A pair of supply chain visibility providers are joining forces to launch the Open Visibility Network (OVN), an effort to improve supply chain transparency collaboratively.
Tive, a Boston-based provider of shipment visibility through location data and condition insights such as temperature, shock, light exposure and humidity, is partnering on the project with project44, a provider of an advanced visibility platform for shippers and third parties.
“We see a logistics world where collaboration between shippers, LSPs, and customers will be the norm,” Krenar Komoni, founder and CEO of Tive, said in a statement. “There are amazing visibility platforms and TMS solutions out there that meet many customers’ needs, and now is the time to start an open, collaborative platform so every customer can get the visibility that they deserve.”
The Open Visibility Network partner program connects shippers, logistics service providers, brokers and customers through “collaborative data sharing,” the release noted, adding “in-transit visibility beyond what’s available today.”
The platform is designed to encourage data sharing among supply chain participants, allowing for increased visibility and collection of critical shipment data across platforms. Komoni told FreightWaves OVN is ultimately designed to benefit the end consumer of visibility data, and starts with tech providers collaborating to create 100% visibility across all shipments and all modes.
“As collaboration within the tech ecosystem grows, shippers, carriers, and logistics service providers will clearly see the benefit and start collaborating to increase supply chain efficiencies further,” he said. “In the last decade, load-matching, the electronic logging device mandate, and visibility have reduced the empty miles for over-the-road loads, enabling carriers to fill their backhaul more efficiently. Now zoom out on a global level and that is what we’re trying to achieve with OVN.”
KODIS USA is working with both providers through the network, allowing it to combine insights from its own transportation management system and project44’s telematics data with load-level tracking data from Tive — data that is specific to the load and not the carrier.
“KODIS understands that valuable relationships are built on quality experiences for the customer, carrier, warehouse and consignee,” Michael Kokal, president of KODIS, said. “Working with project44 and Tive has made onboarding easy for us, and it has ensured that each stakeholder receives the best insights, that realistic expectations are provided, and that we deliver, every time.”
Tive provides sensors that allow users to monitor the condition of loads. project44’s Founder and CEO Jett McCandless said that this combination and the Open Visibility Network will improve customer experience.
“Our aim at project44 is to create a new level of trust and predictability in transportation and logistics, and we can’t do that alone. This collaboration with Tive will bring a new level of customer service to shipping,” McCandless said. “The partner program exponentially increases the mutual flow of data to our cloud-based platforms, right out of the gate, and there’s room to expand with new partners. We are unlocking the value of supply chain collaboration in an entirely new and exciting way.”
Vernon O’Donnell, chief product officer of project44, explained that Tive’s data is integrated into the core project44 platform and integrated into analytics dashboards, and made available in aggregate to customers of both companies on a shipment-level basis.
“When we use the word integration, we mean it in its truest sense: two-way communication between the parties,” O’Donnell said. “At the end of the day, customers want flexibility, and they are either looking at their own dashboard or any other tech provider’s dashboards. For example, KODIS uses a TMS provider that is fully integrated with project44. We are helping KODIS gain complete visibility through Tive’s trackers into their TMS using the integration between Tive and project44.”
Collaboration is needed to gain true visibility, Komoni said.
“To achieve 100% visibility compliance across all modes of transportation, across all geographies, across all types of carriers, and across all various nodes (ports, borders, terminals) of the network, collaboration is an inevitable part of bringing the best visibility to the customer in the shortest amount of time,” he said.
project44 recently announced a $100 million Series D fundraising round, led by Insight Partners with participation from 8VC, Emergence Capital, Omidyar Technology Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Sozo Ventures and Underscore VC.
Tive netted its own round of funding in December, receiving a $12 million Series A investment. Leading the round was RRE Ventures, followed by Two Sigma Ventures, with participation from existing investors NextView Ventures, Hyperplane Ventures, One Way Ventures, Fathom Ventures and others.
Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.
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