September 8, 1997

Java For Delivery Courier developing intranet app By Clinton Wilder ackage delivery company RPS Inc. plans to be the second major transportation company to run its business on Java. RPS plans a second-quarter 1998 rollout of Transportation Management System, a Java intranet application that will handle planning, routing, and logistics. It will be used by up to 2,000 employees at 350 locations. RPS hopes to follow the success of CSX Corp., whose Java-based TWS and TWSNet applications handle virtually all of the company's shipping information. RPS, a unit of Caliber System Inc. in Akron, Ohio, says TMS will save $50,000 a day over the company's current paper-based system. "We'll be able to move vehicles more efficiently with fewer people," says Mich ael Hmel, director of IS at RPS in Pittsburgh. "Our employees will be able to see scheduling and routing maps on their screens and make changes dynamically, based on changes in weather, loads, and other factors. It's really a large decision-support system." RPS began developing TMS in the the second quarter. A year is a long development cycle by Java standards, but TMS is large and must be integrated with a logistics-optimization application from Transport Dynamics Inc. in Princeton, N.J., which runs on an IBM RS/6000 SP. The Java app will run on a Sun Microsystems server still to be chosen. RPS considered a client-server platform for TMS, but not for long. "Our IT strategy is to focus on state-of-the-art tools, and we believe Java is it," says Hmel. "We know there are obstacles with something so new, but we think the solutions will come as rapidly as Java has progressed already." Back t o News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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