This commentary appeared in the print edition of the Jan. 6, 2020, Journal of Commerce Annual Review and Outlook.
Shippers are living in a world where supply chain success requires more expertise, information, and technology than ever before. Deep, high trust partnerships, coupled with technological advancements, are critical to unlocking supply chain performance. Transplace’s investments in technology, data science, engineering, and operational process improvements are all geared toward this end. One key area of focus for Transplace continues to be around the enablement and leverage of our network data — in essence, a platform for insights, visibility, and network leverage.
While yesterday’s world was all about shipper-specific optimization and transportation management system (TMS) applications, today’s world enhances those applications with digital platforms that leverage all shipper and carrier data towards an optimal state for all network stakeholders. The digital platform enables the community to more efficiently match demand with supply, execute continuous moves in a transparent and automated way, and deliver network-based business intelligence and analytics about capacity, rates, on-time delivery, and other metrics. The benefits are manifold, but they include improved capacity utilization, optimized inventories, reduced detention times, and overall increased operational efficiency.
We believe that by eliminating data silos and integrating and harmonizing data across internal and external players, Transplace is delivering a platform that enables optimization, decision-making, and collaboration across all stakeholders.