J.B. Hunt Advances Efforts to Deliver Data in Real-Time With Qlik
Qlik Data Integration Accelerates Microsoft Azure Databricks Data Lake Effort at J.B. Hunt With Real-time Data Pipelines
J.B. Hunt is a leader in many respects – a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest transportation logistics companies in North America. The company’s technology solution, J.B. Hunt 360°®, is cutting edge in the industry as a digital freight matching platform, changing the way carriers and shippers collaborate and conduct business.
When Joe Spinelle joined Doug Mettenburg and the J.B. Hunt team as a Director Engineering and Technology, the organization had already started a company-wide digital transformation journey. One of the main aspects of that journey was the implementation of a Microsoft Azure Databricks data lake to modernize the data warehouse for increased efficiencies and data access across the organization.
As the engineering and technology team started its rollout, they noticed increasing pressure on the operational data stores that served as the backbone for J.B. Hunt 360. After evaluating the data pipelines, the team pinpointed the need to accelerate the flow of data into the lake to ensure that J.B. Hunt 360 users maintained a quality experience with no performance lag.
Enter Qlik Data Integration as the change data capture software solution to deliver timely data from a variety of sources, including legacy mainframe systems and SQL servers. Using Qlik, the J.B. Hunt team can preview the data ingestion process and proactively target any issues, ensuring that J.B. Hunt 360 users can leverage the data needed to make critical business decisions. For example, using the data enabled by Qlik, the company is developing a process within J.B. Hunt 360 that will automate competitive counteroffers to carriers on available freight. The real-time data also helps generate dynamic pricing for shipments based on carrier availability and current market conditions.
“The applications team also uses the data lake to troubleshoot what’s happening in production without putting pressure on the operational database,” said Spinelle. “That means the data lake needs to be as close to real-time as possible, so they can diagnose what J.B. Hunt 360 users are experiencing, get to a solution faster, and prevent escalation.”
As J.B. Hunt rolls out the Azure Databricks data lake across various parts of the organization, users of the initial applications are already experiencing greater real-time data availability. With latency reduced to just minutes, the J.B. Hunt team is achieving their internal central KPI success benchmark for data delivery from the data lake.
“Our mission is to create the most efficient transportation network in North America,” said Spinelle. “With Qlik feeding the Azure Databricks data lake, we’re seeing more real-time data in J.B. Hunt 360, which gives shippers and carriers up-to-the-minute information on how they are performing. The combination of real-time data and insights we’re now experiencing is really helping advance the company’s expertise in supply chain technology.”
The positive business impact from the collaboration with Qlik on the initial rollout of Qlik Replicate as part of the overall Qlik Data Integration platform is now also being seen with the Qlik Catalog and Qlik Compose for Data Warehouse products.
