[johnmcg]

I am looking for a utility that can reside outside OTM as a rate management tool that can maintain rates and interface to OTM. Our current processes involve maintaining a rapidly changing rate environment within excel then using this data to build CSV files. Any suggestions, known utilities to make new rate creation,update or editing faster would be appreciated.

[chrisplough]

John,

I completely agree that these tools are necessary, though I don't have any immediate suggestions for you.

Looking to the future - we're developing a set of tools to accelerate the implementation of OTM and provide a management layer around the OTM data sets (rates, carriers, locations, etc).

If you're willing, I'd love to get your input and requirements. Learning from the old G-Log JAD sessions, I've found that the best developed features/products come from end-user collaboration.

Thanks!
--Chris

[johnmcg]

Chris

Thanks for the update. I'll pass this on to the team and I'm sure they would like to have input. Will be back in touch.

Thanks

John

[oliver]

i know that Kuehne & Nagel in Luxemburg has developed an external tool to maintain rates outside of OTM; As far as i know they are willing to sell it :-) The contact person i know is Lutz Key from K&N IT department in Hamburg.

[cool_brat]

John & Chris,

Do you have any comments on how should this rate utility be working? We are considering developing this tool. So I would appreciate if you have some inputs on this based on your experiences.

Regards,
Vipin

[johnmcg]

We have developed a number of tools in both access and excel that now provide rate build functionality on a simpler and more rapid scale.

One provides a mechanism to download, uprate, edit, expire existing rates within the tables.
The other is a series of rate templates that build buy or sell rate constructs including all associated tables including rateversion, offerings, rate tables, accessorials, weight breaks etc.
We have a number of other tools to develop service provider or customer config and are working on some multi domain tools for customer and account setup.

None of the tools is simple to drive due to the complexity of the data tables themselves and the need to accommodate various rate structures in one set of tools, you still need to be a rocket scientist to maintain the rate files and in particular build new rates. We have had to develop a series of different approaches to accommodate our rate models within the limitations of the product.

Not sure if you are looking to develop as product or internally. Reluctant to handoff the IP as you can imagine.

Regards

[cool_brat]

Thanks, John.

This information is really helpful. I can infer from your response that tool would mainly be in the form of templates as well as some tables in the access from where maintenance would essentially be carried out.

[johnmcg]

True, but templates and tool format have to be admin configurable to a certain extent. our rate data is also manually editable in table form before CSV drop so you can always fix the data before file creation.