Supply Chain Visibility Software

What is Supply Chain Visibility Software

Supply chain visibility software, also referred to as an RTTVP or Real Time Transportation Visibility Platform, provides companies with enhanced insights by tracking a product throughout various stages — from the procurement of raw materials to production and delivery.

RTTVPs are beneficial to companies seeking to enhance supply chain performance and optimize collaboration among the various parties involved in the supply and distribution process. Software in the supply chain visibility market is designed to address common challenges related to lack of visibility in supply chain operations, including:

● Disruptions in the supply chain caused by traffic, weather, and other unforeseen events.
● Delays in sharing information and data among key players in the supply chain.
● Inability to be nimble in responding to customer needs.
● Unnecessary and excessive expenditures caused by inefficiencies in the supply chain.

RTTVPs increase visibility into supply chain and logistics operations by providing real-time freight tracking and artificial intelligence analytics. Supply chain visibility software providers share insights through tracking solutions that are connected to GPS and ELD devices on various vehicles used for transporting products.

With supply chain visibility software, leaders within a company can gain transparency and access to the operations of various departments involved in their supply chain. This enhanced visibility, made possible through supply chain visibility integrations of software platforms, has helped many companies eliminate traditional systems in which data was manually gathered and contained within each department.

In addition to freeing up team members’ time for manually entering data and creating reports, RTTVPs effectively eliminate silos within a company, ensuring visibility throughout all phases of the supply chain and promoting a unified view among team members.

Gartner Supply Chain

Each year, Gartner highlights the companies excelling in supply chain management and global supply chain disruption. As part of the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2022, the company profiled companies that demonstrated an ability to adapt to changes in the environment, deliver agility and efficiency, and excel in the areas of innovation and strategy.

Gartner uses numerous metrics to determine the annual recognition winners, including financial performance, return on physical assets, inventory turns, revenue growth, corporate social responsibility, and environmental, social, and governance.

How Does Supply Chain Visibility Software Work

Supply chain visibility solutions, whether used as part of enterprise resource planning (ERP) or supply chain management through an outsourcing model, ensure that companies can gain real-time transportation visibility and control through real-time logistics data on numerous aspects of the supply chain.

Using the Internet of Things (IoT), which connects technology systems and platforms, companies can capture data from trucks and other vehicles, including ships and trains, to determine delivery times based on variables such as driving speed, congested traffic, rush hour, and driver stops. They also can be used to track data based on other factors, including weather and news events that could cause delays.

This can improve customer satisfaction as well as allow teams to identify ways to circumvent delays.

What Does Supply Chain Visibility Do?

Used as part of a company’s day-to-day operations, this real-time visibility provides a company with the ability to take measures to avoid delays with shipments, identify risks for supply chain shortages, meet compliance requirements and achieve other goals by obtaining a clear, comprehensive view of overall metrics.

As an overview, supply chain visibility software, which is integrated with GPS trackers to capture data, can be used to …

● Track the location of products in real-time
● Determine the status of an order
● Maintain auditing records, including compliance and regulatory information relevant to the supply chain
● Check levels of inventory in a warehouse
● Identify areas within the supply chain that need to be addressed for improvement

Ocean Freight Visibility

In many cases, when teams discuss real-time visibility solutions, they are referring to tracking vehicles on the road, such as trucks equipped with ELD devices or an app on the driver’s smartphone.

Unlike over-the-road data, ocean insights container tracking captures factors like wind speeds and ocean currents to determine delivery times. Any interruptions throughout a supply chain that involves ocean cargo could result in significant delivery delays, especially if the shipment must wait for another ship to be available. Also, ocean shipments must undergo different processes, including clearing customs.

When integrated with other systems, ocean freight visibility software can provide insights for various legs of the journey, both ocean, and road, as well as provide real-time insights on the current position of the ocean container.

Container Tracking Software

With container visibility software, a company can gain insights about where a container is located — whether nationally or internationally — including insights about the departure and destination ports. Containers are located by their specific and unique container number.

Like other supply chain visibility software, container tracking software can help a company determine where their inventory is in real-time as well as identify issues that can lead to inefficiencies with inventory management and supply chain.

Benefits Of Supply Chain Visibility Software

Supply chain visibility software has transformed many industries — including food, retail, and manufacturing — by giving companies the ability to provide real-time information to customers about on-time delivery, as well as disruptions and delays, ensuring transparency at every stage of the supply chain.

The benefits of supply chain visibility software are extensive, ranging from improved customer satisfaction and as well as gained efficiencies, which can consequently impact a company’s bottom line.

Supply chain visibility benefits include:

● Supply chain visibility and agility. With a connected network that ensures transparency, companies can gain efficiencies and be more nimble in bringing products to market. They also can identify ways to improve on-time delivery.

● Minimize risk. A real-time supply chain visibility example that often is noted is the ability to keep track of inventory, which can help mitigate risks of shortages.

● Insights into data. When vendors are asked how does improved supply chain visibility improve the planning process, they often point to the ability to gain access to a comprehensive set of data across the supply chain, allowing teams to be more strategic about planning, identifying cost savings, and improving overall efficiency.

Supply Chain Visibility Software Companies

The leading companies offering visibility software are reviewed in the Gartner Visibility Magic Quadrant report on RTTVPs.

The best of the best supply chain visibility software companies are highlighted in The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25, a prestigious annual ranking that recognizes leaders in the field internationally.

Some of those companies included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant RTTVP report and the company’s Top 25 listing include:

• C.H. Robinson: The U.S. company offers supply chain technology solutions along with consulting services for data as a service, supply chain engineering, procurement, program management, strategic planning, and customs brokerage.
• Descartes: As a supply chain visibility software company headquartered in Canada, Descartes offers an integrated view of transportation, inventory, customs status, and carrier/supplier performance.
• FourKites: When using FourKites visibility software, customers in various industries, including food and beverage, retail, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and chemicals, utilize its offerings of a real-time visibility platform, ocean visibility and document management, network visibility, and other offerings. The company is headquartered in Chicago.
• Overhaul: Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Overhaul provides supply chain control and risk management solutions through a SaaS solution that provides a unified view of the supply in real time.
• project44: Customers using the project44 visibility platform will have features that provide analytics, ETAS, and supply chain insights that include, ocean, over-the-road, air, intermodal, rail, supplier, and order and inventory, as well as various workflows. The company is headquartered in Chicago.
• Terminal49: An all-in-one shipment and container tracking platform is helping shippers and forwarders streamline and automate their container tracking tasks to save hours of labor. Founded in 2015, the company has grown quickly offering complete container tracking through one API.
• Transporeon: A company headquartered in Germany, Transporeon offers a transportation management platform to meet its customers' supply chain needs through processes that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Vizion: By providing instant access to the most complete, standardized, and detailed container tracking information available, VIZION API empowers forward-thinking companies to create more powerful and nimble solutions, delivering greater supply chain visibility and control for their stakeholders without and within.

project44

project44, a top visibility data provider leader in the industry, promotes its data-first approach to delivering insights that mitigate risks in the supply chain. The company offers a full shipment lifecycle, in-transit visibility, and workflow automation capabilities.

On their website, project44 benefits and project44 differentiators featured include:

• API-first approach that focuses on delivering data to a company's teams, customers, and systems
• Patented ML-based data cleaning and predictive analytics guarantee
• Trusted data that provides predictive analytics that companies can rely on
• Automated exception detection
• Proactive alerts

According to Gartner, customers who have used project44 data saw benefits like “depth of partnerships with carriers and API tech,” “intuitive platform” and “API integration outbound.”

Some project44 challenges cited by customers have included varying results with project management and consulting capabilities. Others have given varying feedback on the length of implementation and delivery of the application.

Overall, project44 reviews are favorable and assessments by industry leaders have been positive, which has led to Project44 being named by Gartner as a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms (RTTVP). project44 was particularly noted for its ​“ability to execute” and as a leader for​“completeness of vision.”

FourKites

FourKites is another industry leader in the field of real-time transportation visibility (RTTVP) platforms. The FourKites tracking solution connects global end-to-end supply chains with technology targeted to various industries, including 3PL and 4PL providers, and companies specializing in food and beverage, retail, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and chemicals.

Based on FourKites' website, their benefits include an implementation that was completed in less time than was anticipated, the ability of various departments to leverage the platform on a daily basis, ease of use, and optimal reporting functions. FourKites challenges listed by customers included the need for more robust dashboards for executive reporting.

FourKites also has the distinction of being named among the companies identified in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms.