Ruan and Ivy College of Business celebrate 10-year partnership

Ruan, a premier provider of integrated supply chain solutions, and the Iowa State University Ivy College of Business celebrate 10 years of partnership.

In 2014, Ruan leadership, in collaboration with Ivy, launched a program through which supply chain management students get access to and gain proficiency in using the Oracle Transportation Management Suite (OTM) and Fusion Transportation Intelligence software. OTM, the leading global transportation management software, is a web-based platform that delivers several core transportation and logistics capabilities, including system architecture, order management, optimization and planning, freight audit and payment, report analysis, and more.

The partnership between Ivy and Ruan marks the first time OTM was embedded into a college curriculum.

In addition to facilitating the procurement of an educational license with Oracle, Ruan also provides its own OTM experts as guest lecturers for Ivy’s Supply Chain Management 461 Principles of Transportation classes. Each semester, a team from Ruan visits the classroom to introduce students to OTM and walk them through the entire lifecycle of an order, from how an order gets optimized, turned into a load, tendered, and executed to visibility, freight auto-pay, business intelligence reporting, and more. As part of the partnership, Ruan offers counsel to business professors, shared data and other metrics, and provides expert speakers for university career fairs and events.

“These students were already ahead of the curve as they chose to attend ISU, one of the best supply chain programs in the country. Ruan is honored to have a hand in creating curriculum that includes Oracle Transportation Management, which sets graduates apart to an even greater degree.”

— Marty Wadle, Ruan Chief Commercial Officer

Bill Rose, assistant professor of supply chain management who teaches the business course, said, “Students work hands-on to run through the full project and learn how to route the vehicles, how to look for those different constraints, and how to grab data from what they’re doing. This gives them a competitive advantage when they land their first job because they’ll be comfortable with the process and the flow of data and how that data is used.”

Ruan’s involvement in the program is based on a long-running relationship between the company and Iowa State. Ruan Chief Commercial Officer Marty Wadle, who spearheaded the program with Oracle and the college, is an Iowa State supply chain management alumnus and serves on the Ivy College of Business Supply Chain Forum.

“Over the past 10 years, Ruan has worked with thousands of supply chain management students, giving them hands-on experiential learning in TMS optimization, tender, execution, visibility, freight pay, and business intelligence reporting,” Wadle said. “These students were already ahead of the curve as they chose to attend ISU, one of the best supply chain programs in the country. Ruan is honored to have a hand in creating curriculum that includes Oracle Transportation Management, which sets graduates apart to an even greater degree.”

Joe Meek, a business analyst for Ruan’s integrated solutions department, can personally attest to the value of the course.

“Through live demonstrations and user exercises, I gained practical knowledge of how a Transportation Management System (TMS) can effectively solve complex transportation problems,” said Meek. “As someone deeply interested in technology’s role in SCM, working within OTM showcased its potential to provide an effective and efficient means of generating value for companies involved in goods transportation.”

Ruan looks forward to continuing this partnership and educating the next generation of supply chain professionals.