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Tag: visibility

FourKites Named a Gartner Leader

Posted on by Keith McKinley

For the third consecutive year, real-time supply chain visibility company FourKites has been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms (RTTVPs). Gartner evaluated nine vendors for its report, and FourKites received its position as a Leader both for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

FourKites, the largest global visibility solution, tracks over 3 million shipments per day across all modes and connects the global supply chains of 50% of the Fortune 500, including customers in Europe such as Barilla, Henkel, Bayer, Dow, Volvo Group, cargonerds, Spotos and Bacardi. In 2022, FourKites achieved a 70% YoY growth in global customers — totalling over 1,200 — nearly 50% growth in total shipments and 37% growth in connected facilities, the latter of which now total over 3.2 million individual facilities around the world. In Europe specifically, FourKites saw 2x growth in shipments, across 120 countries and territories; 40% growth in European customers; 24% growth in the number of carriers tracking shipments; and nearly 3 billion miles tracked in the region.

“2022 was a year of tremendous growth and acceleration of our business,” said FourKites CEO and founder Mathew Elenjickal. “In addition to growing our shipper and carrier base around the world, we have forged strategic partnerships with industry titans, grown our C-suite with seasoned executives, and continued to innovate with our customers to add meaningful business value to their most critical pain points. We’re proud to be recognised as a Leader yet again by Gartner.”

What Customers are Saying

FourKites continues to earn accolades for its unique customer-driven innovation model; for the maturity of its end-to-end, multimodal platform; and for its unwavering commitment to customer success.

“Supply chain management has become so much easier now,” said a Global Mobility Project Manager, UK, Finance. “Gratification arises from knowing that our cargo has been safely delivered, because FourKites allows our team to keep track of exactly where it is. Having access to the data and analytics that FourKites has supplied has been necessary for decision-making, controlling the items exiting our facility, and efficiently monitoring shipments.”

“As a solution provider, FourKites provides a remarkable coverage and support experience. They are an accelerator of our digital transformation initiatives and a great partner who pro-actively seeks feedback in order to gleam future needs and innovations to their roadmap,” commented a Global Futurist, UK, Software Industry.

A VP of Supply Chain, Services (non-Government) Industry added: “To serve our customers, we need a platform that enables supply chain professionals to act quickly to fulfil their orders. Making decisions, regulating what leaves our facilities, and effectively tracking shipments have all required access to the data and analytics that FourKites has provided. The user interface is relatively simple and adaptable to the needs of each individual user, which makes it quite easy to use. As the product has been so successful in the US, we want to expand it to our offices and affiliates abroad to take advantage of its popularity.”

Leading Industry Innovation

FourKites pioneered the real-time transportation visibility (RTTV) category in 2014 and was the first company to extend real-time visibility across supply chains end-to-end, from yards to warehouses and more. In addition to strategic investments in 2021 from industry heavyweights Qualcomm Ventures, LLC, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Zebra Technologies, FourKites recently has inked strategic alliances with Mitsui & Co., Ltd., FedEx, Quiet Platforms, Sony, Microsoft and Narvar. In addition, FourKites has been recognised for its industry leadership and innovation by SupplyChainBrain, Blue Yonder, Builtin Chicago, Manhattan Associates, and it is one of only four Transportation and Logistics companies to receive Inc.’s Best in Business Award.

Recent FourKites innovations include Sustainability Hub, which provides supply chain leaders with advanced emissions tracking and reporting capabilities; Data Connector, which accelerates time-to-insights by allows customers to automatically access and leverage FourKites data directly within their existing business intelligence tools; and FourKites Connect, which accelerates the carrier connectivity process from hours or even days to just minutes.

The Time for Supply Chain Visibility is Now

Posted on by David Priestman

Supply chain visibility has been a hot innovation topic for more than the last five years, as tracking technology has evolved and more benefits have been identified. But getting past the market hype, what real progress has been made, and what is left to be done to give supply chain and logistics professionals comprehensive visibility to their operations – especially within retail?

To answer this question, as part of a broader innovation study, Descartes, in conjunction with SAPIO Research, conducted a study of 1,000 supply chain and logistics executives in Europe and North America to gain a better understanding of how far innovations in supply chain visibility have been deployed.

The results of the study – Supply Chain and Logistics Innovation Accelerates, But Has Long Way to Go – show that visibility is contending with other major innovation initiatives and is mature in some transportation modes, but also still has a ways to go. There is, however, a significant variance in the length of that journey for companies based upon senior management’s understanding of its importance to the business. This point should not be lost by supply chain and logistics leaders.

Chris Jones (pictured), EVP, Descartes explains, and reveals key findings from Descartes’ recent research.

Contender in a crowded market

Digitisation has received a lot of attention because it’s closely aligned with supply chain and logistics innovation to transform company performance in ways that allow customers to see the positive difference. Supply chain and logistics operations are typically very extensive, and is something most retailers – bricks n’ mortar and ecommerce brands – can relate to. So it’s highly unlikely that companies would have digitisation programmes that address the entirety of their operations, and innovation themes would end up competing for the same resources. Therefore, senior management support is extremely critical to get to the top of the funding list. The study specifically asked if senior management thought that supply chain and logistics innovation was important – or not, and then cross referenced that answer with other questions to see what impact it had.

The research identified the top four digitisation initiatives companies have focused on as order fulfilment (47%), customer experience (45%) and transportation processes (44%) and supply chain visibility (43%). There was little difference in senior management support the for the first three results when evaluating who thought supply chain and logistics innovation was very important – or not. However, there was a significant difference in visibility results when senior management thought innovation was important (51%) compared to those who believe it was less important (30%).

What might be the reason for greater importance of senior management support for visibility innovation versus the others? The subject has been discussed for ages, but more practical deployments, especially for real-visibility, have become a reality in the last ten years. However, the other areas (order fulfilment, customer experience and transportation processes) are more widely understood by leadership and tie to business execution. This is why it is so important to educate senior management on the value of real-time visibility.

Supply Chain Visibility is Important

Given the significant disruptions of the last several years, supply chain visibility has become extremely important to manage supply chain and logistics performance. For senior management who believe innovation is very important, advanced tracking of truckload transportation (47%) was the top fully deployed innovation followed by fleet (45%) and courier (44%). Supply chain visibility is, however, rapidly maturing as between one-third to one-half of the respondents across all modes (i.e., truckload, fleet, courier, air, rail, ocean, LTL and barge) cited technologies in pilot or partial deployment.

Taking visibility information and integrating it into supply chain and logistics processes is where its value is fully exploited. Almost half (49%) of the respondents have already fully integrated real-time shipment tracking into their customer service solution, followed by integration with customer portals (36%), transportation management systems (TMS, 27%), supply chain control towers (23%) and dock appointment scheduling systems (23%). For fully deployed TMS integration with real-time shipment tracking, there was a significant difference between those who said senior management believes supply chain and logistics innovation is very important (34%) and those who think it’s less important (16%). The same was true for real-time shipment tracking integrated with a customer portal, with senior management who regard innovation as very important at 44%, compared to 23% for those who regard it as less important.

Competition

Competition is also shaping supply chain and logistics innovation and raising the importance of visibility. The top competitive innovation respondents cited was real-time shipment location (27%) followed by electric or alternative vehicles for more sustainable delivery (23%), digital customer experience (22%) and robotics to improve fulfilment capacity (21%).

Conclusion

Shipment and delivery visibility has become one of the top supply chain and logistics innovation initiatives as companies look for ways to better serve customers and manage inventory. It is also a differentiator that offers retailers the data and insights needed to a leap ahead of the competition.

While the value may be apparent to supply chain and logistics professionals, it’s not necessarily the case with senior management, and may be challenging for visibility programmes to compete with other innovation initiatives for funding. This is why it’s so important for supply chain and logistics organisations to educate senior management within their retail organisations about the value of visibility and where it can be deployed as it rapidly matures.

Where is your brand in its visibility innovation journey, and how have you gotten your senior management to see the opportunities that exist with it?

Digital twinning is key to supply chain transformation

Posted on by David Priestman

Digital twins are becoming big business, says Toby Mills, CEO of Entopy. But there is still a lot of confusion about what they are, what they do – and why they matter.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or system that spans its lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision-making. It acts as a bridge between the physical and digital worlds. Businesses use digital twins in a variety of ways – from product development to operational performance improvements. Increased digitisation is making it easier to build accurate digital twins and drive adoption of the technology.

For the logistics industry, digital twins open the door to a new way of keeping track of goods moving between different organisations and physical locations. Data from multiple supply chain systems can be captured and combined to create a ‘digital twin’ of a consignment – providing a single data product from which all stakeholders can get the visibility they need.

This novel approach has been made possible by the latest ‘data mesh’ technology, based on distributed architecture for analytical data management. It enables end users to easily access and query data where it lives – without first transporting it to a data lake or data warehouse. Leveraging data across the supply chain enables a much fuller picture to be achieved at a granular level. And using data from existing systems used in the day-to-day running of the organisations involved means the data is of high quality, can be trusted and the systems are well maintained.

The digital twin concept is central to the work of supply chain visibility pioneer Entopy – providing the backbone for the company’s unique intelligent data orchestration technology, which is the secret of success for the supply chain. Just like in a traditional orchestra, a ‘conductor’ takes centre stage and synchronises all the various data inputs. Each separate system communicates directly and only to the conductor platform – removing the need for numerous discrete connections and maintaining data integrity.

As each digital twin is created, proprietary algorithms define and assign policies to it to ensure only relevant data is captured from each connected system. Data from order management and transport management systems is combined with more real-time data sources from other systems present across the supply chain. For example, consignment and inventory data can be combined with transport schedules and allocated transport.

Digital twinning

The telematics system of the associated transport vehicle provides real-time location and condition data from the consignment which, when combined with analytics, generates detailed consignment lifecycle records, capturing key events throughout. These events can be communicated across the supply chain, improving communication and paving the way to automation of processes.

Research suggests that businesses with optimal supply chains can halve their inventory holdings, reduce their supply chain costs by 15% and triple the speed of their cash-to-cash cycle. Yet the increasing complexity of supply chains is making optimisation more challenging than ever, while the cost of inefficiencies is growing. Digital twins and intelligent data orchestration are now providing a new route to unlock supply chain value and deliver competitive advantage.

read more

Industry View: The Age of the Digital Twin

 

FourKites partners with Sony Network Communications

Posted on by David Priestman

Supply chain visibility company FourKites has formed a partnership with Sony Network Communications Europe. The partnership will integrate data from Visilion — Sony’s real-time cargo and asset tracking solution — with FourKites’ real-time, end-to-end supply chain visibility platform. This collaboration will help enterprise customers solve their most complex use cases. Now, customers will be able to view FourKites’ real-time data for shipments in transit and in the yard, together with Visilion’s granular real-time data on cargo location and condition to provide best-in-class estimated times of arrival (ETAs) and enhanced end-customer experiences.

Faced with ongoing global supply chain disruptions — including port congestion, port and rail strikes, global conflicts and more — businesses need more meaningful insights to mitigate preventable delays and damage, and to keep goods moving to their final destinations. Real-time visibility and actionable analytics regarding the location, temperature and status of shipments is critical, particularly for those in the Consumer Packaged Goods, Food & Beverage and Pharmaceutical industries, who ship products that require specific in-transit conditions to maintain quality.

“Businesses today require more high-quality, real-time supply chain data,” said Nimesh Patel, vice president of global alliances and partnerships at FourKites. “The Visilion solution from Sony provides an extra layer of granular data about the contents of containers and status of sensitive and/or temperature-controlled shipments. Our partnership will ensure that this data becomes more accessible than ever to businesses around the world.”

Visilion, Sony’s real-time cargo and asset tracking solution, offers industry-leading shock, tilt and temperature detection capabilities, among others, to ensure that goods are handled properly and maintained at the right temperature and humidity during transit, thereby mitigating losses. This functionality, combined with FourKites’ market-leading Dynamic ETA across all modes, provides shippers with complete visibility into potential disruptions and product loss for goods in transit. In addition, FourKites’ international tracking capabilities, together with Visilion sensor data, provide an added dimension of granular visibility into ocean containers that often move through complicated, multi-stop journeys.

“FourKites’ shared commitment to industry-leading innovation, product quality and industry collaboration made them the obvious partner for us,” said Erik Lund, Head of Tracking Division, Sony Network Communications Europe. “We look forward to working together to provide our mutual customers with integrated supply chain data to fuel better decision-making and, ultimately, more efficient supply chain operations — in Europe and around the world.”

Over the last year, FourKites has experienced record growth in the European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) markets, achieving 97% growth in shipments YoY as of October 2022. The number of customers tracking loads with FourKites in EMEA grew 40% in the same time period, while the number of carriers tracking shipments grew by 50% in the same period.

 

 

How do you modernise operations?

Posted on by David Priestman

Like nearly everything in today’s world, manufacturing modernise operations are going through a radical transformation. By implementing modern methods of identification — such as advanced barcoding & labelling technologies, RFID, machine connectivity, and business system integration – organisations are now unlocking a level of visibility into their operations that has only recently become possible.

Drive efficiencies by optimising data exchange and delivering real-time actionable insights.

When it comes to efficiency, productivity and cost savings, real time is the real deal. Brady’s Intelligent Manufacturing solutions connect all your manufacturing assets for real-time production management, advanced data analytics and unmatched business insights.

  • ‘Smart factory’ notifications of inventory or raw material overages or underages
  • Production throughput visibility (dashboard-style view of work-in-progress manufacturing)
  • Tie in input from existing equipment and business systems solutions

Manufacturers trust Brady’s products and software to help them eliminate defects, verify assembly, automate production processes, track parts and more. Its Intelligent Manufacturing ecosystem enables you to connect your Brady products for end-to-end visibility and flexibility.

  • What could RFID mean for your business?
  • How to optimally leverage its power?
  • Which efficiency gains does this technology have in store? Modernise operations, build your smart factory today with Brady.
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Save the planet by looking into space

 

 

Furniture company gains inventory visibility

Posted on by David Priestman

Rapidly expanding furniture company Oliver Space, which offers a fully circular home furnishing experience, is enjoying complete inventory visibility for the first time since implementing Synergy’s SnapFulfil WMS suite.

The San Francisco-based business – which not only delivers and assembles its premium quality furniture for customers, but also picks up and refurbishes used Oliver items to be made available at discounted prices – had struggled with inventory, picking and staging accuracy as the refurbishment returns side of the business ramped up.

However, the flexible and highly configurable SnapFulfil WMS has given Oliver Space the multiple tiers of stock and storage categories they require for precise inventory reconciliation. For customers, this means an even better experience as fulfilment is seamless, faster and more accurate.

David Guckian, Product Manager at Oliver Space, says: “We can now separate out, both in the system and the warehouse itself, all the different levels of stock and returns, which immediately optimised our inventory management capacity. We’d outgrown our initial 18,000 sq ft warehouse, but on moving to the new 30,000 sq ft DC realised a more consistent and reliable set of processes was required – and SnapFulfil ticks all the boxes.

“We looked at the full range of WMS solutions available, but around our key requirement of customisation, the so-called top tier systems were too labour intensive and costly to justify implementing. We treated it as a proof of concept and SnapFulfil quickly became the provider of choice because of their ability to work with us and facilitate all the process quirks and anomalies we required for a niche and complex business operation.”

The Oliver Space implementation was handled remotely, which is just as effective as on-site delivery as Synergy is a domain leader in digital onboarding. This saves customers time, money and resources, as well as aligning with their sustainability credentials.

Oliver Space was up and running in just under two months – even allowing for its more cautious approach to go live and use the test system to run live operations concurrently with its existing ERP until it had completed all necessary development internally.

Guckian explains: “The SnapFulfil team is highly responsive and together we worked through the various challenges that our operations model brings quickly and efficiently. They helped our engineering team implement API and other software so they would integrate fully, plus all the go-live training, UAT and testing was done in the staging environment – so that we were able to fine tune and dovetail everything in advance without interrupting our day-to-day operations.

“Consequently, when we were ready to go live it all went to plan and was like flicking a switch because of all the joint preparatory work we’d put in.”

Oliver Space is building the circular economy of furniture for a more sustainable future. With refurbished pieces becoming increasingly popular among an environmentally and fiscally conscious consumer base, SnapFulfil’s renowned reverse logistics capabilities are more necessary than ever. It also has the ability to scale up on user licence costs effectively during busier periods.

Guckian says: “As an exclusively online business we’re tech-centric, so Synergy and SnapFulfil are a natural fit and they understand where we’re coming from. Demand continues to grow, so we’re considering a second DC in Los Angeles early 2023, again powered by SnapFulfil, but I think we could be using their self implementation program that allows customers to onboard the system themselves.

“All we’ll need is their detailed rules engine training and we’re good to go. That’s how configurable their software is, and it will give us the control, independence and system expertise to manage our own roll out.”

 

DispatchTrack launches intelligent visibility platform

Posted on by David Priestman

DispatchTrack, a leading solution provider of right-time delivery management software, has launched its intelligent visibility platform for the last mile. The AI-powered dashboard provides the next level of control, clarity, and actionable insights to improve and predict ETAs so businesses can proactively respond to delivery obstacles before customers are impacted.

DispatchTrack says it is the only solution that goes beyond optimisation and provides delivery, execution, and visibility in a single platform. Its intelligent visibility platform offers a dashboard with a single, consolidated view of how each delivery is unfolding in real-time and it’s instantly scalable. The intuitive interface enables users to immediately see on-time delivery and order completion rates, the number of items delivered for the day, and the status and delivery time or ETA for each order, broken down by service unit.

This consolidated view provides a single version of the truth that ensures everyone in the organisation has the same insight into how the last mile is unfolding, eliminating surprises and delays associated with looking for answers across multiple disparate IT systems.

The platform is also extremely dynamic and delivers the right data to the right people at the right time, showing each user the details relevant to them. It provides actionable insights right from the dashboard and predictable outcomes in real-time so organisations can be proactive and not reactive. Delays, obstacles, or what-if scenarios can be addressed before they occur, so deliveries arrive as promised. The solution is easy to use and intuitive, requiring minimal training.

For consumers, the platform also offers live order tracking, empowering end customers to check on order statuses and delivery ETAs in real-time. This heightened level of end customer visibility results in increased trust and confidence that items will be delivered reliably and on time.

“Given the dynamic nature of deliveries, there are so many factors affecting ETA. It’s only when you have full visibility into delivery operations that you can manage proactively,” said Satish Natarajan, DispatchTrack co-founder and CEO. “Our dashboard is redefining last-mile visibility end-to-end by providing the highest level of visibility and predictability so hiccups can be avoided, and customer communication is proactive and straightforward, not reactive and frustrating.

“Our visibility platform offers intelligence on a single pane of glass to make decisions at the speed of business. The right control means better routing, better driver management, and better inventory insights which results in a better delivery experience. Deliveries arrive as promised, instilling brand trust.”

 

E2open and Shippeo expand partnership

Posted on by David Priestman

E2open Parent Holdings, Inc., the connected supply chain SaaS platform with the largest multi-enterprise network, and Shippeo, a global leader in real-time multimodal transportation visibility, have expanded their partnership to provide clients with a new level of native real-time transportation visibility (RTTV) and supply chain execution management in a unified global platform.

Building on the success of the companies’ strategic partnership announced in 2020, the newly expanded partnership unlocks additional value for clients by combining an unprecedented level of transportation visibility into e2open’s full range of supply chain planning and execution capabilities, for all modes and all geographies.

Beyond simply alerting shippers to a transportation delay, the platform enables users to “peer” inside the truck or container to understand the specific goods being moved, how transportation performance will impact the customer experience, and most importantly, proactively take the best corrective action. This level of control at global scale enables enterprises to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and operate more sustainably across even the most complex global supply chains.

“We are thrilled to take our partnership with Shippeo to the next level to increase value for our clients, with the broadest and deepest real-time transportation visibility made available natively in e2open’s connected supply chain platform,” said Pawan Joshi, executive vice president, products and strategy for e2open.

“Adding Shippeo’s visibility to e2open’s platform is a game-changer for the industry because it allows clients to remove data and decision silos, to drive efficiency and sustainability across the ecosystem of partners as they make, move, and sell products and services. Importantly, this expanded partnership creates shared value for shippers, carriers, and forwarders to foster a healthy, agile, and effective supply chain ecosystem.”

Shippeo’s unique carrier-first approach to real-time multimodal transportation visibility – honouring full compliance with global data management regulations, operating on a strict ‘need to know’ basis, and a commitment against developing freight matching solutions – has made it the RTTV of choice for carriers. This strategy has helped Shippeo earn the highest carrier onboarding satisfaction of 98% and has been the key to rapid expansion across geographies and modes.

In addition, timely access to high-quality data results in higher-fidelity visibility as well as better predictive results, using innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) algorithms. As a result, Shippeo is the only provider to guarantee ETA accuracy with a formal service-level agreement (SLA).

“Our expanded partnership with e2open offers transformative value to customers who will have not only real-time data and visibility to goods in motion, but also the control to take relevant action on one connected  platform,” said Lucien Besse, chief operating officer and co-founder at Shippeo.

“Our relentless focus on customer experience, carrier satisfaction, and exceptional data quality has helped us carve out a leadership position in the global real-time shipment visibility market. This approach has led us to expand our partnership with e2open. Further combining our in-transit visibility data with e2open’s ability to plan and execute addresses the ‘now what?’ when exceptions occur, while proactively avoiding disruptions before they occur, all from one connected platform.”

GateHouse and leogistics form visibility collaboration

Posted on by David Priestman

GateHouse Maritime, a leading provider of ocean supply chain visibility and predictability services, has announced a collaboration with leogistics GmbH, an innovation leader in operational logistics and supply chain management, to integrate its OceanIO data services with the myleo / dsc cloud logistics platform for greater visibility of goods in transit.

Michael Rölli, Co-Head of Product and Solution Management, myleo / dsc, said: “Today, digitisation and changes in communication offer a huge opportunity for more integrated services and greater customer satisfaction. However, to achieve this means we have to rethink collaboration in the business and logistics world. Working together with GateHouse Maritime, we can advance the capabilities of myleo / dsc and move closer to our goal of delivering an easy-to-use, efficient and future-proof logistics execution and collaboration platform for all industries and modes of transport.”

Martin Dommerby Kristiansen, CEO at GateHouse Maritime, said: “There has never been more value placed on alliances and partnerships, as users look increasingly to manufacturers and service providers to solve the challenges of integration, reducing the complexity and increasing the efficiency everyday tasks companies and individuals face daily. This exciting new collaboration with leogistics will add the power of OceanIO – the industry’s most comprehensive and robust ocean data foundation – to myleo / dsc, helping it supply higher levels of visibility and more predictable delivery of goods in transit across the world.”

Under the terms of the agreement between the two companies, GateHouse Maritime will provide Ocean Visibility and Ocean Prediction Services including Container tracking, Vessel tracking and Arrival Prediction to leogistics. OceanIO provides a foundation to enable predictive services such as the position and movements of shipping containers and freight, where it is in the customs clearance cycle and time of arrival. Myleo / dsc customers can use the data provided to streamline their incoming and outgoing goods processes, automate complex yard and port processes as well as improve communication with supply chain partners regarding the status of containers in transit.

The two businesses are collaborating with the joint objective of delivering a connected API during Q2 2022, a designed backend including the preparation of data structures with integrated container data and data visualisation. This will be further augmented by connecting container numbers to business documents (e.g., SAP documents, Bill of Lading numbers), the addition of Multimodal Transport Stages, map-based data visualisation and port congestion information.

myleo / dsc is a unique cloud platform for site and transport logistics. Utilising real-time data, the cloud software simplifies yard, supply and transport management in a single user-centric Process-as-a-Service solution, connecting producers, suppliers, warehouses, freight forwarders, and stores to create a holistic supply chain network.

myleo / dsc provides transparency and visibility services with a wide variety of data such as alerts, maps, inventory or status are consolidated and flexibly displayed on a launchpad. Moreover, myleo / dsc includes a powerful status and event management, allowing the user to model and control both the planned and unplanned events which influence logistics processes every day in a granular way. A Connectivity Service integrates customer data sources and formats as well as upstream and downstream system such as warehouse or transportation management systems to create the appropriate database.

FourKites appoints supply chain veteran to ocean role

Posted on by David Priestman

Philippe Salles has been appointed FourKites’ Vice President of Strategic Solutions (Ocean), bringing a wealth of experience to this booming area of the company’s business.

“I’m delighted to be joining FourKites,” says Philippe, who brings experience from CMA CGM, INTTRA and maritime research and consultancy firm Drewry. “Visibility has been ocean shippers’ top priority for decades, and today’s real-time visibility platforms have completely changed the game. In addition to its market-leading machine learning-driven platform, FourKites understands that industry mindset and professionalism are as important as the technology itself. We need to provide shippers with a long-term strategic vision for their supply chain to make them resilient and collaborative.”

Philippe is an industry veteran with a detailed understanding of current supply chain issues. In his new role at FourKites, he will work closely work with FourKites shippers and carriers to support them as they execute the change management needed to improve end-to-end supply chain visibility. Moreover, he will accelerate time to value for FourKites users by removing operational pain points and maximising the effectiveness of the systems they use.

“Philippe has a rare depth of experience, especially when it comes to evolving some of the traditional areas of ocean shipping with new technology,” says Mathew Elenjickal, FourKites Founder and CEO. “His network, the trust he’s built up in the industry and his expertise in supply chain management will be invaluable to our customers as we continue to drive innovation in ocean visibility.”

Unprecedented ocean momentum

Salles’ appointment is the latest leap forward in FourKites’ momentum in supply chain visibility for seagoing container traffic. FourKites now tracks 98% of global ocean container traffic across more than 270 lanes and 120 carriers, and covers every container port in North America and all major ports in Europe.

Over the last 12 months, the company has seen:

  • 79% growth in the number of customers using supply chain visibility for international shipments, with a 23% jump in Q1 2022 alone
  • 215% growth in the volume of seagoing freight that it tracks, with a 190% increase in ocean shipments in EMEA
  • 16% growth in the number of ports tracked in EMEA, now totalling coverage of 239 ports in the region and 804 ports globally

In the last quarter, FourKites signed a number of new ocean customers, including Cardinal Health, Arizona Tile, LyondellBasell, McCain Foods, Roehm, Rove Concepts and Yamaha Motors, among many others.

LyondellBasell, to take one example, is a top-10 global chemicals producer with operations around the world. The company has been a FourKites customer since 2018, when it began tracking shipments across all modes of transport in North America. Based on its success to date with the FourKites platform, the company extended its contract with FourKites in Q1 2022 to track multimodal shipments in Europe.

“Global shippers love FourKites’ Dynamic Ocean platform because it addresses the full spectrum of shipping issues,” says Philippe. “And the company’s proprietary Dynamic ETA technology provides estimated times of arrival that are 20% to 40% more accurate than carrier-generated figures. That’s important because timing errors can add significantly to costs.”

FourKites’ Dynamic Ocean addresses the full spectrum of ocean shipping issues through advanced document management and collaboration features; state-of-the-art real-time tracking capabilities, including highly accurate predictive ETAs; and comprehensive multimodal visibility from port to door, including the yard, so shippers can identify and manage the root causes of escalating fees.

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