Industrial Data & Information Inc., a software consulting company of Webbers Falls, Okla., has released of a new product to help shippers -- manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and warehousing operations -- shop for new transportation management software.

The software product, called a TMS RFI (Transportation Management System Request for Information), asks 500 questions about a specific customer's transportation software needs in the areas of parcel and LTL rating, shipment manifesting, outbound order planning and more. Pop-up windows explain questions in greater detail.
The resulting electronic RFI is e-mailed to software vendors. The vendors answer questions for current production releases. Negative responses are highlighted in yellow, positive responses in green. This assists both the software vendor and the selection team to quickly see where the product is strong and weak. On each question, a software vendor may also add comments.
The RFI is delivered in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format. Specific questions may be added, dropped or modified by the customer.
Industrial Data & Information says its TMW RFI software will speed the process of searching for a new transportation management system "by enabling the selection team to fast track the development of questions in the RFI.