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| News - AccessTransport.ca |
May 18, 2004
May 2004 -- AlioSoft Announces "Transport411"
The most complete online directory of Canadian road carriers
Blainville, May 18th, 2004 -- AlioSoft today announced the availability of Transport411, an online road freight transport directory of carriers from Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes, intended for all businesses in need of road transportation services. The Transport411 directory gives access to more than 1 300 carriers covering all of North America, and over 95 000 vehicles of all types. It allows users to refine queries through the use of precise search criteria, such as carrier specialties, serviced regions, equipment type and related attributes, as well as carrier participation in cross border programs such as FAST and C-TPAT. This new, user-friendly, multi-criteria search engine rounds out AlioSoft's offer. Transport411 helps shippers and brokers in finding carriers with its high online availability, comprehensive database, and numerous search and sort criteria. "We are very pleased with the outcome of Transport411!", said Daniel Mc Innis, president of AlioSoft. "This new service will allow us to fill a need that, up until now, had not been met." According to Mr. Mc Innis, Transport411 is an excellent means of showcasing Quebec carriers wishing to increase their market exposure. "Within the end of 2004, we expect to start offering Transport411 to shippers outside of Quebec, thus increasing carrier exposure to shippers located elsewhere in Canada and in the United-States. Also, for the benefit of importers and exporters, we plan to increase within the next few months the number of registered carriers located outside of Quebec." Since the launch of AccessTransport.ca--an online service for the procurement of road transportation services owned and operated by AlioSoft--, many shipping members have expressed the desire to directly access AlioSoft's road carrier database. Transport411 fills this need perfectly. As an example, when searching through the Transport411 directory, the results show that 365 carriers currently service the Quebec-California corridor, of which 126 carriers own controlled temperature semi-trailers. Only 19 of these are specialized in fruits and vegetables, and only two of those are equipped with air ride suspension and a rear elevating tailgate, as well as being registered with the FAST cross border initiative. Finally, only one company is also able to tender proposals in less than one hour. About AlioSoft AlioSoft, Inc. is a software development company specialized in designing cutting-edge B2B solutions for the freight transportation and logistics industries. Its achievements include AccessTransport.ca, a Web portal in operation since 2001 which allows shippers to post online requests for quotations for their spot shipments, and GNP2Transport, a Web-based procurement service helping shippers negotiate their global annual transportation needs. -30- Information: October 13, 2003
AlioSoft Announces GNP2Transport
A new platform for online procurement of freight transportation services.
BLAINVILLE, October 11, 2003 -- AlioSoft is proud to announce the launch of GNP2Transport, a complete rewrite of its platform for online calls for tenders, intended for the freight transportation and logistics industries. GNP2Transport is the corner stone of AlioSoft's services, designed to assist shippers in their truck transportation sourcing and procurement endeavors. With GNP2Transport, calls for tenders become fast and simple: manual processing of proposals, ranking suppliers for each lane, and unreliable fax transmissions are no longer required. Instead, AlioSoft offers entirely Web-based solutions, allowing shippers to hold efficient online calls for tenders for all of their transportation needs. GNP2Transport can handle the negotiation of truckload as well as less than truckload shipments, and collect spot or annual rates, at the shipper's discretion. Also, because of its flexible architecture, GNP2Transport can be configured to meet the special needs and requirements of both shippers and carriers. In contrast with traditional calls for tenders, GNP2Transport greatly simplifies the participation of a large number of carriers, and cuts through proposals in no time: all bids are automatically parsed and analyzed on the fly, returning the set of tenders that best meet the shipper's needs. This processing speed allows calls for tenders to be held in very short time frames. "GNP2Transport not only allows shippers and carriers to save time and energy during the preparation and execution of calls for tenders, it goes beyond the traditional process by delivering cutting-edge functionality", explains Daniel Mc Innis, president of AlioSoft. For example, GNP2Transport manages carriers' constraints on their transportation capacity, allowing carriers to bid without reserve on lanes they might be interested in, without fear of being awarded more loads than their fleet can accommodate. This favors complete coverage of transportation lanes, and minimizes the shipper's global transportation costs. GNP2Transport can talk to the shipper's backend systems, by sending data in computer readable formats that can then be manipulated by a spreadsheet or an Enterprise Resource Planning system. GNP2Transport can also handle combined value bidding, enticing carriers to improve their bids on lanes in which they have a competitive advantage, in exchange for the adjudication in full of these lanes (all-or-nothing). Our platform was designed from the outset to run calls for tenders of all sizes and of different kinds, namely multi-round calls for tenders, and reverse-, multi-constraint auctions. Numerous improvements to GNP2Transport have resulted in a reduction in the execution costs of online calls for tenders, thus allowing AlioSoft to better serve small- and medium-size enterprises who wish to lower their procurement costs for freight transportation services. About AlioSoft
AlioSoft Inc. is a software company offering dedicated turnkey software solutions, online transactional systems and consulting services to the freight transportation and logistics industries. Since 2001, AlioSoft has operated the AccessTransport.ca Web portal, helping shippers find the right supplier for their spot transportation needs. -30- Source: Daniel Mc Innis AlioSoft (450) 419-6888, ext. 104 daniel.mcinnis@aliosoft.com
December 6, 2002
AlioSoft Inc. Announces the Deployment of an Online Discussion Forum on its AccessTransport Web Portal
BLAINVILLE, December 6, 2002 -- AlioSoft announces the launch of its new online service: the AccessTransport.ca discussion forum! The service allows members, as well as non-members, to participate free of charge in various discussion groups concerned with issues in the transportation industry and with the AccessTransport services. Exchange with other users by joining existing discussions or starting a new one. To participate, simply fill out an online form and choose your own username and password. Then go to the Forum section on AccessTransport's home page, or click here: http://forum.accestransport.ca. About AlioSoft
AlioSoft is a software development company, specializing in high-end solutions for the freight transportation and logistics industries. Our first achievement, the AccessTransport e-marketplace--developed and operated by Aliosoft--, is designed to help shippers and carriers negotiate shipments via online calls for tenders. In addition, AlioSoft have developed, a reverse electronic auction system designed to help shippers negotiate annual contracts for their shipping lanes. For more information, visit our Web site at www.aliosoft.com. -30- Source: Daniel Mc Innis AlioSoft (450) 419-6888, ext. 104 Noranda Opens the Door to Virtual Multi-Round and Combinatorial Bidding!
The mining giant has hired AlioSoft to organize simultaneous calls for tenders for 216 North-American transportation routes
BLAINVILLE, November 2002 -- Noranda decided to use innovative technology to award its Canadian full truckload transportation contracts for the next three years. With the support of AlioSoft, a software designer that developed and manages the AccesTransport.ca portal, the large mining corporation organized a major multi-round reverse electronic auction. The auction involved six rounds of bidding, which took place over a period of three weeks. The process resulted in the award of $48 million in transportation contracts, shared between 19 carriers, covering a total of 216 separate transportation routes. The technology allowed Noranda to meet the delivery needs for six of its plants, four located in Quebec, one in New Brunswick, and one in Ontario, that of its Falconbridge subsidiary. Noranda met its objective of minimizing it's truck transportation costs by allowing existing carriers to improve their efficiencies and by giving a selected number of new carriers the opportunity to tender on the business. "The multi-round reverse auction methodology created a favorable environment, for both Noranda and our carriers, where supply and demand could reach an equilibrium" said Chris Carson, Vice-President Global Logistics, at Noranda. "Conventional tendering processes are one-shot deals that are often sub-optimal. Some carriers end up with more business than they can handle while others lose valuable business because they misread the market. In both situations, the carriers are stuck for the contract duration and, as a result, the shipper may receive poor-quality service on some lanes while paying high prices on others." "Carriers and shippers can, on the other hand, emerge as winners from a multi-round auction," points out Daniel Mc Innis, president of AlioSoft. Through this process, the former can focus on certain routes to maximize earning power of their vehicle fleet by increasing its profitability. Open bidding in a reversed auction (i.e. where the best bids are the lowest) culminates in sharper competition between suppliers who will transfer to the shippers part of their profits as a result of greater efficiency. In the case of Noranda, the connection between the company's requirements and the capacity of the carriers should also lead to better service, to the advantage of the mining company's customers. The process
Noranda invited 34 carriers to participate in the auction, including many of Quebec's largest transportation companies. The carriers were required to attend an information session where AlioSoft provided a half-day training session. In addition, a test environment was made available to allow the carriers to gain experience and confidence with the process from the comfort of their offices. AlioSoft's assisted by providing customer support through a toll-free number. Prior to the first round of bidding, carriers received a tender information package from Noranda. The package included lane information such as origins, destinations, estimated tonnages, and hours of loading, as well as equipment specifications, draft contract documents, etc. To start the auction, carriers were provided individual access codes to allow them private admission, through the Web, to the AccesTransport.ca portal. Carriers then downloaded their initial bid form from the auction Website. The bid form, similar to a spreadsheet, required the carriers to enter their pricing by lane, and the capacity of their equipment during both regular and spring thaw periods. The carriers then uploaded their bids to the website where the bids were consolidated. An optimization engine was then employed to determine the lowest bid for each lane taking into consideration truckload cost, truck capacity and the duration of the thaw period on each route. Round 2, and all subsequent rounds, saw the carriers again download their confidential bid forms, which now included the leading prices (but no names) on all lanes and highlighted the lanes in which they were leading. As of this second round, carriers have not only the opportunity of improving their offer, but also of presenting combined proposals. This means grouping together routes they consider complementary, or enabling them to upgrade their efficiency. However, to win each of these routes they must submit an overall price more interesting to the shipper than the best individual offers, added one to the other. During the bidding, AlioSoft staff played an active role by keeping in constant communications with both the carriers and the shipper. For example, AlioSoft contacted bidders when there appeared to be errors in pricing or truckload capacity or when new tender contravened one or more of the auction rules. Bidding continued for six rounds by which time there were diminishing returns for both the carriers and the shipper. The number of rounds was not predetermined, so as to keep bidders active from start to finish. "We were entirely satisfied with the services provided by AlioSoft," said Mr. Carson. "Their staff was very professional throughout the process, even when we experienced a few hick-ups that are associated with any new process. We will use both AlioSoft and this tool again when we believe that it will enhance our suppliers' efficiencies and where strong competition will allow us to share in their reduced cost of providing the service." Daniel Mc Innis, CEO of AlioSoft, admits that the process requires some work by the shipper, but that the reliability of the tenders received is greater than that with traditional calls for tenders. Furthermore, the tasks related to following up tenders are much lighter. Other applications
AlioSoft developed the technological platform required for multi-round and combinatorial auctions in cooperation with the Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis on Organizations (CIRANO). AlioSoft, located in Blainville, signed an agreement with CIRANO in March to develop complementary applications to the AccesTransport.ca portal, enabling shippers seeking transportation for their products to issue online calls for tenders from registered carriers. "Our expertise can also be transferred to other areas of activity, and we soon expect to be in a position to announce an initial series of diversification projects," asserted Mr. Mc Innis. AlioSoft's CEO is convinced that the system they have developed is destined for a brilliant future, and that medium-sized and large manufacturers outsourcing their transportation requirements will benefit greatly from this new formula. Meanwhile, the young company, founded in 2000, continues to develop the portal it launched in 2001. Already, over 430 shippers and 310 carriers have registered as members. About Noranda
Noranda Inc. is a leading international mining and metals company with more than 48 mining and metallurgical operations and projects under development in nine countries. Noranda is one of the world's largest producers of zinc and nickel and is a significant producer of copper, primary and fabricated aluminum, lead, silver, gold, sulphuric acid and cobalt. Noranda is also a major recycler of secondary copper, nickel and precious metals. Noranda employs over 16,000 people. It is listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange and The New York Stock Exchange (NRD). About AlioSoft
AlioSoft Web Solutions is a young software development and publishing company aimed at providing the freight transportation industry with high-end, online transactional solutions, consulting services and software products. Since 2001, AlioSoft has operated its AccessTransport.ca Web portal, allowing shippers and carriers to publish online requests for proposals and tenders for shipping contracts. AlioSoft also offers multi-round, combinatorial, auction services aimed at the freight transportation industry and other vertical markets. About CIRANO
CIRANO is a non-profit organization employing multi-disciplinary university researchers, in cooperation with seven Quebec universities, two Quebec government ministries and several major corporations. CIRANO develops tools and means to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of Quebec companies. Within this framework, the center pursues cutting-edge research activities in e-business, including the transportation field. The research center's objective is to advance the efficiency and quality of the analysis and decision-taking processes that are involved in the planning and management of transportation systems. -30- Source: Raymond Prince Élizabeth Boileau Public Relations (514) 383-6801 Daniel Mc Innis AlioSoft (450) 419-6888, ext. 104 Chris Carson Noranda (514) 645-2311, ext. 3107 |
