EXCERPT:
From the customers' standpoint, the rental option has much to recommend it. For one thing, many users find it's easier to get corporate approval for leasing a TMS than for buying a costly TMS license. "Because it's sold under the budgetary threshold, it's more of an expense than a capital budget decision," says Brian Klemenhagen, a senior principal at Triple Tree, a Minneapolis research-based investment banking firm. The corporate IT department is less likely to raise objections as well. "Because I'm passing a file to an on-demand solution, it's less invasive to the IT organization," says Foster Finley, a managing director at Southfield, Mich.-based AlixPartners Ltd. who served as a consultant on Dayton Superior's TMS project.

Although the on-demand model usually eliminates the need for systems integration, new users will still find there's some preliminary work to do. Before they can use the software, companies first have to enter their transportation data into the application. At Dayton Superior, Finley says, that included the corporation's list of carriers, contracts and rates, shipping locations and destinations, and accessorial charges.