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Daniel: Welcome to the supply chain dialogues, season three, episode two. I'm Daniel Helmig.

Remember the song of the eighties with the following lyrics:

“We've got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries. We got to move these refrigerators. We've got to move these colored TVs.”

Yep. Dire Straights ‘money for nothing’ 1985. Then, most of the white and electronic goods were still built in the same country and hauled around by our trucks. Today, we expect these refrigerators, microwaves and color TVs to come from offshore production facilities, unless you live in certain parts of Asia where the production is clearly, then local. China alone host 37% of the global manufacturing capacity, which is a brilliant success story for them. However, it has its downsides when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:01:00] The most recent comprehensive data show that the transportation sector is responsible for 14 to 16% of global emissions. , this number primarily includes emissions from cars, trucks, ships, trains, and airplanes involved in transportation, logistics of goods and people globally. The impact varies by region and the mode of transportation with road transport, generally being the largest contributor within the sector. When you look at it, overall I will take a bit of time to peel the onion further so that the interview we will have, will appear in an even brighter light. Bear with me and feel free to use the numbers as well.

In your discussions on both costs and emission reduction in your company. If you'd like to reread them, you'll find all transcripts for season two and three. On the website of www.helmigadvisory.com. And they are linked to the respect of podcast episodes website at the bottom. So 90% of world trade by [00:02:00] volume is actually transported by sea, which includes the Vast array of goods, like raw materials, food manufactured, products, oil, and whole container ships. As well with orange juice. That we so love for breakfast

and in all our drinks, by the way, orange juice is less healthy than you think with massive amounts of sugar, leading to obesity due to the constant craving that happens after the insulin spiked, caused by the juice. Rather eat an apple orange or some berries instead, maybe even locally grown, which brings us back to our topic. Air cargo transport accounts for only one to 2% of total flights. Business travel, the people who fly across the world to manage global operations account for another 12 to 15%. Isn't it amazing that 85% of air travel is actually private. Air travel is responsible for about two to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. However, The impact of air travel on climate changes much more complex than these [00:03:00] numbers suggest because airplanes. Emit other substances that can affect the climate such as water waiver suit. And nitrogen oxides, which have negative effects on high altitudes that are different from greenhouse gas emissions at the surface.

Let's look at other transportation modes as well. Broad estimates suggest that in developed countries, commercial vehicles, which includes all types of cargo and delivery vehicles can account for about 10 to 15% of the total vehicle mileage.

This percentage might be higher and regions heavily relying on road transport for moving goods due to the less developed rail or water transport infrastructure. Conversely in regions with advanced multimodal transport systems, the reliance on road transport for cargo is lower. Similar geographic differences you find for rail. Currently the most eco-friendly way of moving goods. Until ocean transport would be changed to new forms of propulsion, which actually exist, including [00:04:00] would you believe hyper modern sailing technology? But that needs to be demanded by us, the customer and the firms. So staying with rail rail traffic has a significant cargo component in many countries.

Freight transport is a critical part of the logistics chain. In the United States. For example, most rail traffic is freight. 70% plus. With freight trains, primarily transport commodities, like coal, agricultural products, chemicals and intermodal containers

in many European countries where passenger trains are more used, which is a good thing compared to air. Especially for regional traffic freight still contributes. A significant portion of rail activity freight typically comes to about 15 to 30% of total rail traffic. In terms of tonnage and kilometers travel in Europe. Globally regions with expensive land areas and significant resources such as Asia, Africa, China, and Canada also see a high percentage of rail [00:05:00] traffic being devoted to freight. Given the economic efficiency of transportation goods over long distances

so I think by now it is clear that besides being expensive, transportation and logistics is normally about eight to 12% of the total cost of goods sold of any manufacturing company. Transport has a significant impact on our greenhouse gas emissions. In any company. Both in an outgoing. So one might think it is imperative, not to waste transportation capacity.

So without further ado, now, I like to introduce Adolph Colaco CEO and founder of e2log. They're a tech driven logistics company that offers an end to end logistics orchestration platform designed to streamline what we talked about. And optimize global supply chains for enterprises. Full disclosure. And one of my former corporate lives, I had transportation and logistics in my portfolio of departments. We ran large logistics [00:06:00] operation with over 60,000 lanes in 120 countries from switches. That we shipped from one town to the next two 16 axle transport of transformers across the world.

Even into the Amazon jungle. Where you needed small and submarines evaluating the waterways before we were starting, even with the shipping. When I heard about e2log, which was after. This part of my life and saw the products I accepted to sit on their board for two years out of pure past frustration. That's such a software so far did not exist. I wanted to help them to get the word out. In the meantime, they have grown significantly thanks to the many customers and freight forwarders. That saw what I saw that in them as well.

 Thank you for taking the time Adolph

Adolph: Pleasure, Daniel. Thanks so much for having me over.

Daniel: It's great to have you. It's good to see you again. It's been a while. Before we get into the deep there, tell me a little bit about yourself.

What is your background? What inspired the creation of [00:07:00] E2Log? And how has your vision eventually evolved since the company was founded?

Adolph: Thank you, Daniel. I'll break that up into, three parts. The personal, the professional, and then, of course, the e2log, part of the journey. So I was born and raised in, in Mumbai, in India. And I come from very humble beginnings, I've been active in sport, from the time I was a little boy.

And, I've enjoyed playing field hockey. Soccer, football, however you want to call it, as well as running and that has stayed, with me over the years and has been a big part of, even my professional career, the whole piece around team building, teamwork, the ability to fight back and, deal with setbacks or losses .

So it helped formulate my DNA. As well as on the personal side, I'm married, blessed with a beautiful daughter, and she is going to be starting her career, in fact, in a few months time. Interestingly, she is going to be in the oil and gas space, too. She'll be joining Shell, so we're very excited for her.

[00:08:00] We're very happy as a family. And, Most interestingly, she's coming back to Houston, which is a home for the last, 17 years now. On the professional side, my career has been all in supply chain, close to 30 years now. And, I was actually very fortunate to be exposed to Different dimensions of the supply chain over my career.

And I started off actually with working for customs, in India, which was a very interesting experience working firstly at, the airports and the seaports, touching and feeling cargo on a day to day basis. And we got to a point over the 12 years that I was there that you could walk past a container.

And by the aroma that came out of it, you could tell the cargo that was inside. So that's, that's part of the, the learning unknowingly, I got introduced to logistics and supply chain and, started being exposed to the trade side of things. seeing the operations of how ports work, loading, unloading of [00:09:00] ships.

And it was a fascinating learning experience, but I decided to quit customs and then eventually build a career in supply chain. It was a transition. Candidly, it was a difficult transition coming out of, working for a government organization, and, Took the plunge and went to a custom broker, literally on the other side of the fence, which is a very interesting change to make, especially in a challenging jurisdiction like India.

But again, it was a very good learning experience. Sometime with a custom broker, then on the freight forwarder side, and then eventually went on to join an ocean carrier. So I spent some time working for P&O Nedlloyd NV. Again, a very different dimension of the supply chain and P& O at its time, as you would know, one of the major ocean carriers in the world and being part of their logistics program and being able to learn from the systems.

They had some great training programs. They gave me some great exposure. Which I benefited from. And eventually I made the shift and came on to the [00:10:00] shipper or the cargo owner side. And that's where my career started with TransOcean, which used to be the world's largest offshore drilling company. And, I also spent some time with Weatherford in the oil field services space. What those 16 years did for me, was that it actually allowed me to get exposed to various facets of supply chain well beyond the transportation and the logistics of the trade side of things and credit to both of these companies because they exposed me to different kinds of roles.

From sourcing to category management, contracting within supply chain, as well as the procurement side. So very different facets. And then I also had a good stint in inventory management, and that's such a powerful piece to understand. If you are to realize what is the impact that transportation and logistics can make on the supply chain.

And then I was fortunate enough to lead the logistics [00:11:00] programs for these companies at a global level, as well as some of my customs experience came back into play because I was thrust into a trade compliance role and building a trade compliance program for Transocean in 2007 under some very challenging circumstances and even, ended up doing some roles within accounts payable, which was, Much further downstream segment of supply chain.

So this was my sort of 25 plus years, between regulator service provider shipper and then eventually the to the latter part of your question. That's how the evolution took place. Having spent these years there. and learned so much. And I still say this candidly, there is more that I don't know than I know, because the space is so humongous and so unique and so much to learn.

But what these experiences did for me was, very deep rooted through my times at TransOcean [00:12:00] and Weatherford. I traveled to almost every corner of the world. Which had oil. So the six continents I traveled extensively, but travel is such a powerful medium of learning because I got an opportunity to meet and understand people and understand their cultures.

I got a chance to see how each of these countries operate, right? Because supply chain logistics is so heavily dependent on What can be done in a particular geography, a particular location. I had an opportunity to visit the ports within these areas, meet local vendors, meet local service providers, and gain the very boots on ground perspective of supply chain.

And that's really what started, triggering the gears into motion. as I was having these experiences, a lot of this was from a lens of a very Industrial kind of shipper because, oil and gas oilfield services, very, industrial [00:13:00] machine intensive kinds of businesses and started realizing that whilst, being part of these big companies, we had access to the different tools and applications and ERP systems and all of that.

The reality is that they were not built or designed for these kinds of transportations. And what was the consequence? The consequences? We ran a lot of our business on email spreadsheets and phone calls. That was just the harsh reality of it. And that's where I saw the opportunity, that this was an underserved space.

And the idea was to solve the problems that I face. When I was in these various roles and the thought process was pretty straightforward. If I am facing this problem as a supply chain or a logistician I'm pretty sure the others are facing it, too, and there was a sort of underserved space where there was an opportunity to bring in technology, and that's how [00:14:00] E2Log was conceptualized, and it's been quite a journey from where we started, initially thinking of oversized cargos.

To now where we've evolved into a very robust enterprise grade transportation management platform or project supply chain management platform.

Daniel: No, quite a story Adolph

it gives you a completely different appreciation of what's going on and then utilizing this knowledge putting that into zeros and ones. is probably the only right approach that you can have. And from the software that I know that you guys have, you put all your knowledge in there and the knowledge of your colleagues as well into something which actually works.

Let me ask you this. Now with all the knowledge and experience that you have in the transportation and logistics industry, specifically within the area of industrials and project supply chains, can you give me an overview of the industry trends for industrial and project supply chains, from your company's perspective?

Adolph: So one of [00:15:00] the stark realizations that I went through, even though it was anticipated, I started the journey because I knew this was an underserved space, but it was quite shocking to see how much of a laggard This industry is from a standpoint of deploying technology and the right technology to run their supply chains.

And it's common to see how many of these businesses actually run on what we call no tech, low tech or early stage tech or point solutions, right? So it's estimated that greater than 90 percent the global industrial corporations run on what Actually run their transportation and logistics in these two segments of what we call low tech, no tech or point solutions.

But what does this mean? This means that there is a tech stack, which is within these [00:16:00] large corporations, which do various facets of the business. So if you think of it from a supply chain perspective. Typically, you will have, either off the shelf ERP solution or a proprietary built material management system, managing the procurement, sourcing, maybe expediting, maybe category management, you would have the accounts payable side, which would be managed on these platforms.

And then there are some really good technologies that they have when it comes to the engineering side of the business, the planning side of the business, because that's really their bread and butter. So that's really well taken care of, but. When you start looking at the logistics and transportation piece, typically, this is where it falls off the cliff and it's completely disconnected because all of this is manual, but

technology is touching everything that we do and the use of smartphones, the use of tablets, the use of apps for every aspect of our lives. It's just [00:17:00] made it routine to use these kinds of technologies to do what we do. Industrials and project logistics are no different. There is a perception, oh, this is different.

 The industrial and project supply chain is very different from, let's say a FMCG or a retail or a farmer or a high tech supply chain. Yes, that is absolutely true. And, As folks who spent a lot of time in supply chain, we understand the distinctions, but the reality is that there is nothing stopping the introduction of technology in to the space, provided, of course, it is solving the right problems and it is delivering value.

It's not about just bringing technologies in. So the trends that we're seeing is that these industries are on the cusp Of a digital transformation. It's early stages. There are a lot of ideas floating around. There are newer technologies which are coming into play, and I do believe that AI could play a huge part of this, but at the same [00:18:00] time, it is not going to be a leap from.

Low tech, no tech straight away to a very autonomous process. There is an evolution which these industries need to go through and that process has started.

Daniel: Interesting. I'm with you and I think the change is going to happen just based on the generation change of people that are now working in logistics. So you have all the digital natives that are now coming into the jobs and I still remember 10, 15, 20 years ago, There was very little knowledge with regard to technology as well in transportation and logistics.

On the other side, they as well did not get the budgets and the fundings for doing anything in this area. Now for all the COOs and CEOs, if you would like to take a little bit of a step outside your main offices, take a stroll down to the transportation and logistics areas where the shipping actually happened, and then just sit there.

You will see the amount of opportunity [00:19:00] that you have, both in the interest of your own cost, speed, but as well for the benefit of the customers.

It's part of the whole journey, right? Every CEO probably was in the R& D area. Everyone naturally has to go into the finance area. Everyone goes into production, but when it comes to transportation logistics, it seems to be a blind spot. Now let's move on with our overview .

Could you explain to our listeners now what E2Log specializes in and what, sets your company apart from your competition?

Adolph: So firstly, we're a software company. It's a very important piece to understand and clarify at the outset, but we are very narrowly and strategically focused on industrial supply chains. what we have done is we've gone about primarily building two solutions off the same platform.

One is what we call a transportation management platform, and the other is a project supply chain management platform. And The reason why we have done this is, as I was alluding to [00:20:00] earlier, that these are underserved spaces. But what do we do? We actually help companies digitalize their transportation and logistics process and fill that void,

there is a sort of a void between the sourcing, planning and procurement piece relative to The actual execution and delivery piece. That's where there's a technological void. So that's the gap that we feel. But technology is like this have existed. So it's not that he2log is doing something that nobody has done before in terms of building a transportation management platform.

But what is different is that The technologies which are out there, today, and you know this, you've been at very large global corporations leading them from a supply chain perspective that tend to be general purpose solutions and whether you're pharma, retail, FMCG, fashion, You end up using the same platform and works for some kinds of businesses, but [00:21:00] industrials and projects are very different.

Starting from the product itself, There's just so much variability within the same product itself. So almost like every shipment is unique. The complexities of execution, like the, thing we were talking earlier about, sometimes you're executing a project in the Amazon jungle. That's what needs to be done. And when you think about execution under those circumstances, your general purpose solutions are not going to work. So what we at e2log have done is that we actually founded the company, with two fundamental skill sets. One is supply chain domain expertise, specifically from industrial and projects, and then a group of technologists who very strategically were brought from outside of supply chain. Why? Because we were not looking to replicate what somebody else has built because then we would end up being the general purpose thing. [00:22:00] We wanted to solve for a particular problem. And this is something that we're very proud of. We've never ever looked at any other system to see what they do and how they do it.

And that is not stemming from Arrogance that is stemming from the need and the drive to be innovative and creative with the solutioning. And that has been the core of what we have done at E2Log. And so the end result ends up being that you're trying to solve a specific problem. But even in this journey, we've not come into this, Saying, oh, we got 20 years of experience in industrial supply chain.

So we know it all. So now let's go build a solution. We have not done that either. We have started from a point of humility. We started from a point of saying, yes, there's a team of us here who spent a lot of time in the space. Let's go and build a foundation and then let's take that [00:23:00] foundation and go to some of the large global corporations and work alongside them to further develop this technology. So over the last five years, we've had our core supply chain team, we've had our tech team, we built a core foundational product. We've actually co developed the product over the last five years alongside these major global corporations. And it's been a, it's been a phenomenal learning experience .

There's more things I don't know than I know, and the same applies to the rest of my team, because as we started working with, let's say, one of the companies we formed an alliance with was an engineering procurement construction company, one of the largest in the world, another company that we co developed the product was an oil major, but more the lubricants division. A third. company that we co developed a product with was an oilfield services company. We were developing it alongside [00:24:00] them, there were so many ideas and it was all stemming from, Oh, I got this problem.

This is how I handle it. I need technology to be an enabler. To solve this for me, because it's going to make my life easier. It's going to impact the operations positively. It will benefit the end customer, the end user, . So that process of co developing and learning is what differentiates us.

And what we did through the process is that we never custom built anything. Anything for anybody,

Daniel: You have to explain that, , how that does it fit with what you mentioned beforehand.

 What do we tend to do or supply chain execution is we execute in silos. This is my company. This is my region. This is my team. This is how I do it. And a lot of this tends to be tribal knowledge. That's just the reality of it. A lot of people in supply chain and logistics, myself included, Do not have a formal education in this business.

Adolph: It's not like accounting or finance or [00:25:00] engineering, right? There is an engineering practice or a way of doing something which is universal. Supply chain is not like that. So we end up doing our own things. So in the process, what we did is we took the ideas, we understood the problems, we took the recommendations and the solution, but we built it not to solve the problem of one company.

But to solve the problem of an industry as a whole, and the idea is to make that solution portable to any business within the industrial space. So those elements of how we built what we built has been critical and has been a differentiator. But the other piece of it is the inspiration that We drew, we did not draw any inspiration from an ERP like system.

And I'm not saying this with any disrespect. I'm just saying it from a perspective of how we approach building technology. And the motivation actually came from a personal incident, which happened when, I was living with my family in the Middle East. My daughter was 14 at the time. [00:26:00] And she came to me one evening and she said, dad, I need to buy something on Amazon. So she said, can I have your credit card? So I said, sure. So I give her the credit card. And then she came back three or four minutes later, and she says, Thank you. That is a hold on. Hold on. What do you do with my credit card? So I bought what I needed. So I said, How did that happen so quick? She said, I look for what I wanted and I picked it and I bought it.

So I said, Have you used Amazon before? Just no. So I said, Did you do some training or something on how to use Amazon? Is there some training module? And I was ignorant, okay, that I had to use it myself. And she said, no, dad, it's super simple.

So the inspiration came from that to say, how can we make a system which is so intuitive that you don't need a 500 page manual on how to use it.

So that's the other big piece of what we've done and the differentiation, how we build the [00:27:00] technology. We've purposefully and strategically build it to be user friendly and intuitive, where you actually do not even need to be trained to be able to start using it.

Daniel: Which is great. One of the big issues that we have with most of the software today, that if you are working in SAP or an Oracle environment, bless you God, you will have a good time trying to figure out how that works. And hopefully there are a lot of people around you that are going to tell you that.

At least you will have sticky notes everywhere around your computer to figure that out. Ah, now I have to fill that field out and what have you. No, excellent. What you did and how you designed it and how you Use smartly your customers to help you to come up with something that actually is meaningful for the whole industry, which is fantastic Now what can a customer expect if they would give you a carte blanche and they would say, look, E2Log help us to get our logistics under control. What is the [00:28:00] size of benefits that they can achieve with you?

Adolph: It starts with what is the mindset of the customer relative to change? You can look at change very skeptically, and you can look at change in a very embracing frame of mind. And that is directly proportionate to the returns that you get. being said, it's a journey.

You can't expect every customer to jump in with both feet and say, Oh, I'm gonna, you know, completely transform everything overnight. But to get to the benefits, we need to take a step back to see how logistics and transportation is split. And what are the areas that a technology like each law can make an impact? For example, our technology does not impact The physical movement of goods. That means ships are not going to sail faster or trucks are not going to move quicker because of e too long or technologies like ours. But definitely the planning and the execution piece can be done much better. [00:29:00] And as you would know, depending on an industry type, depending on their supply chains, between 20 to 40% supplied cycle time is consumed in planning and execution, including the inefficiencies that come with it.

And that's a massive swath of time when you think about supply chain cycle time. Right now, that's the area that we impact. Now, a lot of this 20 to 40 percent of consumption of supply cycle time. Comes from the lack of technology, the lack of the right tools, the lack of the right training, The lack of the right processes.

It's a combination of all of these factors which contributed. There is a component of time, which is needed. It can't magically happen in a nanosecond. But this is where we can make an impact and to be able to truly make an impact. You need to attack the end to end process. And this is what we recommend to our customers.

If you want to see [00:30:00] maximum impact, you need to go end to end. And what is end to end? End to end from a standpoint of our sphere of influence is not when the transportation process starts and not when the transportation process ends. There is a lot that happens way upstream, which will actually have a direct proportion to the quantum of impact. And if you think about how does the life of a logistician unfold historically, right? If I go back to my days when I was a logistician. I would have a situation where say a rig manager would come up to me and say, Hey, we need this top drive to be picked up tomorrow and it needs to be on a plane from Houston to Luanda. Oh, really? Top drive is ready to pick up tomorrow? That piece of equipment, which costs about 5 million, probably took nine months to manufacture. Why didn't you tell me nine months ago when you ordered that [00:31:00] stuff? Because I could have planned, I could have scheduled, I could have booked, I could have done all kinds of stuff.

So it is from that context where we encourage customers, take it end to end, the platform is designed to go way upstream and do not think Of transportation and logistics as the physical movement of cargo alone, but think of it from a perspective of order life cycle management. The life cycle of an order starts the moment the demand is created, requisition is created by somebody says, I need that top drive, which then eventually gets converted into a.

Purchase orders goes to you, identify supplier goes to a supplier and then the supplier readies the material to move. So that's a big part of what we recommend to our customers to do. And then beyond that, you go through the logistics execution, transportation execution .

There's a downstream implication, too, because eventually, invoices need to be paid. You have to take care of your logistics providers from a [00:32:00] perspective of managing their payments, all of that. So from a standpoint of a situation where a customer gives us a carte blanche, we say, digitalize the end to end process.

However, we do it in a phased manner. Sometimes there are companies who, who operate across different parts of the world, pick up a small part of the world first. And take that digitalize that process. There will be lessons learned. No question about it. Every company's unique demands a unique challenges will crop up.

But do that. Do it well. Master it. Take the lesson from then. Then you start scaling. And that's where the maximum impact comes, because then the sphere of influence off. A digital transformation goes well beyond just the transportation piece, because now you start impacting all the management. Now you start impacting planning.

Now you start impacting scheduling. Now you start impacting inventory decisions, inventory, stocking levels, [00:33:00] cash flow, working capital influences so many other areas of impact now as a consequence. But going back to the crux of this, this stems from what is the appetite? What is the mindset of the customer?

Daniel: And, as in one of my favorite books from Stephen Covey, one of the habits is start with the end in mind. And sure, you have to run prototyping and you have to test things out and all of this is good. But if you know from the beginning, okay, I would like to really revolutionize or transform my supply chain or the way that I handle my transportation and logistics.

You're going to win. That's the reason why I asked the question, carte blanche, just tipping your toe into the water and just realizing once again that the water is wet, that we normally see in these kind of situations. That's not where you make a difference. You need to have a partner like e2log, for example, that you actually say, look, let's make a difference.

Adolph: So Daniel, if I may, there's [00:34:00] one, one, one point of recommendation that I'd like to make to, CEO, CEOs or leaders listening into this podcast. And that is do not treat supply chain like the mailroom guys. This is a story, which is a reality. When I joined a company, a large global corporation, the transport group, as they call them, was seated in the mailroom and it no disrespect to the folks in the mailroom. But the point here is that was the view that the leadership team had off the importance of transportation and logistics as a function within the company. And the first thing I did, I said, I want my team out of there.

That's not where they need to be. They need to be sitting alongside operations. They need to be understanding firsthand what the needs are, what's happening in the business, and they need to be collaborating with and the operations and the projects and the [00:35:00] field managers. Need to have these guys next to them.

So that the profile of supply chain, the profile of transportation and logistics needs to be improved. They should not be looked at. As a function which is told jump and then they ask how high

it is a strategic function within an organization which can make a direct impact on the bottom line if used correctly.

Daniel: Absolutely. And I just take my numbers from my different industries . Transportation logistics is between eight to 12 percent of the total spend of your company, most of the companies will not even know the transportation logistics spent.

So therefore I give you the number and if you do. An excellent job in terms of transformation, utilizing software, . You can have an opportunity of 20 to 30 percent reduction. I've seen it. I've done it together with my teams.

I had some excellent transportation logistics folks that were working With us that we [00:36:00] hired and as well, we introduced new software. Unfortunately, at that point in time, there was no e2 log. So we had to take other software, so, and if you then calculate the amount of money, yeah, just take eight to 12 percent from your total spend as such, you assume 30 percent reduction then, that is what I'd have talked about hits the bottom line. This is Cost of Goods Sold that are no longer on your balance sheet and that you can utilize for R and D, for mergers and acquisitions and what have you. So there's a lot of money lying there that you can utilize. The larger the company it is, the more money lies there.

 So you mentioned beforehand already, AI and that it can help. Can you tell us how E2Log leverages technology like generative AI or other AI or blockchain to enhance logistics operations, if at all?

Adolph: Short answer is we absolutely do, but the problem has to be tackled in incremental steps, so one of the first steps [00:37:00] is to actually digitalize the process, number one. Number two is to bring The end to end process under a single platform. And once you bring the process under a single platform, you bring all the users onto the platform.

So you're setting the foundational blocks, to actually then bring AI in. So this is the piece that has to be done first. And the way we've approached it is to get these foundational blocks in place. And it takes time. It takes time to be able to build it. All of that so that you bring it all together.

But now that it's all coming together, that's where it gets very exciting. Because there are two parts to this. When we think about it from a from an AI perspective, one is being able to use AI to do things in a particular way for a customer based on their data, their business rules and minimize the human intervention in those transactions.

And the other is being able to use AI to do things in a particular way for a customer based on their business rules and minimize the human intervention in those transactions. But what is really exciting is the [00:38:00] Gen AI piece. Because as I alluded to earlier, when you look at how supply chains execute companies, execute in isolation, this is my company.

This is what I do. This is how I've always done it. I've been doing this for the last 10 years. But when you start seeing business being executed, On a common platform across businesses across industries within various segments, you start seeing patterns of how things are being executed. And then there is a huge opportunity to bring in gen AI into that.

And drive logistics a very different way than it has been executed, which is a very siloed thing today. We have already built AI capabilities into our platform. It's evolving not because of the limitations with what tech can do.

And there's a lot more, which will be developed in the years to come, but I think the limitations are first in [00:39:00] just. Helping the industrial and project supply chain business to transition from this very manual Way of doing things to bring it onto a platform. That's the heavy lift And once that heavy lift is happening, it's a continuous process going to take some time.

Then the AI piece starts kicking in and we've applied it for, how do you identify a consolidation opportunities? How do you make sure that you're looking at the best ports to move something into? How are you looking? For any exceptions in the cargo, something is oversized. Something is going to trip up a height or a weight, which was going to significantly increase your costs because of how you're choosing to move something.

So we're using AI for a lot of those kinds of things. But the exciting thing is what lies ahead with gen AI. I we think there's a lot of opportunity there.

Daniel: Thank you, Adolph. Let me just come back to one point, just to make sure that I understand it correctly. Now let's assume I have a company that is running on SAP, and as well, logistics is linked, in SAP.[00:40:00]

You're not saying that you completely change that to E2Log, do you? Can you explain that?

Adolph: That's a very good point. Thanks for bringing it up. So the short answer is no, you don't need to replace it. Exist existing systems, which do non transportation work. So we have an ERP for procurement. Great. You use that. You have an ERP for accounts. Be able to use that. In fact, today we put out a post on technology doesn't fix everything.

And part of the message that we were giving is that a very important piece that companies need to think about is which are the peripheral systems That need to be integrated with a platform like e2log to be able to digitalize the end to end process. So what would happen in this case would be that if the purchase orders or sales orders are being generated in an ERP system, those would be digitally twinned into the platform like e2log so that information is now [00:41:00] available for the transportation process. And similarly downstream, let's say when invoices are coming in, if invoices need to be paid, the processing, the digital audit of invoices, et cetera, will happen in e2log. But eventually that data will be pushed via APIs as an example to the accounts payable system, which would be the ERP for payment.

And that confirmation of payment would come back. So strategically where platforms play a fascinatingly role, is the fact that they coexist with systems which are currently there and strategically they ingest data. That is necessary for the transportation and logistics process and similarly push out the most pertinent data to those systems where that information is most needed.

For example, if there is an engineering platform or system that a company is using, don't expect the engineer to go into some other system and go track and order and go find some shipment. The pertinent [00:42:00] information about when. That shipment is expected to arrive or when that order is expected to arrive should be visible to the engineer in that system that he or she is working on on a day to day basis.

So that's where platforms become very powerful. Pull in the right data from the right sources and push out the right data to the right systems where it's needed. And in the event those things don't exist, then it becomes a commonplace where it can be found.

Daniel: Sure. No, that makes perfect sense out of, for those that are more interested in this as well. We did, a podcast and as well a blog with regard to what we call digital twin for supply chain or for value chains actually, where we say, okay, overall, You would like to create something as Adolph as well mentioned, which is to some extent twinning data onto a platform as he calls it, we call it just digital twin, where you can see and have access to all the data in the same kind of data hub, in the cloud environment .

 Today. Digital twin technology is mainly focusing on manufacturing locations. And then you have [00:43:00] one manufacturing location where there is a digital twin set up, then the next one doesn't have it, but if you do it right, you would look for the whole value chain because at that point in time, you just shine a bright light from the customer.

Subsuppliers tier two. And then everyone can see everyone else. And with that optimizes then their respective portion of the journey. I'm looking really forward, like, like you, I'm looking forward what is going to come in the near future. I think this is going to be revolutionary

let's, Take it a little bit further can you describe the key features and capabilities of your software? And please discuss as well how easy it is for new clients to integrate E2Log solutions into their already existing systems.

Adolph: Sure, so there are primarily four modules to the application with the intent of managing the end to end process on a single platform. So it starts upstream at the planning phase. This is where the digital twinning [00:44:00] happens from the order management systems that comes in. And from there, We then have the ability for expediting to be done.

So as orders are placed, a lot of the businesses in the industrial space tend to have long lead items. So where teams from within the company are following up with supplies and the ability to put revised promise dates and things like that, and then eventually items are marked as ready to ship.

That's where the procurement of logistics. Services now starts. There is the ability to upload rate contracts, get spot pricing, conduct reverse auctions, build solutions, look at various alternative ways of moving cargo, work within your preferred group of due diligence approved logistics providers, and then eventually.

What the shipments and once that is done, we get into what we call the execution module. This is where the tracking the tracing the document exchange the communication. All of this happens within the platform as against, the traditional emails, phone calls and ways of doing things. And within [00:45:00] this, there are some very powerful integrations.

Because when you think about cargo, which is moving, Today, we integrate with, external sources so that you can track any ship which is on the oceans anywhere in the world. We have integrations which allow you to track any container anywhere in the world. And similarly, we also have a mobile app which allows at a truck level to be able to locate a truck as it's moving through.

And then eventually the last module is what we call the pay module. Where if there are deviations in cost, detention, damage, change in mode of transportation and new services which are needed, all of that is built into that, including the digital audit of freight invoices. And as you know very well, this is such a labor intensive process in supply chains, non value adding and just low tech.

So that is fully digitally audited push for payment. But then the most fascinating part is. The analytics that comes with this. So as the shipments are going through their life cycle, orders are going [00:46:00] through their life cycle. There are hundreds and hundreds of data points which are picked along the way and roll up into our analytics platform.

And there's just a wealth of reporting and analytics right from, what's on time, what's delayed, how are suppliers performing to The spend on logistics, cost versus budget, performance of logistics providers, a lot of that, and even with the invoicing, how many invoices are being paid on time, what's delayed and things like that, but also, there is the carbon footprint capture that happens as a consequence of the entire process being managed on the platform.

It's a very powerful piece and is tackling. The logistics and transportation piece of scope three.

Daniel: Excellent. And this is the next question that I'm going to ask you. So thank you very much for bringing it up. As we all know, transport and logistics is one of The big contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. We cannot get everything from Amazon [00:47:00] from everyone else and ship everything through.

And then on the other side, be astonished that this as well has impact. Tell me what your software is doing to help companies reduce greenhouse gas emissions in logistics, which then has a direct impact on getting to net zero in scope three.

Adolph: So there are various, areas of impact and it goes well beyond, the first commencement of the movement of the cargo itself. And, so there are certain features and capabilities which are built into the technology to actually help companies eventually reduce their greenhouse gases.

And it starts with being able to optimize the loads. When you're loading cargo to move, it starts at that stage. So we have the concept of a load builder, wherein it shows you how you can stack cargo into a container, as an example, or into a truck to maximize the capacity on its three D. It's a very slick technology which helps you work towards that.

In addition to that, [00:48:00] we have what we call the solution builder. So as Logisticians are making decisions on what logistics, logistics process to follow or which route to pick or which provider to pick the ability for them to have AI-generated solutions to say, Hey, these are the three solutions you have.

These are the routes you could take. You could reduce the transit time as a consequence thereof and be able to then Work out the best solutions for them, which eventually help with the carbon footprint capture. But the other piece also is the ability to. Pick the right mode of transportation based on the degree of priority or urgency for an item, and not every item which is ordered is required on the other side of the world.

Immediately, there are situations where a project site or a commissioning location may not need something for the next six months, right? So when you think about. The fact that we go way upstream, to the order side of it. [00:49:00] So when an order is received, not only do we bring the order information in, but we also help capture the required at site date.

Which is very impactful. And then we surface that to the logistician when he or she is making a decision on a logistic service or a mode of transportation. And very often we find that in some industries, there's a tendency, I don't know, afraid that it's urgent, let's move it. And logisticians can now actually make a conscious decision to downgrade the mode of transportation with the ability to reduce the carbon footprint as a consequence thereof.

And then. The other piece is shipment consolidation, again, very powerful capability, AI driven, the ability to say, hey, you know what, in these large organizations, candidly, what is happening sometimes, people are sitting in two offices apart. And they're doing their own thing, not aware of the fact that there is more cargo moving from the same origin to the same destination for the same company for the same plant, the same location.

So the ability to use AI to identify all of those consolidation [00:50:00] opportunities for a particular trade lane, for a particular mode of transport, for a particular operation and present those with the intent of then reducing the number of shipments required also helps from a carbon footprint capture. And then The last piece is the, which is the tough part, right?

Capturing your carbon footprint, what you cannot measure, you cannot improve. It's very simple. And because of the complexity with door-to-door movement of cargo, as cargo is changing hands, multiple logistics providers in the same shipment. Good luck being able to capture that carbon footprint in the absence of a single platform, but everyone is executing.

So those elements and there are some very basic rudimentary things which are also important. It's like the paperwork. A lot of the paperwork, which people have to shift through papers to manage the logistics. A lot of that just vanishes. It's not needed anymore in a digital solution like this. So various areas of impact,

Daniel: And when you mentioned the opportunity to fill the container [00:51:00] correctly, for those of you who do not have a visual for that, just think Tetris, three dimensional Tetris, . And if you would like to see how your transportation normally works, just go once again, To your shipping area and look at the 40 foot containers that are just filled up to 50 centimeters high and then the door closes and the container moves on and the next container comes in the door opens and you fill it once again with mainly air this is where the opportunity lies with regard to both costs but as well greenhouse gas emissions as out of pointed out it's amazing if you see the reality In your head, it always looks good, but in the reality, we have so much opportunity in this space.

It's unbelievable. Now, let's talk about the opportunities that you were able to get for your clients so far. Can you give us a couple of case studies where e2log has helped clients achieve their business and [00:52:00] sustainability goals?

Adolph: Of course, in fact, a very good example is, a 26 billion conglomerate that we're doing business with in Asia. Their use case, was that, they have 14 companies within the group, very diverse portfolio from defense to heavy engineering, to manufacturing, to hydrocarbons, renewables, water resources, and each of these 14 companies have been executing their logistics and transportation in isolation.

For the longest time. The company spends approximately 500 million a year on logistics. And so e2log was brought in to actually have a single platform for the execution of the logistics end to end across the enterprise across these 14 companies. And we've had a successful deployment with the company there.

Today we have more than 2000 users who are on the platform. Across these 14 companies, which includes 400 [00:53:00] logistics providers, who are executing a combination of domestic, regional and international logistics. And, this is being used across 30 countries and about 60, 000 shipments a year are now being digitalized end to end

so the company from a sustainability standpoint is running a far more efficient, Logistics operation than they were. And some of them, the areas of impact that I alluded to earlier kick in here in this kind of a deployment. And, we have to give credit to this customer because, they had a vision, a very clear vision that they wanted to digitalize the end to end process across 14 companies.

And that's a very brave decision to make, in a space where technology is evolving. There are, there's no history of, Oh, we can look at the last 10 years, how companies have used this particular platform and have successfully digitalized. So that's one significantly [00:54:00] successful example. And there's a very interesting, another.

Use case, which we've solved for. So this is a 6. 5 billion decarbonization project here in North America, where the company had a very high focus. Obviously, decarbonization is the priority, and they were looking for a platform to run. The end to end project supply chain management and e2log has been deployed for that.

It's a combination of the project owner and three subcontracted E. P. C's who are all executing on the2log platform to support the execution of this project. So again, just Monumental impact in all the spheres that we've been able to make a significant difference. So very diverse use cases.

As you can see, one is more deployed as a transportation management form for a very industrial company, and the other is a project supply chain management platform for a mega [00:55:00] project.

Daniel: Excellent. So thank you very much, Adolph for spending the time today . we put the links into the show notes how people can reach your company and, as well links to your website . My recommendation to everyone who is interested, able to listen to that discussion, try them out, give them an opportunity to come to your door and talk about the solution that they have.

You will be amazed. As I always said to Adolph when I was as well sitting in their board, , I would have loved to have their solution at the time that I was in some of the large companies beforehand. So, Adolph thank you very much. It was a pleasure.

All the best to you.

Adolph: Thank you, Daniel. This is wonderful. Enjoy chatting with you and grateful for the opportunity.

Daniel: So, transportation and logistics is a beautiful white Swan, not the ugly duckling as many CEOs and operation heads think. It impacts massively customer satisfaction, greenhouse gas, emissions, and your balance sheet. If [00:56:00] you take the duckling and nurture it with your company's focus. I hope you enjoyed this episode of supply chain dialogues.

If you did, please subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or any other major. Podcast platform. And if you are a subscriber, tell a friend or colleague or any decision-maker in your company. We gained significant traction this year because of many of you doing this. So thank you very much. If you would like to reach out to the team of e2log, check out their website, linked to the show notes.

It's easy to lock that come with. Two is a number. Or directly go to their website under contacts to get an expert engaged with you. With that stay safe. Be bold and see you in two weeks. These are the supply chain dialogues produced and copyrighted by helmig advisory AG in [00:57:00] 2024.