# EPISODE #11

## FINDING OPPORTUNITIES IN CHAOS

### In the Shipping Industry

In the latest installment of Better Yet, Better Trucks’ fireside chat series with innovators, visionaries, and leaders in the supply chain industry, we sat down with Coby Nilsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Enveyo, a data-centered tech platform that helps companies optimize their supply chains, and Andy Whiting, Better Trucks’ CEO and Co-Founder. The pair discussed supply chain technology, how it has evolved the industry, and how it can be better leveraged to make supply chains more efficient and cost-effective.

>  "The chaos is the one thing that's been constant in supply chain, and yet, the solution gaps still exist." – Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

When host Dan Ptak brought up the challenges that transportation managers have faced over the last tumultuous year in the supply chain, Coby had a great perspective to offer.

>  "They're facing all kinds of challenges in terms of rising costs, availability of new carriers, and yet maybe not having a platform or a technology suite that will allow them to take advantage of these gains that we saw emerge from the chaos in regional carriers and folks like Better Trucks and solutions to the duopoly that exists."  
>  "So, I think technology is still a challenge for them, getting their arms around the mass amounts of data. I think everyone understands that data is really, really important, but being able to aggregate it, normalize it, and then actually leverage it in a way that helps them make the decisions or use the tools at their disposal, it's a problem." – Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

>  "Let us start with either a hard problem or something that you're really having a challenge with to solve, demonstrate value, and then grow the account organically." – Andy Whiting, Better Trucks

Coby responded regarding technology challenges:

>  "Tech debt is a real thing, especially some of these systems companies have invested millions of dollars in a WMS (warehouse management system) or in a specific platform that they've built their business around. And the problem is those platforms with their customizability and all that they've bolted on, they've built custom elements to it. And so they're held hostage by some of that. So part of it is the technology that's limiting factor."

>  "Nobody gets fired for doing things the way they were always done or signing with a provider that's been around for 20 years that everybody's using." – Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

This led to discussing how shifts in organizational culture are required to institute improvements, because change can be so hard to sell.

>  "Little gains can add up really quickly, but the other thing is there's a psychological benefit to it for the organization." – Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

>  "Everybody we talk to has a data problem." – Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

Coby discussed the right jumping-off point for companies:

>  "They all have a data silo, and even if they have BI (business intelligence) tools and things like that, that doesn't solve your data problem. BI is the pictures on top of the data."

>  "Now is not the time of year where people are making major shifts. So right now people should be thinking about, okay, what are things for next year?" – Andy Whiting, Better Trucks

Danny asked Andy about small changes:

>  "It's what Coby said about trying to find out what sucks in the organization, what's the problem? Where are the issues? What are the hard things to do? Or maybe better yet, where's the most value that we can create quickly and demonstrate that in a way." – Andy Whiting, Better Trucks

>  "Data is hard. Data is really hard to manage, to deal with." -- Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

Coby expressed his thoughts on foundational technology:

>  "You really have to have your arms around foundational technology that's going to allow you to scale and allow you to take advantage of it, especially these really large organizations."

Andy echoed Coby’s analysis regarding brand perception:

>  "A lot of these customers don't go in the stores, and the experience of the delivery is the physical contact with the customer." – Andy Whiting, Better Trucks

Andrew addressed peak season uncertainty:

>  "Capacity is a question mark this year." -- Andy Whiting, Better Trucks

And Coby mirrored Andy's sentiment about peak season:

>  "There's always opportunity in the midst of chaos." – Coby Nilsson, Enveyo

Coby concluded:

>  "There's a reticence to take on net new business leading up to this because of the impact it can have on performance metrics. A lot of the carriers came out of COVID with some serious baggage that they had to write into their new contracts that they're not going to fall below certain thresholds of performance 95% on time."