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data analysis.


Issue 4 2021 - FBJNA


t owa rd p r edi cti v e (Wood,


for


instance, mentions how, when you purchase a book through Amazon, the site shows you titles that you should buy similar to the one you just bought.) George Kontoravdis,


Ph.D., founder & president of


Fortigo, explains, the


company feeds all of its customers’ information into its cloud-based system, which then processes all that data: “normalizing it, cleaning it up and presenting it to the end- user as an actionable item for logistics executives.” In short, he says,


days, the success of


“Time-sensitive execution strategy changes were urgently needed.” -- George Kontoravdis, Ph.D., Fortigo portal, which


enables the


producers to make bookings once the PO is fulfilled, he says.


Money Saver


“These a


company heavily relies on the ability to facilitate a resilient


More specifically, he


points to a situation involving an Intellect Technologies’ customer, a


“To play in the e-commerce space means meeting the needs of e-retailers that need additional


shipping channels to transport their goods, at the speed of air cargo.” -- Milind Tavshikar, SmartKargo


Software, à la Google vacation- booking searches, also saves money through contract and rate management, he says, noting that full-container- load transport costs from Asia to the U.S. or Asia to the U.K. skyrocketed from as much as $2,800 in 2019 to $15,000 in 2021. Likewise,


air charters in


2019 soared from a high of $225,000 to more than $1 million per charter, he says. The software also saves


money, execs say, largely because technology adds that all-important nimbleness to operations, not just with the pandemic, but with the relentless boom in e-commerce. Case in point: Azul Brazilian


Airlines saw its revenue soar nearly 66% year over year after adopting a solution from SmartKargo, according to Milind Tavshikar,


founder


and efficient supply chain.” Himakuntala agrees,


pointing out that software’s


data- and risk-


management takes “all factors into consideration before executing and implementation.”


freight forwarder working with major retailer brands in more than 30 countries. The retailers, in turn, work with manufacturers in Asia. “Coordinating with their


manufacturers and freight forwarders to ship goods to the US has been a pain point for these retail brands,” he says. Enter Intellect


Technologies’ Purchase Order module in its eFreight system,


with its Intellect


Customer Service Portal. The retailers’ customers and the manufacturers access the


and CEO of the Cambridge, Massa c h us etts -bas ed software company. Now, he says, Azul owns 60% of the market share in Brazil, surpassing even the giants, FedEx and UPS, there. “To play in the e-commerce


space means meeting the needs of e-retailers that need additional shipping channels to transport their goods, at the speed of air cargo,” Tavshikar says, adding that systems integration is “paramount for hitting the $5 trillion e-commerce sales target this year and beyond.”


Speed. Full stop. That’s what Fortigo offers


airlines, with a streamlined, all-in-one Software-as-a- Service delivery model—


“Coordinating with manufacturers and freight forwarders to ship


goods to the US has been a pain point for retail brands.” -


- Sri Himakuntala, Intellect Technologies


especially crucial during the ongoing crisis, when “time- sensitive execution strategies were urgently needed,” Kontoravdis says. The Austin, Texas-based


company’s SaaS model “allowed our airline customers to rework and reoptimize all of their supported supply chain channels overnight and make necessary changes on an hourly basis, empowering front-line workers to continue executing based on the updated company strategy,” he says. C-suiters agree today’s


urgent—and tectonic—shifts exposed supply chain vulnerabilities, which, in turn, accelerated the need for high- powered software. “Everybody was worried


when COVID first hit: ‘Okay, volumes have cratered, I need to get more efficient and, potentially, I’m going to have to figure out how to stay in business,’” Wood says. But then, quickly,


everything changed: “That translated into, ‘Oh, my God, freight volumes are going up much faster than expected,


19


“While it’s easy to get wrapped up in the flavor of the day, the bottom


line is the only metrics that matter are employee productivity and customer satisfaction.” -- Stefany Martin, Slync.io


Well, no. Disruptive


technology is one thing. Disrupting a company’s operations is quite another. So says Stefany Martin,


patterns are changing, e-commerce shipments have displaced some of the traditional shipping patterns.” What to do? Add more staff


to handle an explosion in interactions?


Slync.io’s senior director of Marketing. “The logistics industry has this tendency to get excited about any new or emerging technology that offers the slightest promise of a competitive edge. And while it’s easy to get wrapped up in the flavor of the day, the bottom line is: the only metrics that matter are employee productivity and customer satisfaction,” she says. Slync.io doesn’t believe


in “rip and replace.” Rather, the company works with clients to “unlock the hidden potential of their existing


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