Guide ยท 3PL
Customer portals: buy the portal, build what's behind it
Our customers want a portal. Build or buy?
Buy the portal, build the thing behind it that nobody else has. Most TMS vendors ship a portal that quotes, tenders, tracks and invoices; what customers actually want is that it tells the truth, and that is an integration problem.
ASSUMEDWe assumed a 3PL or brokerage whose TMS vendor offers a customer portal.
Your stack, as you described it
Where people are the glue
- Customers email for status the portal should show
- Quotes typed twice: once for the customer, once in the TMS
Three ways through
- Use what you haveOften enough
Turn on your TMS vendor's portal. If it covers quote, tender, track and invoice, you're done, and the work is making the data behind it reliable.
- ConnectWhat makes it true
Connect the portal (or your biggest customers' own systems) to your TMS, visibility and accounting, so status and invoices show up without a rep in the middle.
- BuildOnly if it's your edge
A custom portal when the customer experience is the business: instant quoting as the brand, a marketplace, a product customers pay for. Prototype first.
What happens next
- A 30-minute look at what your TMS portal already does and which customers would use it.
- If it's a build, a prototype on your data in weeks before any commitment.
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