Capabilities
Everything an inbound TMS does. One thing it doesn't.
Most inbound TMS evaluations score the same fifteen capabilities. We do fourteen of them. The fifteenth is dock and appointment scheduling, and we don't pretend otherwise.
The difference isn't what we do. It's what we need before we can do it.
The comparison
Capability
Holocene
Traditional inbound TMS
Inbound PO / ASN management
Yes
Yes
Supplier collaboration & confirmations
Yes — no portal, no supplier onboarding
Requires supplier portal adoption
Track & trace, milestone visibility
Yes
Yes — requires carrier integration
Arrival dates
Reconstructed from what actually landed
Predicted from structured feeds
Booking & shipment execution
Yes
Yes
Tendering & spot quoting
Yes
Yes
Rate & contract management
Yes
Yes
Routing & mode optimisation
Yes
Yes
Load consolidation planning
Yes
Yes
Carrier performance scorecarding
Yes — measured against actual landed dates
Self-reported milestones
Freight audit & payment
Yes
Yes
Claims management
Yes
Yes
Customs & trade documentation
Yes
Yes
Reporting & analytics
Yes
Yes
Dock & appointment scheduling
No
Yes
Working capital priced per lane
Yes — Meridian
No
Auditable contribution vs counterfactual
Yes — Meridian
No
ERP integration required
None
Mandatory
Supplier onboarding required
None
Mandatory
Carrier onboarding required
None
Mandatory
Master data cleanup required
None
Mandatory
Time to first value
6 weeks
12–18 months
Paid only if it delivers
Yes
No
Why the bottom half is the whole argument Parity above the line. Asymmetry below it.
Every capability in the top section is table stakes — any serious inbound TMS has them, and so do we. Which means the evaluation was never really about features.
It's about what the system demands from you before it returns anything. A traditional TMS asks you to build the machine first: integrate the ERP, onboard the carriers, get three hundred suppliers into a portal, clean the master data. Then wait, and find out at month fourteen whether the data was any good.
We start from the data you already have. The mail your suppliers and forwarders sent you this morning already contains the confirmations, the revisions, the dates and the exceptions. Nothing to build. Nothing for anyone else to adopt.
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