Transportation Bid Selection Tool
Client: 
Alix Partners
Team: Matthew Hale
Faculty advisor: Dr. Barr Year: 2008
Documents: Final report, final presentation
The main goal of this project was to create a tool that would assist midsize companies in their selection of transportation bids. The tool needed to be easy to use, scalable, reusable, and distributable. In order to accomplish these goals, Microsoft Access was selected as the platform to handle the back-end tasks. By developing a clean front-end for Access, we were able to meet the ease of use requirement while harnessing the power of Access to scale and be reusable.
The opening screen of the tool presents a very simple, clean interface with buttons numbered 1 through 4. By clicking these buttons in order, the user accomplishes the tasks necessary to create a finished report. The first button allows the user to import historical data. The import screen will provide information on how to format data for import, and will also allow the user to open an example file in Excel. After importing the historical data, the user selects number 2, which allows him to import the data for the shipping lanes, the bids themselves, and the bidder information.
After importing all of these items, the user clicks number 3 to exclude bids and set the selection options. Finally, the user selects 4 to run his reports. On the report selection screen, the user is offered selected bids by lane and by bidder, as well as historical lane statistics and a cost comparison of this year’s linehaul costs to those of previous years. The tool is distributable because it has a secure area access by clicking on the Alix icon
and entering a password. In this area, the company name (“Float N’ Joy” in the example) can be entered, and the type of time-in-transit consideration can be selected. Alix can then redistribute the set-up version of the tool to a client.