168 | Business World Magazine |
November 2013
tracking number with that carrier. Agistix
pulled that data together and provided the
company with a “Track My Shipment”
link it can host at its website, so the man-
ager at the restaurant can enter the sales
order number and get the carrier tracking
number and transit status all within a few
clicks. “It makes all of that data self-
serve without that shipment actually ever
being booked on our platform, without
any real business process change,” Read
says. “But it takes a tremendous amount of
burden off organization.” Agistix claims
a 15- to 20-percent return on investment
for its clients in terms of transportation
management, where it enables cost com-
parison between carriers. In terms of ef-
ficiency, Read says the company worked
with MIT Masters in Supply Chain Man-
agement to create a formula to determine
specific improvements.
“Imagine as if any item on a shipment’s
life cycle takes five minutes of your time,”
he said. “Maybe it takes five minutes
to look up the tracking status. Maybe it
takes five minutes to file a claim. Maybe
it takes five minutes to see how much the
shipment costs. Maybe it took five min-
utes to see how much it should have cost.
Maybe it takes five minutes to pull all of
your shipment data together because you
want to send out an RFP to get new car-
rier rates. The reality is some of those
shipments take you five milliseconds and
some shipments take you five days to go
to the warehouse, look up what the order
