Plenty of companies have access to data about their shipping operations — but do they have a centralized location for accessing it, and making smart decisions based on it? John Errebo, chief technology officer of Enveyo, assesses the state of data management.

Proper management of data is essential, given that shipping cost is consistently among the top line items for product-based companies, Errebo says. The problem is that the data exists in multiple silos, including enterprise resource planning, warehouse management systems and transportation management systems. That makes it difficult to ccom eup with one accurate number that would allow companies to monitor their shipping activities and control their cost. “We want one source of truth,” he says, “with all the data in one place.”

With each advance in technology comes data in a new form. Companies that can’t consolidate that information in one location will find it hard to assess the effectiveness of new systems and software. “Otherwise,” says Errebo, “you get into the bad habit of swapping out technology constantly to keep up.”

“Set it and forget it” is the practice of many companies looking to make decisions on technology, but the result is likely to be multiple systems and point solutions encumbered by those dreaded data silos. “You want somebody with continuous eyes, at some regular cadence, to continuously improve and keep up with the market,” Errebo says.

A predictive analytics tool can help, he says, by enabling companies to feed data into a common system. In the process, they can determine how well they succeeded in their efforts to acquire appropriate technology for optimizing shipping.  

By its very nature, data is dynamic, so how can companies keep up? “If data is normalized, at that point it just becomes matter of making decisions,” Errebo says.