These systems have been offered with different types of licensing arrangements. The four main offerings are:
On-premises licensing (traditional purchased license)
Hosted licensing (remote, SaaS, Cloud)
On-premises hosted licensing (a blend of 1 and 2)
Hosted - TMS free of licensing (same as 2 but free with no license requirements)
Additionally, some software providers were either acquired or merged with supply chain management consultancies and started offering shippers "blended" managed and software services as an outsourced process. Primary Tier 1 TMS providers are still independent, carrier and 3PL neutral, and ERP neutral. While ERP providers are moving to improve their on-premises transportation management offerings by adding TMS modules to their existing, implemented base, the advent of Software-as-a-Service or "SaaS" delivery resulted in a surge of emerging TMS providers.