How Technology Responds to Supply Chain Challenges (and the Role Geofencing Plays)

Technology is the solution to modern challenges in supply chain and fleet management. Organizations must consider different technologies and platforms, automated polygon geofencing (and the location intelligence it provides) can be a key part of configuring the right solution.

This week’s look at the headlines includes notes on how geofencing helps create ecosystems for collaboration, manage out-of-control freight rates, automate fleet management processes, and more. If you’d like to explore adding advanced geofencing to your current tech stack, the team at Kestrel Insights is always here to help.

Fostering Ecosystem Collaboration: A Key to Supply Chain Success in 2024

No less an authority than Garter examines the top trends for supply chain technology in 2024. Among the lengthy rundown of innovations and best practices is this note:

“Advancements in technology will provide supply chain technology leaders and chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) with opportunities to support new business models, augment and automate decision making, and foster ecosystem collaboration …”

That last note on ecosystem collaboration is particularly important. At Kestrel Insights, we believe in the power and necessity of connectivity, which helps create an ecosystem of supply chain solutions. That’s why we’ve built integrations to leading platforms like Samsara and Motive — so that users of those platforms can enjoy the benefits of automated polygon geofencing in the environments and UIs that are already an integral part of their tech stack.

How Geofencing Helps Manage Out-of-Control Freight Rates

Here’s another story that highlights the importance of modern technology in overcoming today’s supply chain management challenges. The story notes that out-of-control freight rates are one of the most pressing issues, but one that technology is primed to solve.

We recently wrote about off-highway fuel tax rebates and how advanced geofencing can be used to take advantage of them. When you secure these rebates, you help bring the cost side of fleet and supply chain operations in line with your budget, which helps you mitigate the impact of volatile freight rates. In the future, geofencing could also be used to help keep the cost of fleet electrification down.

Automating Processes in Fleet Management

One of the greatest challenges in fleet management is the overreliance on legacy technology and manual processes. Any manual process is time-consuming and prone to error — issues that automation can eliminate. Both Forbes and Facility Executive recently wrote about the use of AI in fleet management and the role it can play in automating processes to improve decision-making, save time, and reduce costs.

Polygon geofencing for fleet management can also create these outcomes. When strategically added to your tech stack, geofencing can be used to configure alerts and workflows that power your business, allowing for better decisions and time/money savings.

The Keys to Overcoming Barriers to Tech Adoption

Supply chain and logistics companies often lag behind in their adoption of technology for any number of reasons, according to Supply Chain Brain. To accelerate the adoption of new tech and to reduce friction for users, vendors need to emphasize affordability and connectivity. Affordability makes tech more accessible to organizations, and connectivity allows them to add new technology to their existing systems (without disrupting workflows).

For example, adding polygon geofencing to a leading telematics platform is more likely to drive the use of advanced geofencing than if it were only available in a separate interface. The best part is that these integrations are turnkey and require very little tech lift.

Closing the Visibility Gap With Geofencing

End-to-end supply chain visibility is an important goal for many in the industry, but Supply & Demand Chain Executive suggests that there remains a visibility gap that needs closing. Automated polygon geofencing can be part of your solution for closing this visibility gap. Use advanced geofencing at ports, distribution centers, risk zones, warehouses, and other locations that are important to your supply chain and business so that you enhance your tracking and draw closer to true end-to-end visibility.

The Innovations That are Improving Customer Experience

Speaking of visibility, Inc. recently examined the innovations improving customer experiences. Naturally, visibility technologies made the list. When you have end-to-end visibility in place, you can better manage your fleet and supply chain internally and improve communication and status updates for your customers.

Add Geofencing to Your Tech Stack to Streamline Fleet and Supply Chain Management

Data surfaced by automated polygon geofencing can be pivotal to your business, and Kestrel Insights makes this geofencing-driven database available to you in leading supply chain platforms. With access to geofencing data, you can improve visibility, reduce costs, and gain an advantage over your competitors.

Ready to learn more? Get in touch with us to see what automated polygon geofencing can do for your business.

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