In the wake of the global pandemic and economic downturn, what was normal took another route. Screeching halts in package delivery, upticks in port congestion, and container shortages became the norm.

Also, the supply chain has grown more complex. Today, our modern-day lifestyles and consumption habits depend on goods and services from different parts of the world. Our smartphones, favorite brands of coffee, and even the clothes we wear come to life via a complex network of international supply chains.

In addition to complex supply chains, ecommerce orders have soared. Key players like Amazon and Target are changing the narrative with one-hour, same-day, and two-day deliveries. Roadie’s Future of Crowdsourced Delivery Report finds that 99% of retailers will offer same-day delivery by 2025. Like individual consumers, industrial customers now expect to get shipments faster, more flexibly, and with more transparency at a lower price.

However, companies need multiple systems and high-level visibility to meet these expectations. Supply chain visibility is no new term. But in a digitally connected world and in the middle of global supply chain disruption, visibility has passed the days of spreadsheets and other primitive means. Today, without real-time visibility, an entire system can become a standstill, affecting revenue and customer experience. A 24/7 shipment visibility system optimizes business operations for organizations. It reduces operating costs.

“Global supply chain has resulted in better margins and cost efficiency for a product. If you look at a car, it’s composed of thousands of parts from hundreds of suppliers across multiple countries. But in a scenario where even one of those components is disrupted, you’re talking about the actual operational impact on the business.

Basically, the car cannot be manufactured, and the business cannot deliver the product to the customer. So you need deep visibility into the chain to spot the signs and avoid potential issues.” — Samuel Mathew, Managing Director & Global Head of Documentary Trade at Standard Chartered.

While some companies now heavily invest in tools like ERPs, CRMs, and WMSs to achieve higher visibility, it’s impossible to keep up with demands without integrating these systems. PwC report shows 81% of supply chain top performers focus more on external integration and end-to-end orchestration.

Technology helps make better decisions, control costs, and mitigate risk, but integration with other systems puts logistics companies at the forefront today. Consumer expectations for when, where, and how quickly orders arrive keep growing, and it takes a unified supply chain to meet such demands.

To measure or analyze how well a company is meeting customer expectations, the on-time delivery KPI is absolutely one of the first metrics to monitor. On-time delivery measures supply chain efficiency and show whether or not an organization is meeting its goals.

The best way to ensure on-time deliveries is by connecting your resources, systems, orders, and drivers to provide complete visibility and control over the entire process. A proper connection between systems is the critical ingredient every supply chain business needs to accelerate time-to-value.

One way to connect these applications and processes is with backend, connective networks that utilize an open platform for digital logistics that empowers shippers to mix and match partners, technologies, and solutions into their own unique digital supply chain fingerprint. Open digital platforms means that the original developer has not become the gatekeeper, and the system is open to further independent development.

These networks enable shippers to get behind integration and visibility challenges and really develop a highly customized solution that meets their needs in an affordable and scalable way. It helps them integrate their technologies—such as TMS—into other systems such as dock scheduling, ERP, visibility tools, and driver notification system.

Additionally, these connective systems help solve implementation limitations. Companies can leverage their connective “plumbing” tool, for instance, to connect apps, shippers, or carriers to their TMS from a single platform without code or implementation support from IT.

By enhancing visibility efforts through a single platform, organizations can seamlessly unlock and transfer data, building a lasting relationship with customers and saving time and money. Through a comprehensive multimodal freight strategy incorporating LTL and supported by the integrated networks, online sellers can manage peak sales volumes in the face of freight capacity shortages and supply chain disruptions.