Overcoming Challenges

 

Tim Minnich has been the president of Transworks, a transportation management software company located in Fort Wayne, for 14 years. And in that time, he’s become familiar with success.

“The last 14 years we’ve grown every year,” he said. “We’re now up to nearly 70 employees.”

TransWorks is a team of truck, intermodal, rail and technology industry pioneers that joined together and began operations in 2001.

“Our focus originally was to sell software to large intermodal carriers. And early on we found out that the shipping community wanted a lot of the same functionality we provided to carriers,” Minnich said.

 

The company builds, hosts, and supports all of the software it develops for clients. This software can run nearly every aspect of operations, from pricing to the back office for intermodal trucking (intermodal meaning carriers that work on both rails and roads), to automated communications for shipping companies.

And over the course of the last decade Transworks has continued to identify new markets and develop new products. Three years ago, the company received its first European client, and the last year saw the development of a new software, TimeBlocks, that has revolutionized several aspects of the industry.

 

“For us to be successful, we have to continue to reinvest in our product and be on the leading edge, so that we’re providing functionality that continues to add value to our customers year in and year out.”

This strategy also applies to successful business communities, so Transworks is heavily involved in Greater Fort Wayne Inc. Minnich himself joined a CEO Roundtable, and serves on a graduate retention task force.

“One of the biggest challenges Transworks has is being able to bring people to Fort Wayne,” he said. “So for us we needed a better way to help sell Fort Wayne. That is one of the things Greater Fort Wayne [Inc.] is focusing on with this talent retention program.”

One aspect of GFW Inc.’s talent retention focus is the Fellows program, which connects employers with high potential students for paid internships. Transworks has one such intern from the program, and is “thrilled” with the experience.

 

Minnich sees the program as an exciting and beneficial development for the health of the business community.

“We think the Fellows program is really what employers like Transworks need in this community,” he elaborated. “Something to broaden our footprint in the state and bring in top-quality talent.”

 
 
 
 
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