Oracle picks up speed with transportation app

10.02.2006
Oracle Corp. this week unveiled a transportation application for its E-Business Suite 11i that uses technology acquired when it bought supply chain and logistics management software maker Global Logistics Technologies Inc. last fall.

On Tuesday, Oracle announced Transportation Management, which has out-of-the-box integration with E-Business Suite 11i-based workflows. The software supports, among other things, order entry, procurement and supply chain event management processes. It also allows users to track and trace items, make freight payments and perform historical analysis.

In turn, the company intends to stop selling or developing its two existing logistics packages, Oracle Transportation Planning and Oracle Transportation Execution, said Mark Johnson, Oracle's senior director of product marketing. Prebuilt connectors are not planned for Oracle's PeopleSoft or J.D. Edwards applications, he said. Integration with the E-Business Suite will be phased in during the next year.

The application's name change reflects Oracle's desire to deliver a seamless product that fits into the 11i suite, said Adrian Gonzalez, an analyst at ARC Advisory Group Inc., a Dedham, Mass.-based consulting firm. "Will users care that the name has changed? No," Gonzalez said. However, users seeking a "holistic" logistics application that handles warehouse management and can deliver supply chain visibility will be interested in how quickly the vendor can tie all the various components together.

Oracle Transportation Management is currently shipping and can be purchased either as part of the E-Business Suite or as a stand-alone product. Pricing for Transportation Manager starts at US$14,000.