In the local heroes’ network
TMS solution as the key to international cooperation between medium-sized logisticians. Digitalisation is advancing rapidly even in the logistics industry – which was long considered conservative. One of the drivers of this development is the family-owned company Riege Software from Düsseldorf. Its TMS product ‘Scope’ offers solutions for business processes in air and sea freight and customs clearance operations, as well as facilitating international collaboration between users.
The key words are people and networks. At Riege Software’s event in Munich in mid-May, CEO Tobias Riege put forward a thesis that you might not necessarily expect from a digitalisation company.
“Humans remain the central element of success in software development too – but in a network.” The latter is based on the conviction that, when bringing together the requirements of strong medium-sized enterprises and niche providers in logistics, standard solutions can be developed. “Many of our more than 700 customers are local heroes,” the CEO continued. The strengths of many SMEs in logistics can be united internationally through suitable digital foundations and cooperation in trusted networks, he underlined.
Riege Software’s central in-house TMS product is called ‘Scope’. It’s a cloud-based software programme for air and sea freight operations, as well as customs clearance activities. It can be used by freight forwarders, airfreight enterprises as well as industrial customers. Interfaces to platforms such as Inttra or Champ are also part of the overall concept.
Looking beyond Europe
The company started business in 1985, when it was founded by the sibling’s father Johannes. In the meantime, three of his sons and daughter Anna have taken over.
“For 16 years now we’ve been working on digitising time-intensive processes, removing the isolation of systems from each other and enabling paperless communication,” said chief technology officer Christian Riege, outlining individual development steps. How to use the system is taught in Scope Academy webinars, with trained forwarding agents taking on the role of trainers.
The firm’s outlook is global; Tobias Riege sets the tone. “We’re established in Europe; now we want to push into further markets in America and Asia.”
Riege relies on the network of existing customers and on the quality of its products and sales teams (see also page 5). “We can handle complexity,” Christian Riege emphasised. In addition to three locations in Europe, the firm is also present in the USA and Mexico.