Kewill introduces MOVE, a new multimodal transportation platform

Multimodal transportation software provider Kewill today rolled out a new platform designed to manage the complexities of transportation, logistics, and trade compliance.

Entitled KEWILL MOVE, company officials said that MOVE will function as a multimodal transportation solution that supports the key business practices for optimized value in supply chain execution while shifting Chelmsford, Mass.-based Kewill to an enterprise software platform provider.

Kewill said MOVE, which can used as an on-premises or SaaS model, will highly useful to third-party logistics services providers, manufacturers, and retailers and distributors for: 
-Trade-From order-to-invoice and from full container to parcel, manage global, regional and local logistics shipments including freight forwarding, transportation and warehousing. Gain early insight into potential supply issues and trade barriers while simultaneously improving management of network volatility;
-Transport – Benefit from multimodal transportation expertise and capabilities that are unmatched in the industry. More effectively manage air, sea, rail and road requirements for full-load, less than truck load, pallet and parcel deliveries on a local, national, regional or global scale;
-Store – Improve the efficiency of warehouse management and inventory management processes. Provide inventory visibility to suppliers and customers with wireless technology to improve operator productivity;
-Comply – Actively manage customs and trade compliance and stay informed of changing trade regulations around the world. Connections to a multitude of different local customs applications eliminating any burden to users;
-Manage – Gain a holistic view of the logistics network with end-to-end visibility across the most critical supply chain execution processes. Dashboards, key performance indicators (KPI) and proactive alerting improves the way the business is managed; and
-Integrate – Improve external collaboration and B2B integration with critical trading partners by removing the geographic and technical constraints that hinder efficiency.

In an interview with LM, Kewill President Bob Farrell said that since being purchased by private equity firm Francisco Partners in May 2012, the company has been investing in taking its various platforms to the next level and drive itself towards leadership in overall multimodal transportation management software.

“The MOVE platform is really the first step in doing that,” he said. “It is really a bunch of things coming together at one time to really address the continuum of trade logistics from the movement of goods right from the point of origin through the various stages of transportation, distribution, warehousing, import/export customs, regulations and right through to returns. That is what we are trying to address, and we are investing in things as a company to be able to do that.”

Kewill CMO Evan Puzey said that with a sharp focus on the multimodal transportation space as part of the global trade and logistics sector, MOVE address its multiple facets through ocean, air, rail, and road transportation globally, as well as related regulations and processes and order processing at the point of an invoice.

“What MOVE is about is connecting all of those different components, and we believe fist t four components—Trade, Transport, Store, and Comply—coupled with wrapping it around the Integration component, which brings all the information together from our supply chain trading partners into that solution set…and it also puts a layer across the top as a visibility management capability in which you can see what is going on and where and manage the whole process in an exception management environment,” he explained.  “This enables users to gather information around partners’ intelligence and analytics to help us improve the process and environment more effectively and analytically.”

The Kewill executives said that with MOVE the company is really trying to focus on addressing all segments and tiers of the market of different sizes and scale, ranging from a large entity like a Tier 1 freight forwarder to a small 3PL with limited assets.

This creates a need for two different offerings and budget scenarios for each of those companies.

“As we build this platform, we are addressing the whole spectrum of players and are building the right sales model and support alongside of it so whether it is a small player or a large player we will be positioned well from a technology platform perspective and a functional perspective, too,” said Farrell.

Puzey noted that some of the impetus for MOVE came from customers entering different sectors like forwarder getting into transport and warehousing or a transport and warehousing company getting into forwarding and customs. 

This in turn led to Kewill coming up with a single platform with a single data management and single sign on layer so that end users could leverage one single platform rather than having to depend on several independent solutions. 

Gartner analyst Chad Eschinger said that with transportation and logistics software in general there has been a transition towards a platform or network-based approach, with a network being the external side.

“I look at MOVE being similar in theme to SCOPE from Manhattan Associates, where they are incorporating or allowing organizations to connect all of their Kewill solutions more seamlessly as well as to leverage that platform to integrate with third-party content or systems like ERP solutions from Oracle or SAP,” said Eschinger. “From that perspective, [end users] say they are continually looking for adaptive IT architectures or infrastructures that are more active and flexible and need greater transparency and responsiveness. This MOVE release hits on a lot of those needs. And it is also geared towards more of a Cloud- or SaaS-based model in areas like global trade and transportation.”

Eschinger said it is likely that Kewill has clients that some elements of the solution areas provided by MOVE, adding that Kewill has had a lot of platform integration capabilities for a while but had not yet reached the point where it had pulled it all together.