Imaginnovate CEO to logistics pros: automate to grow

A leading technology executive is preaching digital automation here today as the key to growth for logistics companies. Imaginnovate CEO Krishna Vattipalli will join a panel discussing tech strategies for brokers at the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) Conference. His message to them: create a technology roadmap to overcome unreliable supply chains and withering competition.

“There are exciting technologies that can give third-party logistics providers, brokers, and carriers a leg up in this industry,” Mr. Vattipalli planned to tell his audience in prepared remarks. “Successful operators are the ones that add these tools to their technology stack soon.”

Mr. Vattipalli’s 10-year-old company created a Logistics Studio in 2022 to assist logistics operators seeking to automate. Digital roadmaps are critical to the process, the software specialist is expected to advise at the conference. He said the roadmaps help logistics providers answer questions such as:

• How do we get started with technology?
• Should we build or buy our automation platform?
  
• Do we create in-house IT capability or outsource the function?
  

Automation is long overdue in a logistics sector encumbered by manual tasks, Mr. Vattipalli will declare today. Processes such as booking and shipment tracking must go online to pare costs and improve performance, he observed.

According to the Imaginnovate CEO, logistics providers face existential challenges. The first is a crowded playing field that’s consolidating through mergers and acquisitions. The other hurdle is inflexible supply chains slow to adapt to changes in global trade or consumer spending patterns.

“The winners in this environment are those that operate efficiently,” Mr. Vattipalli will insist. “Automation breeds efficiency.”

Mr. Vattipalli created Fleet Enable software two years ago to digitize final mile and air cargo shipment delivery. Since then, his company has developed technology automating everything from warehouse storage to trucking fleet maintenance.

The CEO said brokers can benefit from artificial intelligence and other digital tools that aid decision-making. Questions about capacity management, market potential, and profitability can all be addressed through technology, he said.

The three-day Transportation Intermediaries Association conference attracts hundreds of logistics professionals engaged in freight movement.