Enterprise technology companies can collect and process more data at unprecedented levels today. Amplify struck a goldmine when we started working with project44, a leading global supply chain analytics provider with valuable real-time insights into the movement of products for some of the largest companies in the world. Their data is immediate and impactful and the need for their data is time-sensitive.
project44’s mission is to make supply chains work. They have built a connected data ecosystem with visibility into over 1 billion shipments annually for over 1,300 of the world’s leading brands like Honda, Unilever, Samsung, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, and many more.
That’s a lot of data.
By nature of the supply chain, the world's aggregated shipping records are also chronicled in project44’s databases. This plethora of aggregated and anonymized supply chain data can be applied to a variety of uses, from monitoring the performance of the Panama Canal, to diving deep into the news-making delays at Shanghai’s port.
The data is aggregated to provide an edge to clients looking at world events and their impact, as they happen. As such, the immediacy of delivery and customization on short notice is crucial.
Jenna Slagle, a Senior Data Marketing Analyst at project44 has been working with supply chain and business intelligence data since her time at Home Depot. She explains,
“From our shipment data we try to find big trends in the supply chain industry. The goal of my job is to create content for project44 based on these events and insights and really push to press and try to get project44 mentioned and build a brand as supply chain experts.”
She continues to provide an example for us:
“When events such as the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, MD collapse, we create filters for our customers that show all of the impact on their shipments. Where are they diverting them to and are there dray issues, rail issues in the area? How does this port in Baltimore impact the dray market in New York? Everything in the supply chain tends to be a domino effect. Key points from our data:
1. We knew that container dwell and vessel berthing times were stable as of a couple weeks after reopening.
2. New York received 46% of the rerouted container volume, Norfolk received 20%, and Newark Elizabeth received 9%.
3. The estimated demurrage fees due to the collapse could be as much as $85 million.
We use our knowledge of supply chain, the average dwell time, and industry averages for these types of estimations.”
While the value of project44’s data is clear, the magnitude and inherent immediacy of the data requests poses a challenge. project44 is consistently approached by banks, consulting firms, media giants, and PR firms to utilize their wealth of information, creating a situation with a large volume of data requests funneling to a limited number of team members. Jenna elaborates:
“project44 shares anonymized data sets and charts with reporters after key incidents to help them write stories, and our company gets press mentions in return. However, the initial approach had its own set of challenges. The existing workflow required four dedicated data marketers, manually running SQL queries against a Snowflake database. Every PR request turned into a flurry of searching for the right query, running it, collating the data in Excel, and tailoring it to answer the specific question. It was a cumbersome manual process.”
Amplify provided project44 a white-labeled data portal, to act as a self-serve platform. The marketing team was able to turn their SQL queries into “Data Products”, which partners could now search and customize to get the metrics and data they need.
“Now rather than all of our PR firms and reporters we work closely with having to come to me anytime they need any sort of data, it gives them the ability to pull the anonymized data themselves. If CNBC, for example, is interested in port dwell data in Tacoma, rather than reaching out to our PR team, who then reach out to me, they can log in directly in their account and download it from the platform. And that's freed up a lot of bandwidth, as well as just continuing to keep that response time timely, especially when it comes to news. It strikes fast. If we miss that window of opportunity, we miss it.”
The Amplify portal, complete with data visualizations, descriptions, and real-time updates, is now available to all of project44’s external marketing partners, allowing them to self-serve the data they need. Journalists and other external partners are able to export this data in any format they need, from simple CSV downloads, to more customized deliveries via SFTP and even Snowflake shares.
Not only did this transformation drastically reduce manual efforts, but it also paved the way for collaborations with multiple media outlets, banks, and even the World Trade Organization.
Through our collaboration, project44 + Amplify were able to:
project44 embodies the power of valuable data delivery. Where today, countless businesses are overlooking an untapped data trove hidden within their data warehouses, project44 is leveraging it to its full extent. In today’s corporate dynamics, data isn’t just an asset, but a product itself.
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