Unified Intelligence Platform
Five siloed systems — WMS, TMS, ERP, planning, and CRM — were unified into a single intelligence platform in ninety days, turning cost-to-serve from a quarterly spreadsheet exercise into a live number.
The challenge
A regional distribution and logistics network ran on five systems that never talked to each other in real time:
- WMS, TMS, ERP, demand planning, and customer account data each lived in its own system of record
- Cost-to-serve was reconstructed manually each quarter by exporting and joining data from all five
- By the time a quarterly cost-to-serve report shipped, the underlying network had already changed
- No one could answer what a given customer actually cost to serve on demand — only after weeks of analysis
- Pricing and account decisions were made on cost assumptions that were, on average, a quarter out of date
How it works
One platform, ninety days
Rather than replace any of the five systems, the platform was built as an integration and intelligence layer above them:
- 01
API and batch connectors were built into WMS, TMS, ERP, planning, and CRM within the first three weeks
- 02
A unified data model maps orders, routes, warehouse activity, and account data to a common schema
- 03
Cost-to-serve is calculated continuously per order, per customer, and per route, rather than reconstructed quarterly
- 04
A live dashboard replaces the quarterly spreadsheet, refreshed as new transactions post
- 05
Finance and account teams were trained on the platform in week 10, ahead of the full 90-day cutover
- 06
Legacy quarterly reporting was formally retired once the live number had run in parallel for two full cycles
What we built
Key capabilities
Five systems, one schema
WMS, TMS, ERP, planning, and CRM data are mapped into a single model instead of five disconnected exports.
Cost-to-serve, live
Cost-to-serve updates continuously per order and per customer, not once a quarter.
No system replacement required
The platform sits above the existing five systems, so nothing had to be ripped out to get there.
Account-level accountability
Sales and account teams can see the real cost of serving a specific customer before making a pricing call.
Before vs after
Cost-to-serve, before and after
- Cost-to-serve visibility
- Quarterly → Live
- Avg. cost-to-serve per order
- $14.20 → $8.40
- Systems queried for one answer
- 5 → 1
- Data staleness
- Up to 13 weeks → Real-time
Business impact
What it changed
41% lower cost-to-serve
($14.20 − $8.40) ÷ $14.20 per order, comparing the quarter before go-live to the quarter after.
Ninety days to live
All five systems were unified and the platform was in production in 90 days, with no source system replaced.
A number people can act on
Account and pricing decisions now reference a live cost-to-serve figure instead of a quarter-old estimate.
Technology stack
“Cost-to-serve was never the hard part to calculate — reconciling five systems fast enough to trust the number was. That reconciliation now happens continuously, not quarterly.”
Keep reading