How our services stack up
Companies often get trapped into a futile merry-go-round of indecision when they decide they need outside help with their supply chain. Decision-makers in this position — maybe you’re one of them — realize early on that they have four main options:
Big consulting house
Invest in a big consulting group if you face cross-cutting challenges involving R&D, manufacturing, or production. But you won’t be working with supply chain specialists, so you’ll only get a basic supply chain review. And you’ll need to drive your own optimization process.
Direct with carrier
Carriers can’t help you with supply chain consulting. They don’t troubleshoot or redesign supply chains.
Rate broker
A rate broker’s job is to follow your guidelines. You might get low-level advice from shipment to shipment, but you won’t benefit from deep and strategic insight.
IL2000
IL2000 specializes in supply chain management. We do one kind of consulting, so our team is made up of leading specialists in the field. IL2000 is a logical choice if your supply chain is complex or if you need an intricate deep-dive into customized supply chain solutions.
Start the process with a no-obligation supply chain analysis.
Big consulting house
Expect any kind of ongoing support to be extremely limited. You’re moving well outside of a big consulting house’s preferred business model if you need around-the-clock monitoring or a support model tailored to your unique freight challenges.
Direct with carrier
Beyond bare-bones quoting, booking, and tracking tools, it’s self-service all the way.
Rate broker
A rate broker is a viable option if all you need is an extra pair of hands to help with the shipment process. You’ll get simple reports, but they may be sufficient if you run a small, cut-and-dried supply chain. You won’t benefit from proactive, door-to-door shipment management. You won’t get guaranteed under 15-minute responses to support questions – because ultimately, a rate broker is just one person checking into an email account.
IL2000
We’re the smart choice if you’re looking for rapid, 24/7 whole-of-supply chain support. (Think about everything that goes into making your inbound and outbound happen.) We’re a team of logistics analysts with the connections and tools to support your whole supply chain in real-time.
Talk to IL2000 if your supply chain demands fast, reliable operations support.
Big consulting house
The big consulting houses just aren’t in the supply chain software development business. If they do support a proprietary software platform, it’ll be big, unwieldy, and you’ll be forced to shape your supply chain to its workflow rather than the other way around.
Direct with carrier
Working directly with a carrier, you’ll typically get access to an online tracking platform. But it’s a small business solution at best. The technology offers only rudimentary automated tracking and updates usually lag behind the shipment process – which can be a critical shortcoming if you’re in the business of guaranteeing on-time delivery. As for customized BI solutions? Forget it.
Rate broker
A rate broker might offer you an online portal, but these interfaces will offer you limited to zero scope for deep analysis and reporting. A rate broker can’t come close to offering a full transportation management solution.
IL2000
Our core business is supply chain technology. We own a proprietary transportation management system, fine-tuned through countless supply-chain decisions and exhaustive reality testing. It’s a tool purpose-built to make your supply chain smarter, faster, relentlessly cost-efficient.
Looking for advanced technologies that deliver instant shipment visibility and powerful tools for customized supply chain analysis?
Big consulting house
You can task a big consulting company to audit the cost-effectiveness of your supply chain. However, expect the process to be handled first and foremost as a financial audit. You’ll gain a sense of how your carriers are performing against quoted rates. But you won’t benefit from whole-of-industry supply chain benchmarks. And you won’t end up with deeper insight about how to manage carrier performance or how to mitigate spiraling freight costs.
Direct with carrier
This is an analysis-free zone. The closest you’ll get to financial reporting is shipment by shipment invoicing.
Rate broker
A rate broker will be able to help you with consolidated billing. However, you’ll usually receive reports in your rate broker’s pre-baked format. It’ll be up to you to import that data into your financial system. Nor will you see much higher-level analysis such as variance reporting accruals, contract level auditing, or benchmarking. Set your expectations to LOW and proceed with fiduciary caution.
IL2000
We offer comprehensive financial services, auditing, and reporting. More importantly, we’ll make your reports useful. We’ll help you draw critical conclusions, including which of your carriers are underperforming, discrepancies that require deeper investigation, and how your freight operation stacks up against your competition. Also, our development team can integrate TMS and BI tools with your company’s ERP, creating a seamless decision-making environment.
Choose IL2000 for services that deliver supply chain clarity and reports that won’t gather dust.
