ploited a niche in the 3PLS market by providing, at first offline service and now online, of an auction process that capitalized on providing premium freight transportation services to a specific automaker, in this case General Motors, that needed to move the 10% of shipments that were either late or of a high enough priority (Applegate et al., p. 175). NLM quickly built a reputation of cost savings and reliability with its one major partner in the automotive industry through awarding a winning bid of providing premium freight transportation to the best qualified bidder based on a combination of price and supplier quality. NLM was able to increase efficiency of the bidding, transportation supplier quality, tracking orders, and maximizing carrier capacity by introducing its internally developed Expedited Management System (EMS) (Applegate et al., p. 177). This service was made available to both online and offline customers and NLM was able to secure a dominant place in its local market revolving around the automotive industry.
             NLM now has managed over 1.3 million shipments among over 200+ manufacturing sites, 6,800+ suppliers, and 300+ ground, air freight, and air charter carriers culminating in special recognition at the 2004 North American International Auto Show by General Motors and SCM (NLM, 2004). While impressive, Scott Taylor, is now faced with the problem of expanding and improving technology in his business, extending his business model beyond just the automotive industry, and prioritizing his Information Technology (IT) investments to keep NLM viable in an increasingly competitive 3PLS market where other Infrastructure Service Providers are expanding beyond there traditional markets in keeping up with the deman
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