Patent ID: 6915268

Claim:
An integrated logistics system for managing the shipments of goods supplied from a plurality of different shippers by a plurality of carriers, said system comprising: a purchasing module evaluating proposals by shippers for respective shipments of goods and awarding contracts for the shipments to the plurality of carriers; a contract administration module maintaining information relating to the status of proposals received and contracts awarded by the purchasing module; a scheduling module scheduling shipments according to the awarded contracts; a shipment management module tracking the status of shipments awarded by the purchasing module and scheduled by said scheduling module, said shipment management module including or being connected to a relational database logging and storing the shipment records of said shipments, wherein changes to said shipment records in the first relational database are allowed to be controlled and tracked per audit protocols and the history and changes made to/during a shipment are allowed to be viewed; a financial module authorizing payments according to the status of shipments tracked by the shipment management module; a network configured to transfer information between said shipment management module and at least one module of a group consisting of said purchasing module, said scheduling module, said contract administration module, and said financial module, said at least one module including or being connected to a second database; and at least one computer, said at least one computer connected to said network and configured to execute a computer program of said purchasing module, contract administration module, scheduling module, shipment management module, and financial module, to process said information transferred by said network.