In this episode, Mark has a sneezing spell, while the pioneers dive into the rise of third-party logistics (3PL), the intricacies of multi-tenant systems, and how Softeon empowers 3PLs to enhance both speed and flexibility.
While the 3PL market has been growing for 30 years, it has also undergone dramatic changes over the past two decades. Jim Hoefflin, CEO, Softeon, offers his perspective on these shifts:
“When I think back to the early days of 3PLs, I remember a cycle where 3PLs would try to develop their own technology and it wouldn’t work, then they would go get a vendor but that would be too expensive. One of the biggest changes I see today is that they aren’t in that cycle anymore. 3PLs are now largely connected to two or three vendors that segment up their business to who they work with as a partner and at varying levels they are somewhere along the spectrum of being solution-forward and maybe a little less progressive.”
Jim Hoefflin, CEO, Softeon
Transitioning from contract-based sites to multi-tenant systems requires a completely different architecture and foundation. In today’s market, these legacy systems are being replaced. Softeon’s CTO, Mark Fralick, sheds light on the complexity of multi-tenant systems.
“Jim and I were the original architects of the 3PL system that we created, and we handled the contracts side of logistics fine, but we didn’t contemplate that in a multi-customer environment you are going to have different flows going different directions and then all of the configurations have to split. Our system is great at saying, is this a warehouse level, customer level, building level, what is the level that we need to have the configurations set to – that’s the key.”
Mark Fralick, CTO, Softeon
In today’s market, 3PLs are asking for two things – speed and flexibility. Softeon has the foundation and technology to help 3PLS grow and onboard customers in different verticals. Hoefflin says that it starts with the infrastructure and basic concepts to successfully run a multi-client facility.
“When it comes to onboarding new clients, one of the key things we have built over time is the configurator – it is really good at taking either an environment that you set up as a template or will ask you scripted questions to build out a configuration. This process can substantially cut down the time it takes to prepare. Some of our best-in-class 3PL partners will onboard a new client in seven days and they’ll be shipping in 32 days, which is a fraction of what it used to be.”
Jim Hoefflin, CEO, Softeon
Discover why the Pioneers believe 3PLs with strong partnerships will continue to thrive, while those lagging in technology may face challenges—plus, hear about the surprising concerts they’ve attended! Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, or other popular podcast channels.
