At One Six we believe the most successful companies make data-driven decisions to enable business growth and establish their competitive advantage. But consolidating data in a data warehouse and building high-level dashboards that represent the state of the business is only the first step.

The valuable insights gained from the data need to be disseminated to employees so that they can act on them to make informed decisions and create value for their customers.

As we’ve worked with logistics companies over the years, we’ve found the following technologies have helped these companies drastically improve their business.

Embedded analytics

Embedded analytics places insights at the point of need, inside portals, and workflow applications, which makes it possible for users to take immediate action without needing to leave their day-to-day work. It drives efficiencies within workflows and significantly increases user adoption of your analytics investments. Metrics are still centrally governed and pushed out to systems, which increases trust and reliability.

Example: Logistics companies have large amounts of data on suppliers, including prior issue tracking, complaints, delivery time delays, etc. Embedding insights from this data into an ordering platform allows better data-driven decisions when an order is placed.

Read more about embedded analytics

Event-based notifications and automated workflows

Notification platforms allow email, text, and app-based notifications as changes happen in the business. In a modern data organization, users don’t need to check dashboards to find actionable insights based on changing data. They can instead receive real-time notifications to alert them of these changes, enabling them to react quickly and focus on business outcomes.

When the solution to a problem doesn’t require human intervention, these notifications can also initiate automated workflows to resolve the issue.

Example: Logistics companies work with large amounts of transactional data, and service quality is defined by on-time delivery and clear communication with clients. Being able to promptly notify the right people when there are issues with an order allows them to solve the issue or communicate necessary changes. If the problem is common and a solution can be automated, the system can update the order and notify the customer, removing the need for human intervention.

Data-Native Applications

Modern data warehouses enable rapidly building custom applications on top of large, centrally managed data sets. These applications use the centrally stored data from line of business applications, don’t require moving large amounts of data between systems, and can be built to an organization’s specific needs.

Example: A logistics company can build an equipment management application to represent the real-time status of trucks and their load, allowing users to know which trucks are partially or fully empty, which in turn reduces costs and improves efficiency.

At One Six we help logistics companies build modern data organizations. As part of our Logistics Data Strategy Sprint, we define their advanced analytics strategy in 4-6 weeks.