CTSI stays competitive by adapting to client needs

The Memphis Daily News/The Memphis News

Dec. 7, 2013

It might take a freight train to hold all of the services offered by CTSI-Global, the Memphis-based global supplier of supply chain management expertise and technology to the logistics industry.

With innovative technology and offices located worldwide, CTSI works with shippers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) to manage their business through a database 150 terrabytes strong.

Those services include freight audit and payment, rate negotiations, logistics management, claims management, benchmarking and consulting.

Phillip Mashburn is senior vice president of information technology operations for CTSI-Global, a Memphis-based global supplier of supply chain management.

(Photo: Andrew J. Breig)

As an example, Technicolor has a facility in Southaven that distributes 10 million DVDs a year for clients such as Paramount, Disney and Universal, which are also clients of CTSI.

“So every time they have a new DVD rollout, on a Tuesday, we help facilitate the shipments through our TMS software; we track every shipment and then we process it, pay it and put it into a massive data warehouse for them,” said Ken Hazen, president and CEO of CTSI.

That data warehouse is backed up in a real-time offsite disaster recovery location in Atlanta, the same used by other giants such as Google, offering a greater level of protection for clients.

The key to success has been in staying ahead of the game. For CTSI, Hazen says, this means “being 18 months ahead of our clients and the industry on new software, new development, new technology. … It’s whoever can be the most innovative.”

Much of this innovation for CTSI began with the Y2K panic of the late 20th century, prompting a new system and the company reinventing itself. This involved Web-based TMS software that offered clients one of 10 modules for improving their operations, whether load consolidation, shipment execution or tracking of shipments, along with the core business of auditing and paying freight bills . . . (read more)