The company wanted to reduce its dependency on these multiple external TMS systems and provide an integrated solution to improve service levels and drive efficiencies in its back-office. Apexon was engaged to help the company create a single application for all 3PL services. This included migrating from its existing on-premise application to the cloud and enabling self-service on the platform for customers and partners.
Success Story High Tech
Multi-modal, Logistics Company Modernizes 3PL PlatformApexon helps 3rd-party logistics provider deliver from the cloud 
Our client is a third-party logistics provider offering a global network of freight forwarding solutions with a multi-modal platform serving more than 10,000 Clients and producing revenues of over $700 million annually.
The company’s non-asset business model depended on a locally-based network of over 130 Agent Stations. This enables it to provide a one-stop solution for all of its client’s logistics needs including 24/7 support. However, this model also required the company to interact with multiple transportation management systems (TMS), creating fragmentation that made it more difficult to manage, and created a sub-optimal customer experience. It also made the company’s back-office processes very cumbersome.
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3rd party logistics services
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Nationwide network of 130+ agents
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More than 10,000 clients
The customer journey
- Greenfield project (at RRD) with 4 Scrum teams + Onsite UX & tech leads
- Go-live with MVP
- Additional Scrum team and onsite tech lead
- Configurable Rating logic
- Payment gateway
- Azure migration (spin off from RRD) from on-premise
- TMS Solution started with 4 additional Scrum teams + 3 onsite resources
the Results
Key Outcomes
HIGHER SERVICE LEVELS,
ENHANCED UX
ENHANCED UX
FASTER CYCLE TIME,
REDUCED COSTS
REDUCED COSTS
INCREASED AUTOMATION, AGILITY & SCALE
The challenge
Consolidating Multiple 3PL Services onto a Single Platform
The company offers a comprehensive set of logistics services to its customers that deliver significant economies of scale, the customer’s choice of carriers, and access to all transportation modes. Its full menu of services include:
LTL (Less Than Truckload) and TL (Truckload)
Airfreight (Domestic and International)
Ocean freight
Trade show services
White glove services
Parcel
Intermodal (IMD)
Expedited ground
To coordinate these different services across its agent network, our client was dependent on multiple external TMS systems. This complexity made it more difficult to manage these services and compromised the solutions and user experience it could offer its customers and partners. It also created a number of inefficiencies in its back-office operations.
The company wanted to reduce its dependency on these external TMS systems and provide a one-stop solution to improve service levels for customers while also making its back-office operations more efficient. This would require expertise and focus in several key areas:
Building a modern digital platform while easing the transition from its existing legacy-based systems
Upgrading its IT infrastructure to support new market demands across a range of stations and customers
Building a flexible, self-service platform for its customers that would add transparency
Ensuring ease of implementation and use
Enabling the easy addition of new functionality to address evolving customer requirements
Streamlining internal operations to make the company more agile and efficient
The Solution
Best-in-Class 3PL Services in the Cloud
The engagement was built around a managed services contract that leveraged Apexon’s expertise across multiple technologies and methodologies:
The company engaged with Apexon to design and engineer a single, best-in-class application that integrated for all of its 3PL services onto a common platform including Transportation (Rating, Quote & Shipments, Tracking), Admin and Financial (Invoice & Online Payments), and a flexible rating engine. It also had to manage customer and agent stations onboarding and maintenance, and provide detailed reporting and analysis dashboards.
Migration from on-premise to Azure cloudDevOps
Agile – Scrum for delivery process
Azure DevOps for backlog and repository management
Azure cloud native solutions
BDD – User acceptance criteria for business requirements
TDD and SOLID principles for development methodology
Side-by-side feature migration
Trunk-based branching for source control
OAuth 2.0 for security
Cannery release/Dark launch using claim-based feature flags
Continues integration and Continues delivery for deployment process
Selenium and Spec-flow for automation scripts
Apexon essentially operated as the company’s IT team with 60+ team members delivering highly maintainable, scalable and testable software to production every 3 weeks.
Outcomes
The one-stop solution for all of company’s 3PL services was called company-Connect and it delivered a whole host of advantages for the company, its customers and its partners:
Outstanding User Experience for all 3PL service needs
Scalable Architecture To support exponential growth
Higher Service Levels reduced customer onboarding time
Ease of Configuration robust and flexible rating engine
Faster Time to Market for New Ideas through iterative and continuous delivery
Reduced Costs through the increased use of automation
Increased Agility & Scale Through the use of automation
Easy Access to Performance Data Via intuitive reporting dashboards