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Case study

The challenge

The freight shipping industry is undergoing massive change.
E-commerce has decreased the average haul length, customers expect swift last-mile delivery and freight volume exceeds truck capacity. Truck owner/operators and carriers need solutions that reduce costly “deadhead” miles driven with empty loads.

To adapt to rapid change, a leading North American trucking and transportation company needed to modernize its core operational systems and infrastructure. Building digital solutions to increase operational efficiency meant replacing on-premises infrastructure and waterfall development with scalable, cloud-based infrastructure, a modern technology stack and agile ways of working. The company engaged Cognizant to collaboratively build a modern cloud platform and introduce agile methodology to its developers.

Our approach

We built a robust cloud-native platform on Microsoft Azure with smart business processes, well-integrated sub-systems, automated decision systems with high information visibility on assets, pricing and rating.

Our next-gen transportation management platform represents 1,200 person years of effort. Over the course of the engagement, we deployed more than 400 developers who worked in pods—self-contained teams of six to eight developers, testers and architects—in three U.S. locations and India. We used the Scaled Agile Framework to coordinate the work across multiple locations. During the engagement, the client’s IT organization gained experience with agile methods and tools by working side-by-side with our developers and attending workshops. This digital foundation enabled the client to build new applications, including an artificial intelligence-powered digital marketplace that connects shippers and truckers to reduce deadhead miles. It includes a mobile app used to bid on loads, view load location in real time, rate facilities and receive payments.

Cloud-based platform improves operational efficiency

Our solution improves the client’s supply chain collaboration and helps it meet emerging market needs. The solution also gives account representatives the ability to forecast 10 days before creating a quote. Through automation, we helped the client improve operational efficiency—with 80% more electronic orders accepted and 40% more carrier payments processed than before.

80%

more electronic orders accepted automatically

40%

more carrier payments processed automatically

Up to 10 days

advanced visibility into the data required for account representatives to create quotes