Real-time transportation visibility is a swiftly increasing priority for shippers and 3PLs – as well as their customers. As global supply chains continue to grow in complexity, and as we continue to tackle the challenges thrown up by the COVID crisis, visibility – whether that’s the exact location of your shipment or real-time purchasing data in your systems – is the word on everyone’s lips. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2023, 50% of global product-centric enterprises will have invested in real-time transportation visibility platforms.* Quite the change for an industry where legacy systems and juggling multiple Excel spreadsheets is still common.
So as businesses rush to get ahead of the pack and revolutionize their operations, who should they turn to for a real-time transportation visibility platform (RTTVP) that delivers exactly what they need?
Gartner, the leading research and advisory firm, has made this the subject of their latest Magic Quadrant report, as they analyze the strengths and cautions of 14 leading RTTVPs. And it’s no surprise that FourKites, the #1 global supply chain visibility platform, was named a Leader in their report.
FourKites provides cloud-based visibility software solutions to shippers, carriers, 3PLs and freight brokers for predictive, real-time visibility across all modes. And FourKites completeness of vision has been heralded by Gartner as it continues to innovate, build strong industry partnerships and expand its offering in an impressive commitment to the ultimate goal of true end-to-end visibility.
Combining swift growth with strategic collaboration, FourKites broadened its offering from transportation and extended it beyond the gate to the yard when it acquired the YMS module from TrackX in 2020, to offer next-generation yard management on top of yard visibility, or Dynamic Yard. Moreover, FourKites recently acquired the YMS from Zebra, and created a partnership with Volvo Trucks, to integrate tracking off the assembly line, combine engine data with real-time transportation data like facilities and dwell time, and create a foundation for autonomous vehicles. These partnerships, in addition to FourKites’ recent big-name strategic partnerships with Volvo Group, Zebra Technologies and Qualcomm announced along with its Series D last month, are enough to turn heads as the industry rounds a pivotal corner and shifts into high gear.
Considering FourKites is less than 10 years old, having been founded in 2014, that completeness of vision and unwavering dedication to transforming the industry, to bring greater agility, efficiency and sustainability, is even more impressive.
This month, as it continues to pioneer the supply chain visibility category, FourKites announced new service-level agreements and an industry-first data tracking guarantee that, together, help customers achieve end-to-end supply chain visibility faster and with higher quality. FourKites’ new Carrier Connect Guarantee ensures connectivity to 90% of a customer’s full-truckload carrier network within 30 days of project kickoff, helping organizations lower operating costs, improve on-time performance and create better customer relationships. And its industry-first Tracking Quality Guarantee establishes the highest standards in supply chain data, guaranteeing real-time visibility and predictive intelligence into a minimum of 90% of customer shipments, end-to-end and across every mode.
And on top of these awesome commitments to service, as a tech founder and CEO in the maritime space myself, I’m particularly interested in FourKites’ innovations in ocean visibility. From the Suez canal incident to the global container shortage and huge backlogs in ports, I’ve been paying close attention to the increased challenges the industry has been facing. And to me, it’s clear that visibility plays a huge part in overcoming these hurdles and preventing them from happening time after time.
FourKites’ completeness of vision is evident once again in its next-generation ocean solution – Dynamic Ocean – that has the potential to transform a business’s entire international shipping operation, with end-to-end precision tracking, predictive ETAs and workflow, document management and collaboration all in one place. I think we can all agree that’s a game-changer.
Last month I talked about how FourKites integrates its passion for collaboration with its commitment to visibility, and this latest accolade, alongside its new customer guarantees, sees FourKites once again raising the bar in supply chain visibility.
*Gartner report published 14 April 2021.
