A mid-market third-party logistics operator with 22 systems of record and an exception queue that consumed three full-time analysts. We asked one question first: which of these systems actually need to talk to each other? The answer was three.
The operator's stack had grown by acquisition: two TMSs, a WMS, a CRM, a homegrown rating engine, and a dozen integrations to carriers, customers, and brokers. Every exception — a missed pickup, a billing mismatch, a customs hold — surfaced in a different place. Three analysts spent their days copying values between tabs.
The temptation was to replace one of the systems. We did the opposite — we left every system where it was, and built a thin layer over the three integrations that actually mattered.
The warehouse system is fine. The CRM is fine. The TMSs are fine. What's broken is the wiring, and the operators paying the cost for it. Let's not replace any system. Let's build the connective tissue — and prove the value before you sign for a re-platform you may not need.
An exception-routing agent grounded in a federated ontology, with humans in the loop on three classes of decision.
"We came in thinking we needed to buy a new platform. They convinced us, with evidence, that we didn't — and built the thing we actually needed for less than the discovery phase of the original RFP would have cost."