TMW Unveils New Web Version of IBM i-Based TL2000 Trucking App

October 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

TMW Systems last month took the wraps off a swath of new products during its annual user conference in Anaheim, California. Among the new products unveiled was a new edition of its core IBM i-based dispatching application called TL2000 Web Edition, which was developed using technology from Profound Logic. The company also updated its TMWSuite and TruckMate dispatching apps, and shipped new releases of its routing and business intelligence solutions.

For better or for worse, 5250 green screens are synonymous with IBM i ERP systems. But with the launch of TMW’s TL2000 Web Edition, even old-school trucking firms will be able to manage their operations from the relative new-school comfort of a Web browser.

TMW says the new screens, which were developed using Profound Logic’s Profound UI technology, “transform the character-based IBM i application with highly configurable screens, point-and-click mouse support, new dashboard views, and mapping visualization.”

TL2000 is one of two core IBM i-based dispatching applications owned by TMW (which itself is now owned by geo-positioning solution provider Trimble), the other being the Innovative IES solution. TMW also sells a product called TMT Fleet Maintenance-IBM i that (as its name suggests) runs on the platform that is still widely used by the nation’s largest trucking firms.

Interestingly, Profound announced that its technology was being used with these three products–TL2000, Innovative, and TMT Fleet Maintenance-IBM i. However, TMW only announced the new Web-ified version of TL2000 at TMW’s Transforum show in Anaheim two weeks ago.

Ray West, TMW VP and GM, signified that the new Web-based versions of the IBM i products were forthcoming two weeks ago. “The Web Editions of the Innovative, TL2000 and TMT Fleet Maintenance-IBM i applications go beyond anything possible on terminal emulators and offer our customers greater control, flexibility and more functionality than ever before with easier training of new personnel,” West stated in a Profound Logic press release.

TMW did, however, make several other product announcements at the show, including several new modules in the Windows-based TMWSuite, new features in TruckMate 2013, and a new release of the Appian DirectRoute routing tool. It also announced a new release of the TMW Data Warehouse, which extends the Visual Utilization for Transport Analytics functionality to the IBM i-based Innovative IES product family. It also announced the capability to combine content from multiple products, including TMWSuite, Innovative, TMT Fleet Maintenance-SQL and other sources into in a single report.