All About Upgrades - What to Look for When Upgrading Your Enterprise Yard Management Software

You’ve been hearing the buzz around yard management systems and now it’s your turn to investigate how it would help streamline your yard operations. Based on different scenarios, we want to provide the foundational building blocks you’ll need to know and ask potential YMS providers when considering implementing one, including potential questions to ask, what to expect, and the benefits of using a YMS versus sticking to traditional practices. Most importantly, you want to ensure that your YMS provider has all the upgrades you need in place and a plan of action for a sustainable, efficient future with progressive yard management features.

How to Know When It’s Time to Adopt a YMS or Upgrade Your Yard Management Software

Here are a few examples of when it’s time to start looking for a better yard management system:

• It’s nearly impossible to handle multiple manual processes yourself and you need to implement automations to optimize productivity and maximize yard throughput.
• You’re identifying gaps within the system from the gate to the dock and want to make everything more efficient.
• Your current YMS provider is unavailable to address concerns you may be having, which has caused a considerable number of delays, which is costing you time and money.
• Your current yard management software isn’t up to date with current features and you’re ready for the next best-in-class solution.

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What to Look for in Yard Management Software

The modern world is focused on delivering an all-around digital transformation. When looking into what your yard management software should provide, make sure that it is continuously evolving, upgrading, and changing to keep up with the demands of modern society and where the future is headed. Here are some key features to look for in any yard management software solution:

1. Real Time Visibility on Yard Assets – At the click of a button, your YMS should have the capability to see what is happening across all aspects of the yard, warehouse, and dock, from knowing where trailers are parked, who came in and out of the gate and when, and whether you’re on time or behind schedule. Even the smallest delay could be detrimental to the operations process.
2. Task Optimization – Taking the time to sit down and manually assign tasks is daunting in itself. YMS delivers effective trailer task management, which is key to having an optimized operations system.
3. Dock Scheduling – Having continued visibility of yard assets is one of, if not the main, priority when it comes to yard management. While a YMS moves higher volumes of inventory with fewer assets, utilizing an automated scheduling system to control what is at the dock doors, how long it will be there, and when it will be moved will help optimize throughput and maximize yard capacity.
4. Gate Management – The gate of a yard plays a key role in the security of the facility as well as being the first contact with a driver when they arrive on-site. To facilitate efficient gate throughput, a YMS provides real-time visibility of moving vehicles so you know exactly where each driver is during each phase of the loading/unloading process, not to mention exactly when they checked in, how long they dwelled on the yard, and the moment they check out.
5. YMS Integrations – If you want to experience all that a YMS can do, integrations with a Transportation Management System (TMS) or Warehouse Management System (WMS) would eliminate duplicate data entry and maintain seamless continuity between each system, providing an interconnected, synchronized solution.

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Example Questions to Ask a Potential YMS Provider

1. In terms of ongoing support, how does your team provide assistance if something were to go wrong with the yard management system?
2. Tell me about yard management system integrations, how does it work, and would it be able to integrate with any of my other currently installed software?
3. How does your team take charge in conducting routine software updates to your YMS? How would I be notified if a change was made? If we needed updates, would we experience any downtime in operations?
4. How long would it take to fully implement the YMS? I’m concerned about the downtime that will stop my ability to do business while your team is putting the pieces in place.
5. What would you say makes your company stand out from other YMS service providers? What is your determining factor that separates you from the competition?
6. What is something that your software currently doesn't feature that you are working on improving or adding for future versions?

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Consider the Future of Yard Management Software When Deciding on a Partner

• With the use of drones becoming more inventive and engaging, YMS providers are rolling out new capabilities incorporating advanced technology to help your logistics gain even more visibility than before with drone integrations and other autonomous yard vehicles.
• YMS will take flight with 5G network capabilities, making communication more reliable and faster than ever, no matter where you are in the yard.
• In a “quick convenience” society, YMS takes your time into account. Delays and expansive wait times are a thing of the past.
• Yard management system integrations with other software such as WMS, TMS, or ERP take optimization to the next level as it creates an interconnected communication solution that doesn’t duplicate data and ensures no gaps are found.
• Automations, automations, automations! YMS lets you put down the notepad, delete all the excel sheets, and helps you take control back of managing the yard without having to worry about the nitty gritty tasks. It handles it all for you.

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Don’t Allow Continued Inefficiencies to Ruin Your Yard! Choose YardView as Your New YMS Partner

Why let the constant inefficiencies get you down when there is a provider out there who has your back 24/7? We don’t mess around with customer requests. As an extension of your team, when your operation needs something, we are responsive, there at the ready, every step of the way. YardView provides the most powerful, user friendly, and easiest-to-adopt yard management system on the market today. Our team of YMS experts provide deep analytics and information to our customers; we know what you’re looking for because we know your industry. By enhancing and improving our system every month, we are constantly seeking new opportunities to make the system easier to use or more powerful for the end user — you! We are proud to have served the logistics industry for more than 20 years, and it is a testament to our commitment to what we do well, which is provide the best of breed, easy to use, affordable YMS software that runs 100% well, 100% of the time.

Don’t take our word for it! Schedule demonstration of our yard management software below and see it for yourself.