Isotrak becomes UK solutions partner for ORTEC
January 27, 2010
Isotrak has become a UK solutions partner for ORTEC, one of the largest providers of advanced planning and optimization software solutions and consulting services. ORTEC has over 1,250 customers worldwide, over 700 employees and offices in Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific Region.
Isotrak has integrated its own satellite tracking based Active Transport Management System (ATMS) with ORTEC’s Vehicle Routing and Dispatch solution ORTEC Transport & Distribution (ORTEC TD), delivering them as a managed service hosted in Isotrak’s own world-class datacentre.
ORTEC TD is a highly scalable, enterprise-class platform that schedules optimal delivery vehicle journeys based on order commitments. By linking its planning data with Isotrak’s real-time vehicle tracking information, transport managers can now achieve dynamic rescheduling and optimization in response to unexpected delays or incidents. Using this combined solution managers will have time to be alerted and intervene when things go wrong, before transport delays affect customers.
Everything is delivered cost-effectively via web browser, is fully future-proof, and is backed by an extremely high Service Level Agreement (SLA). The offering includes a helpdesk, plus implementation and project management to integrate with customer systems. Isotrak and ORTEC estimate that in a typical deployment, the Return on Investment (ROI) is six months.
Robert Skipworth, Business Development Director for ORTEC, comments: “By combining two ‘best-in-breed’ solutions, Isotrak and ORTEC have created a seamless Vehicle Routing and Dispatch and execution solution, which enables significant cost and carbon emissions reduction, plus efficiency improvements, in the planning and execution process.”
Greville Coe, Strategic Partnership Director at Isotrak, comments: “Both ORTEC TD and ATMS are highly respected for their unique blend of sophistication and usability, and their ability to scale up seamlessly for many thousands of users. Combined, they close the loop between scheduling the best possible deployment of staff, resources and mobile assets, and being able to get around all the obstacles that inevitably get in the way. With this integration customers have a world-class solution that they can rely on.”
How it works
ORTEC TD creates optimal transport plans based on order information, destinations and driver availability, using drag-and-drop, Gantt chart and map view interfaces. ORTEC TD then sends the routes to ATMS, which creates job manifests for individual drivers, and relays them via Isotrak’s in-cab Mobile Data Terminal.
Once the driver begins work, ATMS continually monitors progress, feeding real-time updates of location and estimated time of arrival (ETA) back to ORTEC TD. Using this data, ORTEC TD is able to alert managers if delays or other issues make it impossible for the original plan to complete successfully. ORTEC TD’s advanced planning algorithms then evaluate all possible ways to get around the problem based on the current status of assets elsewhere in the fleet. Once an alternative proposal has been selected, re-optimized routes are sent back to ATMS, which in turn issues fresh instructions to all drivers concerned.
The level of system integration achieved here supports the daily planning of all pickups and deliveries, based on driving time and capacity utilisation both for delivery and collection elements. All business rules are taken into account, including driving time legislation and service requirements.
A meeting of equals
ORTEC TD provides industrial-strength order management and state-of-the-art optimization processes, supporting the daily scheduling of all pickups and deliveries. It is designed to integrate fully with other mission critical systems such as customer relationship management (CRM), transport management systems (TMS), warehouse management (WMS) systems and ERP.
Isotrak’s ATMS, on the other hand, uses satellite tracking data to provide total visibility of fleet operations at all times, yielding real-time monitoring and management of the resources to meet the plan. It delivers unparalleled provision of time, fuel and fleet savings, alongside sophisticated monitoring of planned vs. actual execution.
Commenting on the new partnership, Robert Skipworth, Business Development Director for ORTEC, says: “The connection between Isotrak and ORTEC, a true meeting of equals, was driven by increasing customer demands for better ways to handle unpredictable challenges to transport plans, due to traffic conditions, driver availability, asset location and other variables.”
Greville Coe, Strategic Partnership Director at Isotrak, adds: “What’s made the partnership a success is our two companies’ mutual expertise in technology integration, and a shared vision of how technology only truly benefits when it is integrated with business strategy at board level. ORTEC has a very strong global presence, especially in Europe, while Isotrak is a market leader within the UK.”
About Isotrak
Isotrak helps companies save money, improve customer service, reduce their environmental impact and win new business, all by using mobile assets more efficiently. Isotrak provides best-in-class software products and professional service solutions, driven by a combination of real-time visibility and performance measurement, interpreted from GPS satellite tracking and vehicle telematics data. To help customers focus on the job of managing transport, rather than managing technology, Isotrak delivers its products on a proven ‘managed service’ platform, backed by a high-availability Service Level Agreement (SLA), and accessible through any modern web browser.
Established in 1996 as a division of NFC, Isotrak became a separate company in July 1999 and today supports over 21,000 vehicle connections for customers including Asda, Eddie Stobart, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Skanska Utilities, Tesco, and the Royal Mail and many more.