Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms, and Infosys, a global next-generation digital services consulting services provider, said this week they have partnered up to form an alliance focused on accelerating the delivery of best-in-class supply chain process innovations and technology offerings.
FourKites and Infosys officials pointed to various things, including COVID-19-related economic impact, capacity shortages, and trade tensions—as drivers that have “roiled supply chains” and helped to spur on a shift to visibility solutions geared towards helping supply chain stakeholders proactively manage operations and ensure the timely delivery of shipments.
What’s more, they added that this alliance is focused on helping to meet the surge in demand in the form of joint go-to-market programs and implementation services, while also certifying Infosys to market FourKites’ solutions suite and also leverage Infosys’ expertise in complex global supply chain and logistics functions within existing customer environments.
“We’ve actually been talking for about 18 months but recently formalized the relationship with a partnership agreement,” said Peter Yost, Sr. Director, Strategic Alliances at FourKites.
“For FourKites, what drove us to form the alliance is their skill set in implementing and integrating complex supply chain solutions. Also, they have a large team that provides a great deal of global reach into areas where we’re still expanding. It helps that they have a focus on retail, CPG and 3PLs, which are all industries where FourKites has a concentration of customers.”
When asked about the main benefits of this alliance for FourKites’ customers, Yost explained that it plays to the companies’ respective strengths , with Infosys as a consulting company and a systems integration company and FourKites as a technology company.
“While we’re highly skilled at implementing our own visibility solutions, Infosys is much better suited to make recommendations and then deploy real time visibility as an integral part of the company’s supply chain infrastructure,” he said. “For example, this could take the form of customized integration of tracking data with a TMS or WMS.”
And Yost said that this alliance provides FourKites’ shippers with the potential of of engaging with a single provider—Infosys—to design, configure and implement systems that involve multiple vendor’s products.
“For example, Infosys could deploy an SAP ERP, Blue Yonder WMS, an Oracle TMS, and FourKites visibility platform with yard management,” he said. “The missing piece was the inclusion of FourKites visibility and yard management platform. Now, the solution is complete and deployable from a single company, under a single contract.”
About the Author
Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
Jeff Berman is Group News Editor for Logistics Management, Modern Materials Handling, and Supply Chain Management Review. Jeff works and lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where he covers all aspects of the supply chain, logistics, freight transportation, and materials handling sectors on a daily basis. Contact Jeff Berman
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