Logistics technology: Agistix turns to Oracle to leverage on-demand platform

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 1/4/2008

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Agistix, a provider of supply chain software proprietary software it refers to as Logistics Management Automation (LMA) said this week it is now leveraging Oracle’s SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform, which it says will provide shippers with things like improved supply chain reliability, scalability, and visibility, among others.

Agistix President and CEO David Fox told Logistics Management that this decision makes sense for Agistix on several levels, because of Oracle’s database stability, reliability, and performance, coupled with the management controls of the OEM (original equipment manufacturer).

“Oracle is hands down the best database for managing high volume transactions,” said Fox. “We’ve been planning to leverage Oracle technologies from the beginning so that as our network of [shippers] and carriers grows we can handle any transaction volume.”

By transitioning to an Oracle-supported platform, Fox noted that shippers will see improvements in data reliability, security, and transaction processing speed. And he added that transaction processing time and reliable uptime are directly tied to end user shipping efficiency and productivity.

In terms of practical examples of these improvements, Fox explained how when a heavy freight shipment needs to go out for bid, the bid first goes out to the heavy freight carriers the Agistix customer (i.e. shipper) pre-selected from Agistix’s base of pre-qualified freight carriers. These carriers, said Fox, must compete to win the job by entering their pricing and service bid into the Agistix system prior to the specified deadline.

“Fast processing times and reliable uptime for these competitive, real-time multi-carrier comparisons ensure that [shippers] get the maximum value for every heavy freight shipment, regardless of mode, origin, destination, or size,” said Fox.

Agistix said its LMA software provides shippers with end-to-end visibility for all shipments in order to control logistics costs and bridges the gap between transportation management system (TMS)-driven planning and optimization and real world logistics processes. It also provides end-to-end control and visibility of all shipments across all carriers, and all shipping modes in all areas of the world. Fox said that LMA is geared toward a variety of different customers—including high-tech manufacturers, multinationals, and companies with a global presence—because these types of companies are the ones that deal most frequently with the complicated processes regarding heavy, international freight.