In this case study, a fourth-party logistics (4PL) provider based in Lima, Peru describes the partnership that allowed it to expand its services from Latin America to Europe and beyond.

In the last 20 years, One4PL has offered a wide array of multimodal logistics services in 15 Latin American countries. With the help of MPO, the provider has begun global freight operations in Portugal and Spain and is planning further expansion in Europe. One4PL’s approach involves global hubs that reconnect cargo with multimodal operations.

As Armando Robles, vice president of One4PL puts it, the challenge for the provider was in orchestrating its vast ecosystem, including transportation order management, logistics and last-mile delivery. The partnership with MPO began in Peru and with partners based in Latin America, says Tom Rhoads, chief commercial officer at MPO, before moving into Europe.

Specifically, MPO connected One4PL’s extended ecosystem so that there's one version of the truth around all the data flows and activities in a full order lifecycle. “That’s true whether it’s an inbound or outbound order,” Rhoads says. “At the end of the day, he needs to have full control and visibility to execute that order. So when we look at what we call multi-level order management, multi-tiered inventory management and multi-mode transport management cohesively combined, they are necessary to execute, optimize and collaborate cohesively across this ecosystem.

“Unlike a point-solution approach that’s just about moving a product from point A to point B to C,” Rhoads continues, “it's about where is that inventory, how can I optimally fulfill it, and how can I then understand the customer service levels that you have to have, which may involve very different modes of transport. And then collectively bringing that all together and having full visibility and analytics to support what you’re trying to do.”