This commentary appeared in the print edition of the Jan. 6, 2020, Journal of Commerce Annual Review and Outlook.
When people think of technologies that will radically change the way our industry works, some obvious candidates emerge, from autonomous trucking to Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and blockchain, among many other things. I don’t doubt they will each have a profound effect on many aspects of the logistics landscape. However, the fundamental technology that allows the instant transfer of data which will soon enable true end-to-end visibility, full transparency across entire supply chains, and so much more is Application Program Interfaces (APIs).
When freight brands are soon armed with an arsenal of interoperable SaaS tools, instantly available data across all platforms, deep insights, and acute understanding of each fragment of their organization, APIs will be the underlying highways upon which these data flow in and out of every device instantly.
In 2019, we have observed a far greater awareness from both our current and prospective customers of the value and power these modern platforms can deliver, and with the industry giants going all in on digital, I believe we are beyond an inflection point where those not prioritizing a digital agenda — or worse, pretending they have one — are in grave danger of getting left behind, in a future where a “we’ve always done it this way” mentality simply won’t exist.