June/July 2001

A move away from desktop-based PC solutions to Internet-based enterprise functionality is signalled in the latest strategy announcement from DPS International, the company behind the LogiX routing, scheduling and digital mapping range.

"We don't just do routing and scheduling any more, we do a portfolio of components," says chief executive Paul Palmer. The company aims to offer features such as manifest generation, order-tracking and corporate data-warehousing, and to integrate with upstream and downstream business processes.

Backing up the move, the company has starting using the SQL Server database as the core round which its systems are built. "It's a robust platform that makes it easy to give end-to-end product visibility," Palmer says. The system can also be accessed over the Internet (the company claims to be the first to have launched an "ASP optimisation" system last year). Mapping is likely to be held locally, though, to reduce network traffic.

DPS says it has also updated its routing engine to use street-level maps more extensively - "although you need a meaty computer to do it," Palmer admits. He considers scheduling a facet of customer care, and believes that on home deliveries "the guy who can give the narrowest time window for deliveries is the one who will clean up."

Increasingly, he says, DPS products will be integrated with vehicle tracking, data gathering and POD collection; hence its involvement in the Lii alliance.