Supply chains have faced visibility challenges for years. This problem is not new, however, increasing customer expectations have irrevocably changed the transportation and logistics industry. Shippers, 3PLs, and carriers can no longer get by on manual and legacy visibility methods.
Six years ago, on February 20, 2014, Jett McCandless founded project44 to solve this detrimental transportation challenge. Together we set out to build the industry’s connectivity layer – a connective tissue that would fulfill our lofty vision of enabling a more productive and successful world.
We needed to make sure we built a foundation that would allow our product and platform to scale. With $10B of transportation spend under project44’s management today, we believe we have found an approach that is valuable for global shippers and 3PLs.
The real value of transportation visibility is all about the data integrity. In a Big Data world, many organizations understand that they need to be collecting data. But many struggle to capture the quality data that they can take action on. After all, analytics capabilities are only as valuable as the data behind the algorithm.
IBM estimates poor quality data costs the US economy roughly $3.1 trillion a year. In a pressing era of exceeding customer expectations, the quality of the data cannot be overlooked.
project44 realized that the only way to solve the transportation industry’s root problem is to take a bottom-up approach, building a network effect that provide our customers with the high-fidelity data needed to gain truly advanced visibility.
What is High-Fidelity Transportation Visibility Data?
When talking about data integrity and quality, we talk a lot about high-fidelity data. High-fidelity data is complex to collect but is essential for transportation visibility. So, what does this actually mean? High-fidelity data must be timely, accurate, and complete, and it needs to be normalized and enriched, allowing stakeholders to access insight in real-time and take action.
Complete Data for Comprehensive Visibility
To gain a complete view into your end-to-end transportation activities, you should strive to collect data for the entire shipment, across all of your shipments. Because the transportation and logistics ecosystem is complex, connecting to your entire carrier network is complicated.
We noticed shippers and 3PLs were creating many-to-many EDI and API connections to get visibility, which require a large amount of resources to build and maintain integrations. When we started p44 six years ago, we knew there had to be a more efficient and scalable way.
By taking one-to-many approach, project44 makes it significantly easier for our customers to connect to their network and scale their visibility coverage. Additionally, with thousands of carriers in the ecosystem, we’re continuing to onboard new carriers to the network every day.
Reliable Data in Real-Time
In order to make proactive and informed decisions, leverage predictive ETAs, and handle problems before they occur, you need reliable data in real-time. The method used to track shipments has a large impact on the reliability and timeliness of the data. Without a direct connection, you won’t be able to get timely, accurate, or complete data. With EDI or other manual processes, the data will be delayed and unreliable.
project44 prioritizes direct API and ELD/telematics connections, allowing shippers and 3PLs to gain the most complete data in real-time. To ensure our customers have these connections, we have built direct API connections with leading carriers – such as FedEx, UPS, and more – and have developed integrations with more than 760 ELD/telematics providers.
Normalized and Enriched
On top of these requirements for high-fidelity data, stakeholders need data to be accessible in a consistent format in order to take action. With insights in a format everyone on your team can act on, your supply chain can make smarter and more proactive decisions.
project44’s Advanced Visibility Platform™ ingests all of this high-fidelity data from our extensive carrier network, normalizing and enriching the data to seamlessly deliver actionable insights to stakeholders. Not only is the data in a consistent format, it’s available in real-time, allowing teams to resolve issues before they occur.
Six Years of Growth and Counting
Achieving end-to-end transportation visibility is a complex puzzle that the industry is only starting to piece together.
With expansive global connectivity and increasing network effects, project44 is enabling shippers and LSPs to connect their entire supply chain ecosystem. And with a reliable tracking approach and a platform to harness the unruly data, project44 is providing the high-fidelity, actionable data supply chains need to take on their transportation and logistics challenges.
We have seen our customers do amazing things with high-fidelity data over the last six years, and we’re excited to see the endless possibilities that will unfold in the coming years.
