartes Route Planner On-demand™ and Winroute™
Descartes provides a number of daily planning solutions to address the range
of customer requirements from the most complex to simple needs. Descartes Route
PlannerTM takes in new orders as they are placed, optimizes them in real-time,
allocating resources to help maximize operating efficiencies, deliver priority
service to the most profitable accounts and routes, and maintain overall customer
service objectives. Our other daily planning solutions optimize orders in groups,
balancing service with costs and operational constraints. Our daily planning
solutions are designed to integrate with existing order management or transportation
planning systems and can help companies reduce costs as a result of shorter
routes, reduced fuel consumption and enhanced fleet utilization. Descartes
comprehensive offering addresses a broad range of operational environments that
can vary across different industries.
Pickup/Delivery Reservations: Descartes Reservations™
Descartes Reservations facilitates on-line scheduling of deliveries or service
— either for self-service or as a decision support tool for customer service
agents. It helps companies to effectively tailor service to the demands of key
customers while helping to achieve internal profitability goals. Descartes Reservations
also confirms that requests can be met and schedules in the appointment, making
Descartes Reservations an effective capable-to-promise tool.
Descartes Execution and Mobile Solutions: Descartes Route Planner Dispatch™,
Descartes Route Planner OnDemand Dispatch, Descartes Route Planner Automated
Vehicle Locator™, Descartes Route Planner OnDemand AVLTM, Descartes MobileLink™,
Descartes Food Perform™, Descartes Distribution Perform™, and Descartes
Transport Perform™
Descartes Execution solutions (Descartes Route Planner OnDemand Dispatch, Descartes
Route Planner Automated Vehicle Locator™, Descartes Route Planner OnDemand
AVL™) manage routes in progress, tracking their performance, addressing
route exceptions as they occur and capturing delivery and pickup status updates.
Descartes Execution Solutions facilitate the assignment and execution of pre-planned
and same-day pick-ups and deliveries. Descartes Mobile solutions (Descartes
MobileLink™, Descartes Food Perform™, Descartes Distribution Perform™,
and Descartes Transport Perform™) provide integrated two-way wireless
communication and supports active and passive monitoring capabilities for enhanced
logistics execution. By combining route planning and a free flow of information
between dispatchers and the field, Descartes Mobile solutions extend the traditional
route planning process and provide real-time visibility into the execution of
the plan. The combination of Descartes Daily Planning solutions with Descartes
Execution and Descartes Mobile solutions form the core of plan versus actual
performance evaluation and continuous logistics improvement.
Descartes Food Perform, Distribution Perform, and Transport Perform are cloud-based
mobile solutions that automate traditional paper-based processes and help streamline
complex last mile logistics processes. These solutions have been tailored
to support last mile commercial processes unique to each industry. They provide
configurable, feature-rich mobile technology and advanced electronic proof of
delivery operating on a hand-held device carried by drivers and other field
personnel.
Commercial Fleet Navigation: Descartes Mobium GPS Navigation™
Descartes Mobium GPS Navigation™ solution was specifically designed for
businesses. Unlike navigation systems for the consumer market, Descartes Mobium
GPS Navigation features centralized real-time fleet management, automated license
provisioning, over-the-air updates, and easy integration with business applications
already on a mobile device.
Reporting and Measuring: Descartes Reporting Services™
Descartes Reporting Services helps companies create and distribute reports within
an organization or to suppliers, vendors, sub-contractors or carriers. It provides
a simple, secure way to create customized delivery statistics and metrics. It
can help simplify the creation and management of supply chain scorecards and,
as a byproduct, can help identify best practices.
Sales and Merchandiser Management: Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management™
Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management enables resource planning, route
building and optimization, and tracking across delivery operations and mobile
workforces, including sales representatives, territory managers and merchandisers.
Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management facilitates weekly activity planning,
delivery status visibility for merchandisers and sales representatives, actual
distance driven, in-store time calculation and work data collection, and consolidated
performance reporting. Performance data can be uploaded to corporate payroll
and expense reporting systems to ensure appropriate payments are being made
for resource performance. Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management helps
our customers improve sales and merchandising productivity, cut costs and improve
customer service.
Telematics and Compliance: Descartes Telematics and Compliance™, Descartes
Smartanalysis™ and Descartes
SmartLicence™
Descartes Telematics and Compliance solutions offer next generation mobile
handheld devices that can continuously monitor performance of vehicles and drivers.
Robust functionality for tracking vehicles, monitoring and scoring driving behavior
and automation of driver logs and reporting on driver hours for "hours
of service" regulatory compliance helps increase workforce productivity
and safety, prevents "hours of service" violations and reduces or
eliminates excess paperwork and processing times. In Europe, Descartes Smartanalysis™
product is a leading tachograph analysis and compliance management solution.
It is used by road transport operators of all sizes to meet legal obligations
and comply with Europes complex driver working time regulations. Descartes
SmartLicence is a comprehensive online tool for fleet operators in the UK for
electronically managing driving licenses and verifying license details with
the UKs Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Transportation Management
Descartes Transportation Management provides robust, network-based, modular,
end-to-end multimodal functionality that spans the entire shipment lifecycle.
We streamline and support our customers ability to turn purchase or sales order
fulfillment into transport orders, manage carrier contracts, optimize and execute
transportation plans, execute cross-docked and pooled shipments, connect to
trading partners, control the flow of prepaid freight, track shipments and inventory,
audit freight and manage supplier/carrier performance. The suite addresses unique
requirements across truck, air, ocean and parcel modes.
Descartes Transportation Manager™
Descartes Transportation Manager facilitates efficient planning and execution
of shipping across air, ocean, truck and parcel modes at multiple touch-points
in the distribution process. It helps logistics managers, shippers and third
parties simultaneously evaluate shipment alternatives to find efficient shipping
methods. It is a solution that scales from the loading dock to the enterprise,
providing up-to-date rates that allow the customer to both make efficient shipment
decisions and comply with carrier communications, manifesting and labeling requirements.
The pick, pack and ship capability helps our customers manage small parcel shipments
with postal services, a variety of small-package delivery carriers and over
150 less-than-truckload carriers. It evaluates and optimizes transportation
purchases across modes for both operational effectiveness and cost efficiency,
and helps answer tough questions such as: "How can I effectively use all
of my carrier contracts'"; "Who is the most suitable carrier in this
mode to handle my shipment'"; "What shipments can I combine to lower
my costs'"; and, "What shipment consolidation should I use - aggregation,
multi-stop routes or pooling to reduce costs while meeting service requirements'".
Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling™
Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling is a collaborative solution that enables
shippers, carriers and consignees to schedule dock door appointments. It streamlines
the dock appointment process by distributing the responsibility for scheduling
from the warehouse to carriers and suppliers. By ensuring all supply chain partners
are involved in the process and have visibility into requested, scheduled and
rescheduled dock orders and appointments, this solution is designed to optimize
shipping and receiving operations at a warehouse.
Descartes Yard Management™
A module of Descartes Transportation Manager, Descartes Yard Management enables
shipping and receiving staff, gate guards and yard jockeys to more effectively
manage the movement