JDA adds predictive analytics to transportation management software

JDA Software Group Inc. announced partnerships with the logistics technology providers FourKites Inc., Inttra Inc., and TransVoyant LLC that JDA says will add real-time visibility and predictive analytics to its transportation management software (TMS) platform.

TMS users will now be able to avoid supply chain snarls by analyzing input from the Internet of Things, Razat Gaurav, JDA's executive vice president, general manager, and chief revenue officer, told attendees at the company's JDA Focus user group meeting in Nashville today.

Companies can reroute their shipments on the fly based on machine-learning analysis of a range of inputs, whether that data comes from RFID tags, containership locations, road closures, weather reports, or any other source, he said.

"You can't look at warehousing, manufacturing, or retail in isolation; you need to connect the dots in order to gain visibility over the supply chain and perform omnichannel operations," Gaurav said. "That real-time, always-on, adaptive machine learning is now table stakes for any company that wants to succeed."

JDA will generate this improved supply chain visibility through partnerships with FourKites, a real-time truckload telematics and location platform; Inttra, the ocean freight tracking platform; and TransVoyant, a big-data analytics firm, first announced Friday.

In combination, the three new partnerships allow JDA to produce faster, more accurate forecasts than is possible through monitoring a feed of electronic data interchange (EDI) information, the legacy, batch-processed communication standard, JDA says.

While the new partnerships currently create live, predictive analytics only for transportation operations, future applications could apply the same concept to additional sectors of the supply chain, said TransVoyant CEO Dennis Groseclose.

"We're not just big data; we're prescriptive," Groseclose said. "We tell subscribers: 'Don't use that port, avoid that airport, change to another supplier,' or whatever is necessary."

Founded in 2012 to produce predictive analytics about global events for national security clients, Alexandria, Va.-based TransVoyant entered the commercial market in 2014 with a focus on the supply chain market. The system works by analyzing the underlying mathematics of global freight flow to discover inefficient links and recommend better paths, based on everything from Twitter posts to GPS sensors and weather reports, Groseclose said.