Huffman Erp/productivity Implementation

Huffman ERP/Productivity Implementation

BSA405

Desktop Productivity Applications Paper

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, K. Huffman founded Huffman Trucking in 1936 with a single tractor-trailer. The growth of the company was the direct result of World War II, and the increased demand for carrier services between factories in the Midwest, to ports on the East Coast. By 1945, the fleet had increased in size to 16 tractors and 36 trailers. The business relationship forged with the U.S. Government continues today.

Huffman Trucking continued to grow from internal sales and the acquisition of five Eastern regional carriers. This growth has enabled Huffman Trucking to continue to remain a privately held company (University of Phoenix, 2006).

Huffman Trucking needed a means to enhance security using a fleet management software package. Due to the nature of the cargo its trucks carried, the aim was to maintain situational awareness of its vehicles, anytime, and anywhere. Huffman turned its interest toward SmartFleet™ System, produced by Safefreight.

Safefreight, founded in 1998, is a developer and provider of security-enhanced fleet management technology. Through its SmartFleet™ System, Safefreight provided full vehicle security and visibility through proprietary security technology, 24/7 GPS fleet tracking and monitoring, control capabilities, and wireless diagnostic sensors. This system offered a perimeter of security that mitigated threats by providing complete situational awareness of vehicles and other mobile assets along with command and control capabilities. As experts in homeland logistics and security transportation, Safefreight Technology seemed like the answer for Huffman’s business and security objectives (PR News Now [PRNN], 2006).

In order to maintain compliance with Federal and State regulations, a system has to be in place in order to properly document and maintain all cargo at any given time. In order to do this, Huffman will follow the best practices of the trucking industry to perform this task. Safety and security are of the utmost importance, especially since the attack of September 11, 2001. A report by ICF Consulting underscores the vulnerability of this industry to the threat of a terror type attack in their report for the Federal Highway Association (FHWA, 2004).

Wireless communications, and GPS tracking systems, are imperative to help maintain as much knowledge of every load as possible. In order to enable the company to perform these extra tasks, new productivity software will need to provide the interface and increase productivity. Many industry articles express the need to “make wireless data communications the must-have productivity tool of the decade for the entire trucking industry (BNET, 2006).” This illustrates the necessity for Huffman to acquire the same abilities that the competition is likely to start investing in.

For Huffman Trucking, the desktop productivity software chosen is one created by Safefreight. Safefreight has created a very intuitive software interface that provides their clients with the functionality to create and modify business rules for event and alert monitoring and response, asset reporting, and geo controls such as geo-fencing as well as fleet productivity report generation.

Geo-fencing is the process where users enter into the system a location or landmark, as well as the radius parameters to create a circular geo-fence. When vehicles, either enter or exit the area, Safefreight’s software will record the date and time that the vehicle crossed the geo-fence. With geo-fencing, managers can easily, and quickly, pinpoint vehicles that venture into and out of the unauthorized area (Networkcar, 2006).

Above is a picture that demonstrates geo-fencing: (Networkcar, 2006)

Safefreight also offers a two-way mobile messaging system that will allow their clients to be able to communicate remotely with their fleet assets, security contacts or other partners.

SmartFleet TM Manager is the first fleet management software developed for both the management, as well as, the security of fleet assets.

Some of the features include:

• A browser-based client portal that is accessible from any internet enabled computer or device at any time, from anywhere in the world.

• A fleet window that can be sorted into different hierarchical groups that can be based on a client’s existing structures, thus allowing clients to organize and create profiles for fleet, sub-group, and lone assets by region or distribution centers.

• Based