April 2000

"Incremental optimisation" is the key to e-Scheduler, a product from Canadian-based Descartes Systems Group under which home delivery customers can select their own delivery times online.

e-Scheduler takes account not just of the availability of time slots on van delivery rounds, but also of the size value of the individual consignment. It uses what are known as "soft rules" to strike a balance between customer service and economy. Early users include American Web-based home grocery suppliers Webvan and ShopLink.com.

In use, buyers are presented with a matrix of delivery days and times, with any unavailable slots blanked out. There is no indication to the end user of whether the more attractive time slots are already booked, or have simply been denied because they would not have given the carrier an adequate profit element on this particular job. Descartes calls this "yield management".

e-Scheduler is just one product in Descartes" expanding range of routing and scheduling options, which have moved on a long way since its takeover of RTSI Roadshow. The emphasis is now on dynamic rather than static scheduling, and the products are marketed as part of Descartes" broader DeliveryNet suite.

DeliveryNet aims to provide a channel for exchange of logistics information between companies, and a hosted e-fulfilment service for global logistics markets. The company emphasises that it is offering not middleware, but an environment or "transparent platform" for integrating disparate supply chains.

One of the keys to this is its e-Frame technology, which it describes as a zero-latency messaging environment. This includes features such as real-time supply chain visibility and performance monitoring. Descartes uses this technology in a range of vertical-market DeliveryNets for sectors such as home delivery and third-party logistics.

Descartes' aspirations to becoming a key Web channel for B2B e-commerce were enhanced earlier this year when it took over E-Transport of Pittsburgh. E-Transport"s pricing database is said to be used by 80 per cent of the world"s largest shipping companies, and provides hosted logistics services to more than 1,000 customers. Services include logistics contract exchange; a "vendor-neutral" clearing house for calculating shipping rates; and a real-time transport monitoring service.