K.H. Wallien
Market survey on resource planning characteristics for Carmen Systems AB.
Internship,
Report 2001.LT.5511, Transport Technology, Logistic Engineering.
Carmen System AB is a leading company in software products for resource
optimization, specializing in the passenger airline and railway segments
of the transportation industry. These segments will in the following text be
referred to as the current segments. The software enables companies in
the current segments to plan their vehicles and crewmembers in an optimal way
and therefore reduce the operational costs.
With successful marketing and sales strategies, involving graduate
expansion in small steps, the company has accomplished a sustainable
growth in the passed years. Because of possible similarities of other
transportation industry segments with the passenger airline and railway
segments, Carmen Systems AB wants to expand their sales strategies with a
long-term market development strategy involving the introduction of the
complete product family in other transportation industry segments. The
goal has been set to be the worlds leading resource optimization company
for the transportation industry in 2004. Because the transportation
industry in total is a wide concept, the first focus will be on the
following segments, after this referred to as the new segments:
* Freight airline
* Passenger shipping
* Freight shipping
* Freight trucking
* Urban passenger transport
* Express parcel services
To get a first overview of sales potential in a transportation industry
segment, the following information is needed by the management team of
Carmen Systems AB:
- Resource planning characteristics in the new segments: In order to use
the existing products in the new transportation industry segments,
resource planning characteristics in the new segments should have
similarities with resource planning characteristics in the passenger
airline and railway industries.
- Sales potential in the new segments: If similarities have been detected,
it is important to know the sales potential in these segments. Therefore,
information about trends, competition and understanding of resource
optimization software in the new segments is needed.
The goal of this report is to give Carmen Systems AB a first look at the
new transportation industry segments by doing a market survey on resource
planning characteristics and sales potential in these segments. This
survey should result in a proposition for a long-term marketing and sales
strategy for Carmen System AB concerning this market development.
The followed research structure can be summarized as followed:
- Description of resource optimization software products and Carmen
Systems AB as a company (chapter 3).
- Description of the general resource planning problem in the transportation
industry (chapter 4).
- Definition of the resource planning characteristics in the current
segments (chapter 4).
- Current Carmen products description (chapter 5)
- List of needed characteristics for Carmen products (chapter 6).
- Definition of the resource planning characteristics in the new
transportation industry segments (chapter 7).
- Comparison of the resource planning characteristics to the passenger airline
and railway segments (chapter 7).
- Research for sales potential for new segments with all similarities
(chapter 8).
- Concluding the market survey in a marketing and sales strategy for Carmen in
the new transportation segments (chapter 9).
Four conclusions can be made for the sales of the current resource
optimization products of Carmen Systems AB:
- The passenger shipping and freight trucking segments do not have all
characteristics needed for current resource planning products of Carmen
Systems AB and therefore will not be included in the marketing & sales
strategy.
- The freight airlines or freight departments of airlines together with
the airline departments of the express parcel service companies can be
added to the existing client base of the Carmen Systems AB's passenger
airlines.
- The urban passenger transport market is the only new transportation
industry segment clearly ready for the Carmen's resource optimization
products. Competition is not large in number, but strong when it comes to
expertise. Therefore experience in this transportation market needs to be
developed.
- More research on the complexity of resource planning in freight
shipping is needed to define possibilities for the current Carmen products
and therefore the freight shipping segment will not be included in the
marketing and sales strategy.
These conclusions result in the following marketing & sales strategy
proposal:
- Towards the freight airlines or freight departments of airlines together
with airline departments, the strategy should be equal to the current
strategy for passenger airlines. Companies in these segments should be
added to the potential clients.
- The marketing and sales and strategy for the urban passenger transport
segment, should first be focused on getting experience in this segment;
for example by doing pilot projects with companies in the Scandinavian
countries by Carmen Consulting. Secondly, when successful projects have
been completed, the strategy should involve other European urban transport
operators. Emphasis should be on the ability of the Carmen product to have
simulation options and run what-if scenarios and the strong optimization
base in all products.
Reports on Logistic Engineering (in Dutch)
Modified: 2001.09.22;
logistics@3mE.tudelft.nl
, TU Delft
/ 3mE
/ TT
/ LT.