Odyssey Logistics & Technology Transforms Customer Intelligence with Qlik

Global Logistics Leader Enhances Customer Alerting, Delivery Support and Proactive Insights Through Analytics

July 31, 2018

Radnor, PA. – Qlik®, a leader in data analytics, today announced Odyssey Logistics & Technology (Odyssey), a global logistics solutions provider, has selected Qlik for its proactive customer intelligence data analysis, alerting and insights needs. Odyssey provides a range of innovative technologies to deliver thorough high-value logistics strategies, including managed logistics services, intermodal, international transportation management and trucking.

Odyssey is leveraging a variety of Qlik offerings, including Qlik Sense and Qlik GeoAnalytics, to expand its business intelligence services, partnering with customers through analytics to proactively manage the complex and conflicting issues that are inherent in logistics.

“Our customers expect freight to be delivered on time, every time. Conditions and resource variability, from weather to truck availability to fuel costs, makes it critical that we proactively analyze live data, update customers regularly and avoid the unexpected,” said Joe Easley, Qlik Administrator at Odyssey Logistics & Technology. “With Qlik we are uncovering detailed insights by blending internal and external data, mitigating issues ahead of time and meeting our customers’ demanding needs with confidence.”

Easley added that one of the most significant issues Odyssey deals with is weather, which can range from ice and snow to rain, flooding, wildfires, fog or dust storms. “Even though origin and destination are fixed points for planned deliveries, weather can be different at each site, impacting transit and delivery times,” said Easley. “Odyssey initially managed weather issues through a manual process, with operational teams reviewing National Weather Service alerts, reports and emails. Our teams spent hours refining searches based on specific geo areas, augmenting with Google Maps to configure details and only then determining if there was a real problem that required action.”

Through Qlik, Odyssey has built a connection to the National Weather Service CAPS Atom feed, refined alerts down to five transportation relevant categories and used Qlik GeoAnalytics to aggregate and model every alert. Client data was brought into Qlik Sense from the live system to create proactive alerts on any individual shipment based on origin and destination weather variables (e.g. a refrigerated shipment and heat index issues.)  Dashboards provide actionable data for internal client teams and customers alike to avoid issues and ensure delivery.

Odyssey has blended ERP data and its proprietary TMS system data in Qlik to feed the Odyssey Visibility Portal, which now provides customers both on the fly analytics and custom content that is pre-curated per customer by the internal development team. Data can be refreshed at whatever cadence customers want based on use case, making data on-demand vs. on-request in one interactive dashboard vs. double digit static reports.

In the next 12-18 months Odyssey will be integrating even more external data such as U.S. Department of Energy weekly fuel index costs, Bureau of Labor Statistics on labor rate fluctuations and the impact on shipping rates, and World Bank data on import/export ratios, all of which will expand a customer’s understanding of global and regional issues that affect their businesses. Odyssey also will be blending data to bring deeper insights to customers such as real-time truck tracking with risk management (road conditions, weather, driver time on road) to create a delivery risk index. 

“Using Qlik has helped Odyssey avoid data arrogance, which we define as relying on only internal data to make decisions. Through Qlik’s ability to blend external data with our own, we’ve quickly scaled applications and expanded the platform’s value with actionable insights that can be made available in minutes for intelligent decision making,” said Easley.

About Odyssey
Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corporation (Odyssey) is a global logistics solutions provider with freight network of over $2B. Odyssey’s services include intermodal services, trucking services, managed services, international transportation management and consulting. With operations in North America, Europe and Asia, Odyssey operates in all modes of transport with TL/LTL trucking, containership, rail, air, and bulk transport including bulk truck, ISO Tank, railcar and tanker, as well as food-grade product lines.

The Odyssey Global Logistics PlatformSM features a transportation management system that supports the safe, reliable and efficient delivery of client products throughout the world.

For more about Odyssey, please visit www.odysseylogistics.com.

About Qlik
Qlik® is the leading data analytics platform and the pioneer of user-driven business intelligence. Its portfolio of cloud-based and on-premise solutions meets customers’ growing needs from reporting and self-service visual analysis to guided, embedded and custom analytics, regardless of where data is located. Customers using Qlik Sense®, QlikView® and Qlik® Cloud, gain meaning out of information from multiple sources, exploring the hidden relationships within data that lead to insights that ignite good ideas. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Qlik does business in more than 100 countries with over 48,000 customers globally.

###

© 2018 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. Qlik®, Qlik Sense®, QlikView®, QlikTech®, Qlik Cloud®, Qlik DataMarket®, Qlik Analytics Platform®, Qlik NPrinting®, Qlik Connectors®, Qlik GeoAnalytics®, Qlik Core® and the QlikTech logos are trademarks of QlikTech International AB which have been registered in multiple countries. Other marks and logos mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.