McLeod Software Updates Flagship Products

This story appears in the Sept. 23 print edition of Transport Topics.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — McLeod Software rolled out new versions of its flagship LoadMaster and PowerBroker products, as well as other upgrades and integrations to help companies further automate operations and track performance.

The upgrades will help executives “manage by exception” within a single platform when problems arise while allowing normal business functions to proceed with little to no human interaction, Tom McLeod, company founder and president, said at the start of the firm’s user conference here Sept. 16.

“Running a transportation company is more complicated now than any time in the last three decades,” said McLeod, but increased government regulation and economic uncertainty provide “a growth opportunity by handling it better than competitors.”

The highlights of Version 12.0 of LoadMaster and PowerBroker include:

• FlowLogix, which allows firms to create automated workflows and processes for orders, deliveries and other repeat functions. It “may be the most significant part of the new product introductions this year,” the company said.

Mark Cubine, vice president of marketing, said a large logistics company has been using FlowLogix to eliminate paperwork and automate electronic billing within the existing McLeod system.

• A customer relationship management tool, which Mc-Leod said “breaks down the wall between sales and operations.” The tool allows fleets to electronically organize and track sales efforts, with immediate access to historical data and current information.

“Users have a view of a customer from day of [initial contact] through the life cycle as a customer, and all that information is in one place,” Cubine said.

• McLeod Navigator, which uses key performance indicators to help managers more easily track business performance. A fleet panel at the conference said sharing these indicators with drivers and dispatchers helped them see how directly their actions affect the bottom line. Conversely, one executive said measuring drivers’ home time led managers to take further steps to boost driver retention.

“We are not going to tell people how to run their business . . . but we are in position to spread the word on best practices,” McLeod said in an interview with Transport Topics.

McLeod also said many ideas for software updates come directly from fleets and brokers.

“Our customers are telling us what to do,” he said. “They are giving us the input and direction that we need to go.”

That was on display at a LoadMaster-focused session, where company officials read e-mail suggestions sent from customers during the past 12 months, followed by an explanation as to how McLeod tailored the software.

One suggestion requested a change to allow users to more quickly e-mail orders within the system and allow recipients to receive a hyperlink directly to that order. In response, McLeod added that functionality as a toolbar option.

Among the other announcements was a new release of the intermodal and container module, which incorporates more port and freight railroad information. The company said more enhancements to the intermodal module are planned for 2014.

“More and more carriers are interested in making [intermodal] one of the services they can offer their customers,” McLeod told TT. “I believe, for some shippers, the ability to offer that option will become the price of admission, and certainly we are interested in helping the industry promote competitive services.”

McLeod also unveiled ex-panded capabilities for its mobile applications, another area the company suggested would see significant attention in the next 18 months, along with pricing and bid management and dedicated billing tools.

The conference featured the announcement of further integrations with McLeod by Omnitracs Inc., PeopleNet and Rand McNally.

“It helps us to help other vendors help customers,” McLeod said. “Customers need to have confidence in our system and know what technology comes later, [and] they will be able to plug in and take full advantage of the differences in capabilities by other [established] vendors.”

In his opening remarks, McLeod said the company was on track for another record year of growth, following a third straight year of compounded growth exceeding 20%. That has translated to the doubling of McLeod’s staff over the past three years.

Company executives said they initially had concerns about conference attendance when they decided to schedule its 23rd annual event west of the Mississippi River for the first time. Those fears proved unfounded, as a record crowd of more than 700 participated in the event.