A Better Way to Turn Insight Into Action
For every platform you invest in, whether it be planning, optimization, or even visibility, you’re hoping it will make a difference in your operations. However, the layers of communication between the users of the platform and those responsible for taking action often stand in the way of achieving those outcomes. Relying on a relay of information between teams, channels, competing priorities, and lost connections is a surefire way to miss out on serious opportunities for growth and improvement.
The root of this issue is the lack of integration between your source of information and the systems that allow users to act on an insight — having to pass along reports and information is a siphon on productivity and cost savings. So, how do you ensure that your investments in technology are yielding the maximum benefit for your organization?
With a seamless data handoff between your platform and the users, you can eliminate the need for users to manually pass information and files between your business and the system and, more importantly, between themselves. Whether it’s automated reporting or API integrations between insight-generating platforms, investing in a tech stack should create a passive web of communication between different systems, making information ubiquitous and accessible to those who need it most.
Take, for instance, your order network and your sales team. Allowing self-service access to your orders in transit allows sales to depend on better information when handling customer interactions, boosting the quality of their relationships. It doesn’t require going to the logistics team to track down order information on an ad hoc basis — it’s there and ready for them to access at a moment’s notice.
The benefit of creating a seamless data experience for your frontline employees is that, through the connections in data via integrations, employees have a fuller picture of operations. Siloed data is only actionable and insightful within the walls of where it is generated. For example, an ERP telling you order information can’t harness context from other systems to deliver deeper insights that help make more accurate decisions.
Think of how your facility network handles its scheduling. How does it determine whether or not the calendar is reliable and aligned with the on-the-ground operations? Integrating your real-time visibility platform with your calendar can help contextualize your calendar. If a timeslot is scheduled for 10:00 am but the inbound truck’s ETA is 10:37 am, having those data points side-by-side helps create the context of the situation at hand with a clear action to take.
There’s a definite need for change within the industry. Whether it’s creating frictionless integrations between providers or developing a method to serve insights to those who can act on them automatically — the need to make a change is apparent. The solution is creating an environment that pushes information into the hands of those who can make a difference for you, creating and maximizing the ROI you expected when you first made the investment.
We’ve been able to roll FourKites out cross functionally to our teams. So our customer service teams, our supply planning teams, and even our finance teams are starting to understand and use the platform to manage and look at the different statuses of loads.
Investing in seamless integrations, enriching data with context to uncover deeper insights, and cultivating a self-service culture can help fuel growth, boost efficiency and improve customer satisfaction.
Consider the possibilities: your sales team having instant access to order information, your facility network optimizing schedules based on real-time visibility, and your finance team gaining a deeper understanding of the financial implications of supply chain performance. This is the potential of unifying data from across your supply chain network.
FourKites is committed to supply chain efficiency across your platforms and within your operations. If you’d like to learn how we can help serve actionable insights into the hands of those who can actually do something about it, connect with us at [email protected].
