transportation visibility Archives

The Counter to Constant Supply Chain Volatility Is Pervasive Visibility and Industry Collaboration

Supply Chain Visibility | By Mathew Elenjickal • 09/28/2021

For more than a year, global supply chains have been buffeted by one major disruption after another. The surging Delta virus, devastating floods in China and Germany and cyber attacks on South African ports are amongst the latest in a series of events that continue to send shock waves throughout the system.

The impact? Raw materials are in short supply, many manufacturers have temporarily mothballed production lines, transportation costs are rising, and labor is getting tight on our roadways, railways and ocean vessels. We will certainly be feeling the repercussions throughout a bumpy holiday shopping season — and beyond.

In light of all of this, I’d posit we can no longer look at the events of the last year as an aberration. Supply chain management is now synonymous with “volatility management”. So how do we adjust to this new reality?

If you’re Home Depot, you reserve an entire ship for your own exclusive use. Don’t get me wrong — I applaud Home Depot management. It’s a creative and gutsy move at a time when there aren’t many great options for shippers. But it’s no formula for long-term success, and not every shipper can afford it.

Digital transformation is the formula. And for our global supply chains, that transformation cannot happen fast enough.

Real-time transportation visibility platforms tell shippers and their broker/carrier partners where their freight is at any point on its journey. Using AI and predictive analytics, we make it possible to anticipate and mitigate the impact of disruptions and delays, whether from bad weather, port shutdowns or overloaded distribution centers.

There is now a robust and growing market for real time transportation visibility solutions, which help shippers, carriers and the entire ecosystem run more cost-effective and efficient logistics operations. But we have to go further.

It’s no longer sufficient to only know where products are while in transit. We should know how much product is sitting in the port of origin. We should be able to see, with the click of a button, how much product is at the port of destination. And what is sitting in the warehouse. And at the cross-dock. And in the rail car. Until we have this kind of pervasive visibility, inventory management will continue to be largely an exercise in futility.

Real-time visibility into “static goods” — wherever they may be — is the foundation for managing through volatility. From there, we can upgrade supply planning systems, streamline procurement, revamp warehousing and distribution and, perhaps most importantly, enable collaboration across vast networks of supply chain partners to keep goods flowing.

We’ve seen firsthand the many positive effects of collaboration based on real-time transportation visibility data, as partners and even competitors — working off of one source of the truth — find efficiencies that benefit multiple partners. The ROI will only multiply with visibility into supplies and goods from end to end. It’s easy to foresee, for example, smaller importers and startups pooling their interests to more effectively compete against larger players, in much the same way ShipBob has empowered smaller ecommerce companies to create leverage together.

It’s clear that volatility is here to stay, and that every tremor affects different parts of the supply chain in many different ways, far into the future. Pervasive real-time visibility and collaboration are our best bets to manage through the uncertainty.

Matt Elenjickal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FourKites. He founded FourKites in 2014 after recognizing pain points in the logistics industry and designing elegant and effective systems to address them. Prior to founding FourKites, Matt spent 7 years in the enterprise software space working for market leaders such as Oracle Corp and i2 Technologies/JDA Software Group. Matt has led high-impact teams that implemented logistics strategies and systems at P&G, Nestle, Kraft, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Tyco, Argos and Nokia across North America, Western Europe and Latin America. Matt is passionate about logistics and supply chain management and has a keen sense for how technology can disrupt traditional silo-based planning and execution. Matt holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, an MS in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He lives in Chicago.

A new path forward in supply chain technology

Guest Commentary | By Glenn Jones • 08/26/2021

Supply chain is an industry slow to change. Large shippers still use Excel spreadsheets to plan their operations, and even the most beneficial logistics technology is sometimes looked at warily. If it isn’t broken, these stakeholders reason, there’s nothing to fix.

Logistics isn’t alone in this hesitancy to embrace technology, but the benefits of injecting agility into current processes, creating automatic procedures instead of relying on manual work, and streamlining operations can be profound. The evolving logistics issues brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, increasing port congestion and the continued acceleration of significant and devastating weather events are wreaking havoc on supply chains around the globe. Logistics technology brings agility, orchestration and advanced planning into the mix, so stakeholders can weather the current supply chain issues and react quickly to opportunities and disruptions as they appear.

In the current supply chain technology community, companies have focused on TMS applications, but it is no longer enough to simply integrate transportation processes and technologies in a TMS. Stakeholders need agile solutions to handle the speed and volatility of the “new normal.” Transportation’s explosive growth, the complexity of the networks and frequent capacity constraints have created an environment that requires a true digital operating platform for transportation.

Supply chain technology that is “beyond TMS” adds an array of necessary components. Agility allows stakeholders to make changes on the fly, correcting shipment plans to overcome logistics disruptions and take advantage of opportunities. Users should also be able to access a carrier network to find cost effective capacity when needed. Finally, users should be able to focus on the sustainability of their transportation choices starting with the order.

An easy way to think of it is the system should be able to use any system to plan, track and adjust. The planning stage means that users can plot routes using variable lead times, cost implications and intelligent historical data, monitoring changes as the scheduled ship date approaches. Tracking seems straightforward, but it’s important to make sure any technology offers end-to-end visibility and continuously updated ETAs that check that orders are traveling on time, providing notifications when orders may be late or early. The adjust metric should allow users to make corrections to shipments, viewing recommended alternate modes, carriers, service levels and routes to bring shipments back on track.

The convergence of TMS and logistics visibility is here. Working without that convergence creates a yawning gap between the capabilities of standard TMS applications and the latest shipment visibility capabilities. Supply chain planning and adaptability to logistics disruptions is the major challenge facing the global supply chain.

COVID changed everything. Visibility became so much more important, and it became clear that shipment transparency wasn’t all that was needed: visibility must stay tied into execution, all the way back to the order, so stakeholders not only always know where their goods are, but they can change course as needed. Visibility and execution working in tandem gives supply chains agility; efficiency is no longer enough.

Technology can help drive mission-critical goals that apply to every supply chain stakeholder. Supply chain orchestration can help remove waste from the global supply chain, streamlining processes while enabling agile reactions to logistics problems. This waste reduction plays into the quest toward a greener supply chain, a goal that will become even more pressing in the years to come. This can all be achieved by linking supply chain stakeholders together on a global, neutral platform that allows all parties to share a cloud-based single version of the truth. But this link can’t simply consist of the major transportation and logistics players; to truly achieve the next level of supply chain technology – agility, optimization and visibility all rolled into a single platform – even the smallest trucking companies and logistics firms need to be involved. Democratizing technology for the mom-and-pop transportation companies adds their capacity to the system, propping up the supply chain ecosystem while it allows them to compete on a global level.

To become part of the next wave of supply chain technology, stakeholders should look for a multimodal digital operating platform transforming the transportation management system status quo.

Glenn Jones is global vice president of product strategy and marketing for carbon-neutral supply chain technology provider Blume Global. He has a proven track record of growing businesses by building and leading R&D and product marketing organizations to define, develop, position and sell highly innovative and high value enterprise solutions delivered in the cloud. He was formerly the COO of Sweetbridge, the CTO of Steelwedge Software and also held leadership positions at other supply chain software companies including Elementum, E2Open and i2 Technologies.

The Importance of Transportation Visibility

Supply Chain Visibility | By Chris Cunnane • 07/28/2021

I am working on my latest Transportation Execution and Visibility Systems study, which looks at the total size of the market, the forecasted growth through 2025, and the leading suppliers across a number of categories including industry, region, customer size, and mode. As I mentioned in an earlier post on the growth drivers for the Transportation Management Systems market, transportation visibility tools are one of a number of technologies that are improving performance and helping to reduce freight spend.

Visibility solutions are becoming more necessary. The need to know where products are, whether they are on the way to the warehouse, store, or customer, is critical to ensure a positive experience. The rise of visibility solutions at the container level is helping to drive the transportation execution market to new heights.

Real-time visibility tools are often thought of as an over-the-road technology. In this case, the visibility is based on integration to truck carrier’s systems. The carriers in turn are tracking the ELD devices on their trucks or by a downloadable app that the driver puts on his smart phone. There are a variety of external data streams that also play a role in providing better visibility and improved ETAs. Companies are partnering with data aggregators to get a better idea of when shipments will arrive. This includes port data, social media, news, event and weather (SNEW) data, weather data (to some degree), traffic data, and other available sources to provide an accurate ETA to warehouses, stores, and end consumers.

Transportation visibility is clearly not only for trucks. However, the nuances and granularity of the data will vary depending on the mode. Ocean ETAs, for example, are much different because the macro-factors are a lot different than over the road. These include currents and wind speeds, which play a major role in the overall transit times. The majority of ocean shipments go through trans-shipments, or stopovers, meaning that the journey is more than just port to port. The route can easily change based on a variety of factors, but it will still keep the same trans-shipment locations. These changes can add significant time to the ETA.

For over-the-road shipments, getting bumped to the next truck can add a day or two to the overall transit time. For ocean cargo, however, if a shipment gets bumped to the next ship, it can add up to 15 days to the transit time. For ocean cargo, there are multiple sources feeding into ETAs, including the initial Captains ETA as well as ASI data from ship transponders. Ocean visibility takes berthing times, when the container will offload, when it will clear customs, and when it will get to the next part of transport and to a DC into the overall ETA. These factors make ocean ETAs more complex and less granular, when compared to over-the-road.

Air cargo visibility is also becoming a more important aspect of overall transportation visibility. This is due to the limited capacity on trucks and boats as capacity has shrunk and demand has surged. It is a lot harder for many companies to find capacity on boats. The result is air cargo has rebounded to levels that are on par with the pre-Covid economy. Air cargo is also easier for predictive ETAs based on the network and speed of transportation when compared to ocean cargo.

There are a number of technologies that are enhancing transportation visibility systems. The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving interest in the market. For a truer ETA, companies are using IoT data from trucks to get a better understanding of driver behavior, such as typical driving speeds and times, as well as how they operate in heavily congested areas. Companies can take sensor data from trucks and incorporate hours of ser-vice rules to know when, where, and for how long a driver needs to stop. These applications also understand that where and when the driver stops will have an impact on the ETA. This is especially true if drivers stop before a major city and will have to endure rush hour traffic once they start driving again.

Blockchain is important for specific industries. This technology is all about a digital ledger(s) as it applies to a chain of custody. For pharmaceuticals, this is a critical component of transporting goods throughout the supply chain. Most pharmaceutical companies have a small window to get products from point A to B, without any changes in temperature. Blockchain monitors have access to the temperature data and whether that changes between modes. This will be especially important when a COVID-19 vaccine is manufactured and distributed.

Finally, machine learning is becoming increasingly important in transportation visibility systems. The most notable application is generating a more informed and up-to-date ETA for shipments. Machine learning is working with real-time visibility solutions to learn more about constraints (such as capacity, regulations, and hours of service) and then using that information to give a much better ETA for shipments to warehouses, stores, and end customers.

The Transportation Execution and Visibility Market Heats Up

Supply Chain Visibility | By Chris Cunnane • 01/13/2021

I recently completed my latest study on the transportation execution and visibility solutions market. Transportation execution allow shippers to connect to multiple carriers and then tender, track, and pay in the system. Visibility solutions allow real-time asset tracking across the entire distribution network. This enables improved estimated arrival times of goods. These solutions do not include load board solutions or systems with optimization capabilities.

The market is continuing to grow at an impressive rate. Visibility solutions are becoming more necessary. The need to know where products are, whether they are on the way to the warehouse, store, or customer; it is critical to ensure a positive customer experience. The rise of visibility solutions at the container level is helping to drive the transportation execution market to new heights.

When looking at the market, technology is at the forefront of the major trends. Today, it’s all about the data. Companies are partnering with data aggregators to get a better idea of when shipments will arrive. This includes port data, social media, news, event and weather (SNEW) data, weather data (to some degree), traffic data, and other available sources to provide an accurate ETA to warehouses, stores, and end consumers.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving interest in the market. For a truer ETA, companies are using IoT data from trucks to get a better understanding of driver behavior, such as typical driving speeds and times, as well as how they operate in heavily congested areas. Companies can take sensor data from trucks and incorporate hours of ser-vice rules to know when, where, and for how long a driver needs to stop. These applications also understand that where and when the driver stops will have an impact on the ETA. This is especially true if drivers stop before a major city and will have to endure rush hour traffic once they start driving again.

When looking at the key factors contributing to growth are the following, special attention needs to be paid attention to the following.

E-commerce

The continued growth of e-commerce is putting more emphasis on last mile deliveries, and parcel execution is becoming more important. This is especially true as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in e-commerce. This also means that companies need more visibility into where products are, for a more accurate ETA. The rise of e-commerce has also made the economy more global in nature. This is turn has led to the need for consolidation and de-consolidation of shipments in an efficient manner. Transportation execution and visibility solutions can provide these efficiencies. E-commerce is also leading to a more open marketplace. Many manufacturers have seen that they can profit from selling directly to customers, rather than using retail channels like in the past. This is placing a bigger emphasis on parcel shipping and driving significant growth.

Return on Investment

Transportation execution and visibility solutions can lead to the selection of lower priced, higher service level carriers. The automation can decrease workloads in the transportation department. Visibility can increase service levels for customers, which increases revenues. In addition, parcel solutions have new features and functions that can be used to increase e-commerce sales.

Capacity Fluctuations

The often-reported driver shortage is not a problem that is going to disappear. However, the bigger issue is the continued shift in available capacity, which continues to be fragmented. The changing nature of capacity means shippers need access to capacity ahead of demand. Capacity is likely to continue to tighten as e-commerce continues to grow amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Types of Carriers

The emergence of digital freight matching services and crowdsourced last mile deliveries has opened up a whole new kind of carrier. Moreover, for larger packages, LTL carriers have begun to move into the parcel space. For last mile, the drivers are no longer just delivery persons; they are putting items together, taking away packaging when they leave. All this requires an additional level of efficiency from shippers and carriers.

Improved Technology

Machine learning is becoming increasingly important in transportation execution systems. The most notable application is generating a more informed and up-to-date ETA for shipments. Machine learning is working with real-time visibility solutions to learn more about constraints (such as capacity, regulations, and hours of service) and then using that information to give a much better ETA for shipments to warehouses, stores, and end customers.

FourKites Visibility 2020: Setting the Stage for Success

Learning & Leadership | By Chris Cunnane • 09/23/2020

As I’ve mentioned a few times here, COVID-19 has changed the nature of my job. Two weeks ago, instead of traveling to an in-person event, I joined the FourKites Visibility 2020 conference from the confines of my home office. The conference was an excellent event, with a clear message of how the company is moving forward during the current pandemic, a vision of what is to come, and a number of customer success stories.

FourKites is all about visibility. And at FoutKites Visibility 2020, it showed the importance of end-to-end visibility across the entire supply chain. Just a few short months ago I interviewed FourKites CEO Matt Elenjickal about COVID-19 as a growth driver for visibility solutions. He said that “supply chain disruption caused by COVID is leading to the need for more transparency. It is one thing to know where the trucks are, but what am I going to do with that data? Who do I contact if something goes wrong? Customers are looking for visibility across the entire supply chain; they want to know where their products are across the entire network at any time. This could be in a warehouse, on a truck, or in the yard. They even need to know where an item is at the SKU level, and this is not easy to pull off without years and years of research and development. The public perception is that these visibility solutions seem very simple. But they are not. They require density and a network to make it happen. Solutions that do not have the density and a network will not last.”

At FourKites Visibility 2020, Mr. Elenjickal kicked off the event by highlighting that 2020 was a year unlike any we’ve ever seen before. In a span of six months, global supply chains faced disruptions from COVID-19, social unrest, extreme weather, and a driver shortage. In the face of these disruptions, he shared his vision for the future of supply chain visibility. The quote above was echoed in his remarks as he described building what he called an “adaptive, global, interconnected” supply chain of the future. He broke down each of these – adaptive, global, and interconnected – into three main components.

Adaptive Supply Chain

Intuitive tools: the key was to make them easy to consume by various stakeholders. This was necessary to make sure excessive training was not required. Additionally, the tools can be customized based on an employee’s role.
Data exactly when you need it: time was not wasted providing a glut of data. Instead, the platform only provides the data customers need when they need it.
Actionable insights: if the customer cannot act on the data, it is of no use to them.

Global Supply Chain

A “single pane of glass” for door-to-door visibility: this is an end-to-end view of an order from the origin door to destination. It brings in the company’s latest Purchase Order integration tool.
ETAs: in order to give accurate ETAs, the platform needs to stitch together multiple modes in a seamless and real-time manner.
Double international team: FourKites is actively expanding its global team to new regions, with a focus on Europe and Latin America.

Interconnected Supply Chain

Dynamic yard management acquisition: this brings together transportation and warehousing to improve the flow of goods at a warehouse.
New features: the platform is expanding its capabilities, including a new chat feature that connects all relevant stakeholders.
The network: FourKites is expanding its network to include new partners across a variety of technologies and modes.

According to Mr. Elenjickal, the entire vision for the future of end-to-end visibility relies on the interconnected supply chain. In the next section I will touch upon some of these advances in more detail.

FourKites Visibility 2020: Product Vision & Roadmap

A second presentation that I found interesting at the FourKites Visibility 2020 conference was the product vision and roadmap session presented by Priya Rajagopalan, Chief Product Officer at FourKites. In this session, Ms. Rajagopalan highlighted the three themes that have driven FourKites’ product development over the last year and will continue to do so in the future: collaboration, multi-modal, and dynamic yard and appointment manager. FourKites is pushing for more collaboration with teammates, suppliers, partners, and carriers. This collaboration spans the entire network to ensure more accurate ETAs and better communication from the top down. One of the big features that FourKites has released is its instant messenger which resides in the platform. The instant messenger allows for in-app collaboration. The interesting part is that it doesn’t matter which chat platform you are using – Teams, Skype, etc. – as long as everyone is in in the app, it is seamless.

Ms. Rajagopalan pointed out that multi-modal means true door-to-door visibility. This enhancement has been in the works for a few years but is now live. It provides global end-to-end visibility across road, rail, ocean, air, and yard. Customers receive alerts when a delay within one mode will impact other modes in the transportation chain. This allows FourKites to be proactive in letting customers know about a delay.

Dynamic yard and appointment manager brings together transportation and warehousing. If an incoming truck is late for appointment, the appointment scheduler and yard manager already know it. This capability is enabled by the integration of real-time transportation visibility, appointment management, eDocs gateway, and dynamic yard. In these situations, especially if a truck is going to be more than a few hours late, the customer can try to slot in different appointments in real-time.

From a forward-looking standpoint, the other big piece of the future for FourKites is a big investment in machine learning. Ms. Rajagopalan noted that data science will permeate all aspects of the platform. Two of the more interesting examples she gave were for advanced LTL ETAs and regional trends and disruption. Advanced LTL ETAs enable customers to narrow down the window to as little as four hours for an LTL delivery; often times, the window is 8-12 hours. Regional trends and disruptions relate to delays at border crossings or bridges that will impact a shipment. The customer will automatically receive an alert about the delay and will be able to be proactive in its response.

FourKites Visibility 2020: Customer Success Stories

My favorite part of attending industry conferences is hearing the customer success stories. FourKites Visibility 2020 had plenty of opportunities for customers to share how enhanced visibility has helped their company. In his keynote, Mr. Elenjickal shared a video of an interview he conducted with Joshua Jewett, Chief information Officer at Dollar Tree. Mr. Jewett talked about the impact of visibility on store operations. He said that a typical store only has a handful of associates that work each day; the entire labor budget for the week revolves around when a delivery truck will arrive so the shelves can be re-stocked. Before implementing FourKites, Dollar Tree had very little visibility into where the delivery was. Now, in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, knowing when the delivery is coming has been very valuable, especially when the delivery contains cleaning supplies, masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer. The enhanced visibility enables the company to properly manage store labor for unloading items as well as handling surges in customer volume to stock up on hard-to-find essentials.

Another customer success story was the session Visibility Amid Crisis, featuring Kaitlyn DeSpiegler, Global Transportation Specialist at 3M. Ms. DeSpiegler noted that the COVID response caused huge changes for 3M’s supply chain, accelerating the need for real-time visibility. The company was challenged with more than just a simple demand spike. As a result, 3M’s response required five actions.

Changes in priority of production due to spikes in essential items and a drop-off in non-critical products.
Refitting existing product lines to meet increases in demand.
A heightened focus on certain distribution channels.
Onboard new carriers, both domestically and globally, as they were not all on the FourKites platform.
Increased use of expedited shipping to meet increased customer demand.

With these action items identified, the 3M supply chain team had a plan in place. First and foremost, the company needed reliable, real-time tracking data across modes. The main focus was to get parcel as a mode on the platform. 3M was able to turn this around in under a week to get parcel tracking live. The company also had to prioritize the management of at-risk shipments and specific SKUs. Priority SKUs such as healthcare and personal safety items were tagged and sent to the FourKites team. At this point, 3M worked with the FourKites data science team to pull in those isolated SKUs with the most recent tracking data and put it in to a power BI dashboard to send to all stakeholders. The dashboards helped confirm necessary shipments were delivered to regions in need.

The final piece was improved communication and collaboration up and down the supply chain. The company had lots of requests and asks throughout the supply chain and needed a strong approach to answer questions. Disparate systems become one platform where all stakeholders could get the information they needed, which allowed 3M to be proactive instead of reactive with customer communication.

The final customer success story I want to highlight is from the session Achieving End-to-End Visibility Across Air, Ocean, and Rail, which featured Bryan Kennedy, International Specialist at Kimberly-Clark. Mr. Kennedy said that Kimberly-Clark has a very large export volume and knew one of the greatest struggles was end-to-end visibility. The company had eyesight on when pick-ups occurred but once they left, they lost sight of the shipment and were dependent on steamship lines and freight forwarders for updates. This meant they did not know about port delays or other disruptions. With the FourKites visibility platform, Kimberly-Clark was able to connect the dots with visibility. The company had live visibility to interruptions, such as port congestion, closures, bad weather, among others. Kimberly-Clark could also monitor idle time at hand-off points. In these instances, if there is a significant delay to the time to departure, they can try to get the shipment on a different vessel leaving earlier. Mr. Kennedy also noted that Kimberly-Clark is able to anticipate port delays and congestion that causes additional delays. They can now alert customers and affiliates that they might experience delays.

Mr. Kennedy shared an anecdote about how the company was able to gain visibility on critical assets during the Canadian rail blockade. The company was tracking import loads on rails after unloading at the port. It was notified that there were a lot of strikes that were stopping rail cars. Now, instead of reaching out to steamship line and waiting for a response, Kimberly Clark could filter down to Canadian port of discharge traveling into the United States, and further down into 12 containers that had been delayed. Out of the 12 containers, 8 were stuck in port of Montreal for over a week. Kimberly Clark was able to communicate with planners and give real-time updates for when it would leave the port and when it would be delivered.

Transportation Execution and Visibility Success

Transportation | By Chris Cunnane • 11/06/2019

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article that gave a snapshot of the transportation execution and visibility systems market. In that article, I highlighted the evolving nature of technology and how machine learning, IoT, and blockchain are helping to fuel market growth. I also highlighted the that are contributing to rapid growth, such as the ROI connected to these systems, capacity fluctuations, and e-commerce. In order for the market to continue to grow, buyers and suppliers alike need to have the right strategies in place. This article will highlight a few of these strategies for the buyers and suppliers.

Strategies for Buyers

Research Transportation Execution and Visibility Systems Purchases

This goes without saying, but make sure to do your due diligence when shopping for a transportation execution or visibility solution. This means understanding how that specific solution will meet your changing needs. It also means aligning the individual supplier’s modal strengths with the modes you will need. For example, it does not make sense to purchase a solution that is functionally strong in parcel when your business relies on ocean or air.

ARC offers a supplier section guide for transportation execution and visibility systems that is configurable. The guide offers nearly 100 features and functions. Prospective buyers can delete criteria that do not apply to them, add criteria that are missing, and weight the remaining criteria in a way that best addresses the needs of their business.

Criteria include features related to the technology and architecture of the product, functionality of the product, customer support, product leadership, and complementary products offered by the supplier. The guide contains not only a description of the features and functions, but also a way of measuring from better to worse the robustness of features and functions.

Minimize Customizations

Transportation execution and visibility solutions offered by the leading suppliers are highly configurable. Generally speaking however, there are rarely good reasons to customize the base code. Those customers that do end up paying for the customization experience challenges associated with longer implementations, not to mention difficulties when it is time to upgrade the solution. The return on investment (ROI) from going with the base package is significantly better, even if that means modifying existing processes.

Strategies for Product Suppliers

Enhance Machine Learning

Machine learning is really shaping the visibility side of the transportation execution and visibility market. Machine learning can be used to “learn” about different constraints, such as capacity, regulations, and hours of service to name a few. This learning allows companies to properly plan shipments to meet stringent deadlines. This gives a much better estimated time of arrival for of shipments, to warehouses, stores, and the end customer.

Continue to Look to the Cloud

SaaS solutions are driving the transportation execution and visibility market, accounting for nearly 90 percent of all revenues. This is not a position that is going to change, and suppliers that are still locked into an on-premise model need to embrace the Cloud. While it features the same functionality as on-premise solutions, the cloud offering opens up a larger pool of prospective clients, especially those smaller tier 2 and tier 3 customers that are looking to lower their cost of ownership for a solution.

Focus on the Last Mile

Last mile is the most difficult and most expensive part of the supply chain journey. The growth of e-commerce is only going to make the last mile more important. Parcel solutions are becoming more important for providing efficient deliveries. Better ETAs and better visibility into when orders will arrive are a requirement.

Embrace Capacity Fluctuations

The often-reported driver shortage is not going away. However, the bigger issue is the continued shift in available capacity, which continues to be fragmented. The changing nature of capacity means shippers need access to capacity ahead of demand. Capacity is likely to continue to tighten as the ELD mandate takes full effect, especially with the looming deadline for AOBRD technology to be phased out.

Last Thought

The transportation execution and visibility systems market has seen significant growth over the last few years due to a variety of factors, including the growth of e-commerce, the strong ROI tied to these solutions, the rise of control towers and visibility requirements, capacity fluctuations, and the expansion of e-commerce. Buyers and suppliers need to have the right tool set in order to make the most of the solutions available. Potential buyers need to do their due diligence about the solution, its strengths, and potential shortcomings. Additionally, buyers need to minimize customizations to speed up the implementation and upgrade cycles. Suppliers need to continue to enhance machine learning and look to the cloud. An emphasis on last mile will also be important as the e-commerce market continues to grow. Finally, suppliers need to embrace capacity fluctuations.

A complete analysis of logistics trends, technologies, and services