3 Reasons to Invest in Supply Chain Visibility Software

Whether the budget is held by IT, Logistics or Transportation, no one has unlimited dollars. So when supply chain leaders evaluate potential technology investments, they are typiy trying to distinguish the nice-to-have technologies from the need-to-have solutions. In a period of resource constraints and increasing overhead costs – combined with increasing pressure to stay competitive and create real differentiation – these are critical decisions to be making.

At the end of the day, it’s a pretty classic return-on-investment conversation and evaluation. In my experience, after a few decades in senior leadership roles at enterprise software companies serving global companies, it boils down to three overarching evaluation criteria: (1) Can you quantify the value?; (2) How soon will I start to realize a return?; and (3) How sure am I that this partner can deliver?

When evaluated against these straightforward criteria, supply chain visibility falls squarely in the need-to-have category – and it has the added bonus of helping customers get more out of their existing investments in supply chain technology. Here’s how.You Can’t Do Business in the Dark

TMS Will Only Shed So Much Light
As with so many things, the devil is in the details. Businesses often miss out on realizing true, comprehensive, real-time supply chain visibility because they think their transportation management system (TMS) or other enterprise systems have the deep multi-modal and international visibility functionality today’s businesses need. This simply isn’t the case.

Ease of Implementation = Immediate Time-to-Value

• How do we increase customer satisfaction?
• How do we use our own data to help us make better decisions?
• How do we improve on-time performance?
• How do we reduce penalties and detention costs?
• How do we reduce labor costs?
• How do we improve carrier performance?
• How do we reduce inventory?
• How can we reduce unplanned expedites?

With so many of the world’s leading shippers (250 and counting), 3PLs and their carrier networks on the FourKites visibility platform, we have been able to track and validate tangible customer returns in each of the above areas.

For example, improving on-time performance leads directly to reduced penalties and prevents loss of shelf space and a corresponding loss in revenue. FourKites customers routinely achieve 15%-20% savings from better on-time performance. Dynamic ETAs based on real-time traffic and weather information have an immediate positive impact on staffing and warehouse optimization. And temperature tracking translates into savings via fewer spoiled products and higher customer satisfaction.

Case in point? One of our shipper customers has recently shaved $600,000 off of annual penalties (a ~22% reduction) and saved about $500,000 per year in inventory costs on safety stock. Most of our customers are typiy tracking loads just a few months after implementation – a highly accelerated time frame compared to most enterprise solutions, and one of the key benefits of implementing a cloud-based platform.

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We understand the business imperative to invest your limited dollars wisely. FourKites is technology-agnostic, and works with your existing platforms to harness your data to drive maximum returns and efficiencies across your supply chain. With a straightforward implementation process and near-immediate improvements and savings across your operations, real-time freight visibility has moved well beyond the nice-to-have category to become a supply chain must. Faced with increased competition across the board, true end-to-end, real-time global visibility is the foundational layer to create real differentiation for your business.