We’ve all heard the bromide, “work smarter, not harder.” And as 2023 makes its turn into 2024, third-party logistics (3PL) firms are seeking ways to do just that with the hopes of countering persistent warehouse space limitations, labor shortages, and lingering economic uncertainties. Anything that can help improve customer satisfaction, create efficiency, or provide insights into a firm’s cost-to-serve is under consideration. After all, isn’t that what “working smarter, not harder” is all about?
This Platform Opens a World of Possibilities
Kaleidoscope is a supply chain and warehouse performance analytics platform that provides real-time insights into the health of your operation, so that you can identify and react to customer satisfaction, workforce efficiency, and cost-to-serve.
Kaleidoscope is an agnostic, lightweight, data aggregation platform incorporating AI and machine learning (ML) for the purpose of improving operational efficiency. Kaleidoscope uses proprietary connectors to core operational systems and databases that 3PLs use every day, including WMS, TMS, LMS, ERP, and other enterprise systems.
Anyone who has experienced a lag when running complex calculations, especially those involving multiple data sources, will see a difference. Shifting from end-of-day or end-of-week reports to near real-time, it enables swift responsiveness across enterprise systems.
Being cloud-based SaaS, it scales on demand and there’s no need for hardware or additional staff, and it’s accessible from any browser for a subscription fee.
What Makes Kaleidoscope So Valuable
To truly appreciate what makes Kaleidoscope so valuable, it serves to offer a little more explanation. Without getting too technical, Kaleidoscope incorporates scalable, private microservices and a Data Lakehouse, simplifying configuration and automation tasks and supporting plug and play integration into your existing supply chain infrastructure.
Open Sky Group has added significant value to the Kaleidoscope subscription by placing three logistics-centric applications on top of the platform to serve as “lenses” into the operating data you collect into Kaleidoscope. Hence, the name Kaleidoscope. You can peer into the data and zoom in on specific supply chain activities for unmatched visibility and near real-time clarity to support your operating decisions.
About Those “Lenses”
Once you subscribe to Kaleidoscope, Open Sky Group connects your various enterprise systems to the platform in the cloud. We prefer Azure cloud, but you can prescribe any hosting service you may already be using and achieve the same effect. Once connected, you may add any or all three of the lenses we’ve created to access your data and improve operations as follows:
- Suppy Chain Portal – Provides customers with real-time visibility into operational systems. The portal is white-labeled and includes self-service capabilities allowing 3PL customers and enterprise users to check on inbound orders and receipts, outbound orders and shipments, master item lists, as well as inventory available to promise across facilities and locations. Supply Chain Portal will reduce your volume of customer calls, improve the flow of new items at receiving, eliminate manual reports and spreadsheets, and provide timely access to information. Additionally, Supply Chain Portal provides a web portal for your carriers and vendors to request/manage dock appointments.
- Enhanced Client Billing – Safeguards against revenue leakage, maintaining precision and integrity throughout the billing process in a single standardized billing system. Billing activities automatically captured by Kaleidoscope result in improved accuracy and overhead, with a verified audit trail of events and charges to reduce the number of credit settlements. The system supports flexible invoicing with email delivery and automatic posting to accounts receivable, with effective dates for smooth rate and billable event transitions. Client cloning and automatic, bulk, or individual transaction approvals by client are supported. And import billing charges from additional systems, such as accounts payable, timecards, and job costing makes short work of complex billing activities.
- Supply Chain Insight – Access to the Kaleidoscope data makes identifying operational trends and patterns easy from any browser-enabled device. The application identifies anomalies and areas for improvement, progress against a host of standard and customized KPIs, and cost-to-serve based on clients, geographies, transportation, and individual products across the enterprise. Quickly survey inbound, outbound, and replenishment costs, impact on value-added services, dock management, cycle counting costs per location, and more.
Open Sky Group is actively developing new applications to add to the offering with each passing month.
Work Smarter, Not Harder, with Kaleidoscope from Open Sky Group
The key to achieving ongoing customer satisfaction, efficiency, and improved cost-to-serve resides within your data. Kaleidoscope opens the window into what’s really happening, and the cost to get there is remarkably affordable at any level of scale.
Why spend money developing your own resources that could strap your operating capital and put a strain on your IT team for years? Get the computing power you need to do more with less in a matter of weeks.
Complete the form below to schedule your demonstration of Kaleidoscope and its unique and powerful Supply Chain Execution business applications.
