FourKites®, the #1 real-time supply chain visibility platform, announced that it was named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms(1).
Out of 14 vendors evaluated, FourKites was the only company positioned in the Leaders quadrant with the highest Completeness of Vision.
FourKites pioneered real-time transportation visibility in 2014, and is now leading the industry into a new era where global supply chains are powered and optimized by real-time visibility data and machine learning.
Recognized as a “company of firsts”, FourKites delivered more than 120 new products and features in 2020 alone, including a number of industry-firsts such as multimodal end-to-end purchase order tracking; Appointment Manager℠, an automated appointment scheduling platform for facilities, shippers and carriers; a new software category - Dynamic Yard® - that extends visibility into warehouses and yards; and Dynamic Ocean℠, a next-generation international ocean visibility solution that encompasses advanced document management capabilities, robust collaboration features and support for bookings, with superior end-to-end real-time tracking.
Through its recent $100 million Series D financing round, led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., with strategic investors including Qualcomm Ventures, LLC, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Zebra Technologies, FourKites is now poised to fuel a broader vision for the future of digital supply chains - one that connects the physical and digital worlds of warehouses, stores and transportation to enable true end-to-end visibility and unlock tremendous value for the entire ecosystem, fueling even greater automation and collaboration.
“FourKites’ recognition as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant follows a year of record growth, momentum and technological innovation, driven in close collaboration with customers,” said Mathew Elenjickal, founder and CEO of FourKites.
“This is a testament to the value we continue to bring to our customers, and recognition of our vision for the future of supply chain management and automation - one that focuses on eliminating barriers across supply chains and delivering true, end-to-end global supply chain visibility.”
Collaboration with the world’s largest shippers continues to play a critical part in FourKites’ technology roadmap, as together with its customers FourKites innovates and delivers solutions that address the industry’s most pressing needs.
In the last year alone, FourKites released the industry’s first end-to-end purchase order lifecycle tracking solution, which was developed in conjunction with Meijer, one of the largest food retailers and wholesalers in the country.
In addition, FourKites partnered with Cardinal Health to build a cognitive supply chain and serve as the company’s central data hub to create a fast, reliable and frictionless experience for the 29,000 pharmacies and nearly 90 percent of American hospitals that depend upon Cardinal Health for critical supplies.
“Delivery of healthcare products directly impacts patients, and ensuring these products reach their destinations on time and in full has never been more critical. This type of transparency helps build trust in the connection between the Cardinal Health supply chain and our customers,” said Sean Halligan, Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations at Cardinal Health.
“By partnering with FourKites, we will have end-to-end visibility to see products in transit and make any necessary adjustments to provide a frictionless experience to our customers everywhere and help them better serve their patients.”
Today, the FourKites platform tracks more than 2 million shipments per day for some of the world’s largest companies including Coca-Cola, Dow, Eastman, PetSmart, The Michaels Companies, Land O’Lakes, AB InBev, Constellation Brands and 3M. FourKites saw demand for its superior network of logistics tracking data and proprietary machine learning technology surge in 2020, as evidenced by record global growth in new shipping customers across all major verticals.
In 2020, FourKites Experienced:
The Gartner report also highlighted FourKites’ strong customer presence across key verticals, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, chemicals, manufacturing, paper and packaging, pharmaceuticals and retail as one of the key strengths that helps us qualify as a partner of choice.
FourKites works with more enterprise companies valued at over $1 billion than any other vendor in the Magic Quadrant, and the company has received the highest volume of four and five-star reviews on Gartner Peer Insights (specifically, of 96 reviews as of April 19, 2021, 97% are four- and five-star ratings), a platform for public peer reviews on solutions.
(1)Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms,” Bart De Muynck, Carly West, 14 April 2021.
Gartner Disclaimer:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Real-time transportation visibility platforms are software tools that provide companies and consumers with live updates on the location and status of goods they have ordered. This information most often comes from dedicated GPS and telematics hardware located on the truck, trailer or container that is transporting the goods, and is activated as soon as the shipment leaves the manufacturer or warehouse facility.
In this age of rising consumer expectations, giving individuals and businesses insight into the status of their deliveries is crucial to ensuring customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Collecting real-time transportation visibility data offers companies the ability to deliver not only the physical products consumers paid for, but also the valuable, intangible benefits of improved customer experience and peace of mind.
Moreover, having accurate, reliable data on the location of inbound shipments allows companies, such as retailers, manufacturers and others to act swiftly and decisively in the face of disruptions, rather than having to guess at the best course of action.
In addition to the customer experience improvements described above, investment in real-time visibility offers a range of benefits and ROI opportunities for companies of all sizes and industries.
As Gartner VP Bart de Muynck stated during Visibility 2020, “As supply chain companies strive to become more agile, they increasingly use visibility to move from reactive to preventive in the way they operate.”
In the context of a global pandemic, de Muynck says Gartner has identified multiple use cases where end-to-end, real-time visibility users have been able to attain immediate benefits from their tools.
Five of these use cases are as follows:
Though still a relatively young category of technology, the world of real-time visibility is full of success stories from companies and individuals making intelligent use of comprehensive data to drive major improvements throughout their operations.
One of the earliest avenues for achieving strong returns on your visibility investment is the reduction and reallocation of existing labor costs. As companies are able to automate tasks that once required entire teams to accomplish, those personnel will be able to refocus on achieving tasks that can add a greater level of value to the business and its customers.
Pixelle, one of North America’s leading paper and packaging companies, witnessed a rapid reduction in track-and-trace calls after choosing to implement a real-time visibility solution. Within less than a year of investing in the new technology, Pixelle’s leadership observed that emails sent by load planners, carriers and customer service groups trying to locate a particular shipment had been cut nearly in half.
Schreiber Foods, the recent recipient of one of FourKites’ annual Golden Kite Awards, used real-time transportation visibility to supplement their existing process for approving carrier detention time requests. By cross-referencing incoming carrier requests for detention time with existing real-time visibility data, Schreiber was able to cut down on unsubstantiated requests, saving money on fees and reducing the overall number of detention requests received by 15% in 2020.
Kraft-Heinz, another recent Golden Kite winner, leveraged their real-time visibility investment to not only help their bottom line, but those in need as well. For over three years, they’ve fine-tuned their ability to streamline transportation management using real-time transportation data. During the early days of the COVID pandemic, they adapted that approach to their efforts with Feeding America, working to optimize their process for getting food to those most in need even as demand for such assistance grew to unprecedented levels.
These are far from the only stories of success and innovation using real-time transportation visibility. Other FourKites’ customers – including some of the largest shippers in the world – have successfully leveraged FourKites’ real-time transportation visibility capabilities to:
As the market for global, end-to-end transportation visibility continues to grow, the number and variety of product offerings within this space will continue to increase, as well. Given the rapidly globalizing nature of the supply chain industry, and the increasingly urgent need for technology solutions to help navigate disruption, savvy companies would be wise to seek out technology solutions that will grow with them - adding new features, functionalities and geographies to suit both customer demand and the emerging capabilities of the technology itself.
Some key factors to keep in mind when deciding among RTTVP providers include:
In addition to these key areas of concern, there are several other functionalities that may benefit your operation:
In conclusion, real-time transportation visibility platforms (RTTVPs) are quickly moving out of the realm of emerging technologies and becoming a pillar of the modern business enterprise. The benefits derived from RTTVPs are extensive and far-reaching, regardless of industry, geography or company size. However, it is precisely because of this rapid growth that you will want to take a detailed approach to choosing the platform that is right for your organization and that can scale with you as you grow.
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