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Us vs Them

How our services stack up

3PL ManagementCompanies often get trapped into a futile merry-go-round of indecision when they decide they need outside help with their supply chain. Decision-makers in this position — maybe you’re one of them — realize early on that they have four main options:

A big consulting house

DIY with carrier direct

A rate broker

A third-party logistics provider (3PL)

But how to choose?

Around and around you go, weighing features against costs against scalability. Months can wheel by, dizzying hours of thought and research sunk into this one decision. Or worse, your company panics and jumps into the unknown and chooses poorly. And you’re left with a bruised and battered supply chain.

Skip past the merry-go-round

About six inches that way ▼▼▼ you’ll hit a feature-by-feature breakdown of how IL2000 stacks up against your other options. But first, here’s the skim:

Invest in a big
consulting house if you need specialized manufacturing or R&D advice with generic freight analysis.
Fall back on carrier direct if you only ship small packages and don’t need to maximize your shipping efficiency.
Settle for a rate broker when you have a simple supply chain and just want to outsource basic supply chain tasks.
Choose a 3PL if your supply chain issues are complex,
time-consuming, or critical to your business success.

And choose IL2000 in particular if you’re looking for a smart, creative supply chain thought partner with decades of real experience solving the toughest supply chain challenges. We'll bring greater reliability to your whole freight operation, boost your supply chain cost/time efficiency, and show you how to keep your supply chain growing.

Take advantage of our no-obligation supply chain analysis.

Us vs Them

A head-to-head comparison of IL2000

Click on a category for a detailed analysis.

Services Offered_Supply Chain ConsultingBig consulting house

Invest in a big consulting group if you face crosscutting challenges involving R&D, manufacturing, or production. But you won’t be working with supply chain specialists, so you’ll only get a basic supply chain review and you’ll need to drive your own optimization process.

Carrier direct

Carriers can’t help you with supply chain consulting. They don’t troubleshoot or redesign supply chains.

Rate broker

A rate broker’s job is to follow your guidelines. You might get low-level advice from shipment to shipment, but you won’t benefit from deep and strategic insight.

IL2000

IL2000 specializes in supply chain management. We do one kind of consulting, so our team is made up of leading specialists in the field. IL2000 is a logical choice if your supply chain is complex or if you need an intricate deep-dive into customized supply chain solutions.

Start the process with a no-obligation supply chain analysis.

Services Offered_Operations SupportBig consulting house

Expect any kind of ongoing support to be extremely limited. You’re moving well outside of a big consulting house’s preferred business model if you need round-the-clock monitoring or a support model tailored to your unique freight challenges.

Carrier direct

Beyond bare-bones quoting, booking, and tracking tools it’s self-service all the way.

Rate broker

A rate broker is a viable option if all you need is an extra pair of hands to help with the shipment process. You’ll get simple reports, but they may be sufficient if you run a small, cut-and-dried supply chain. You won’t benefit from proactive, door-to-door shipment management. You won’t get guaranteed under 15-minute responses to support questions – because ultimately, a rate broker is just one person checking into an email account.

IL2000

We’re the smart choice if you’re looking for rapid, 24/7 whole-of-supply chain support. (Think everything that goes into making your inbound and outbound happen.) We’re a team of logistics analysts with the connections and tools to support your whole supply chain in real-time.

Talk to IL2000 if your supply chain demands fast, reliable operations support.

Services Offered_TechnologyBig consulting house

The big consulting houses just aren’t in the supply chain software development business. If they do support a proprietary software platform, it’ll be big, unwieldy, and you’ll be forced to shape your supply chain to its workflow rather than the other way around.

Carrier direct

Working directly with a carrier you’ll typically get access to an online tracking platform. But it’s a small business solution at best. The technology offers only rudimentary automated tracking and updates usually lag behind the shipment process – which can be a critical shortcoming if you’re in the business of guaranteeing on-time delivery. As for customized BI solutions? Forget it.

Rate broker

A rate broker might offer you an online portal, but these interfaces will offer you limited to zero scope for deep analysis and reporting. A rate broker can’t come close to offering a full transportation management solution.

IL2000

Our core business is supply chain technology. We own a proprietary transportation management system, fine-tuned through countless supply-chain decisions and exhaustive reality testing. It’s a tool purpose-built to make your supply chain smarter, faster, relentlessly cost-efficient.

Looking for tech that delivers instant shipment visibility and powerful tools for customized supply chain analysis?

IL2000 can equip you with cutting-edge supply chain tools.

Services Offered_Financial Services and ReportingBig consulting house

You can task a big consulting company to audit the cost-effectiveness of your supply chain. However, expect the process to be handled first and foremost as a financial audit. You’ll gain a sense of how your carriers are performing against quoted rates. But you won’t benefit from whole-of-industry supply chain benchmarks. And you won’t end up with deeper insight about how to manage carrier performance or how to mitigate spiraling freight costs.

Carrier direct

This is an analysis-free zone. The closest you’ll get to financial reporting is shipment by shipment invoicing.

Rate broker

A rate broker will be able to help you with consolidated billing. However, you’ll usually receive reports in your rate broker’s pre-baked format. It’ll be up to you to import that data into your financial system. Nor will you see much higher-level analysis such as variance reporting accruals, contract level auditing, or benchmarking. Set your expectations to LOW and proceed with fiduciary caution.

IL2000

We offer comprehensive financial services, auditing, and reporting. More importantly, we’ll make your reports useful. We’ll help you draw critical conclusions, including which of your carriers are underperforming, discrepancies that require deeper investigation, and how your freight operation stacks up against your competition. Also, our development team can integrate TMS and BI tools with your company’s ERP, creating a seamless decision-making environment.

Choose IL2000 for services that deliver supply chain clarity and reports that won’t gather dust.


We’re supply chain specialists. If you’re looking for real answers, schedule a call. We solve the toughest freight and logistics challenges.

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