Manual Tendering

Oracle Transportation Management supports tendering shipments to service providers who do not accept automated requests via email, fax, message center or EDI. The system now views a MANUAL contact communication method as an alternative means to tender a shipment. If the tendering process determines that the best communication method between planner and service provider is MANUAL, it sets the TENDER CALL shipment status to either TENDER CALL_TENDER (for booked or tendered shipments) or TENDER CALL_PICKUP (for pickup notifications) depending on the mode of the shipment. A tender request is sent out based on the TENDER_MODES workflow parameter; for example, a book request based on BOOK_MODES or a pickup notification based on AUTO_MODES.

Similarly, when such a tender is cancelled, the TENDER CALL status is set to TENDER CALL_CANCEL. The planner can use the Shipment Manager to search for tenders requiring a call. Once the tender requests are made, you can set the TENDER CALL status to TENDER CALL_CALLED via the Change External Status action.

A manual tender now sets up the same data as an automatic tender. Even before any call is made to the service provider, the service provider or planner can access Online Booking/Tendering to accept or decline the tender. Once the shipment is moving, service providers can access Shipment Events to report on the status of the shipment. There is one difference between the manual and automatic tender processes: the system does not set up any tender time out for manual tenders.

Error Handling

Manual tendering is also used to handle problems encountered during automatic tendering. If any error occurs trying to prepare an automatic tendering, the system reverts to using manual tendering for that shipment. Such errors include:

• No agreed upon communication method between the planner and service provider
• More than one communication method between the planner and service provider
• Bad or missing email address on a service provider wanting emails
• Bad or missing fax number on a service provider wanting faxes

Note that these errors still appear in the system logs. To reduce error output and increase performance, we recommend explicitly listing MANUAL communication methods in all planner contacts and in those service provider contacts requiring direct contact.

If any error occurs in the manual tendering process, a SHIPMENT TENDER - FAILED event is raised. Planners or administrators can register interest in this event to get notified of exceptional cases.

Automatic Tender Cancel

When the system tenders a shipment, it automatically cancels any outstanding tenders already associated with the shipment. This creates a problem if the outstanding tender was sent to a service provider requiring MANUAL tender. The TENDER CALL status represents the call state of only the most recent tender. There is no mechanism to inform the planner he needs to contact the previous service provider as well. To address this problem, the system stops any tender request where an outstanding tender needs a manual call to cancel. The tender withdraw process is completed normally, setting the TENDER CALL status to TENDER CALL_CANCEL. The new tender request, however, is not performed. Instead a SHIPMENT TENDER - FAILED event is raised.

Reset the Call State

Following are ways the call state of a shipment may be reset to TENDER CALL_NO CALL:

• The planner can use the Change External Status action in Shipment Manager.
• The planner can change the service provider on the shipment.
• The shipment is cancelled or re-tendered to the service provider after the communication method is changed to something other than MANUAL.

Manual Communication for General Messaging

Oracle Transportation Management currently supports manual communication for the following functions:

• TENDER
• BOOK
• PICKUP
• TENDER CANCEL
• BOOK CANCEL
• TENDER TIMEOUT
• BOOK TIMEOUT