Shipium saw so much incredible evolution over the last several months that sometimes it's tough to stop, take a breath, and observe the changes.
I wanted to recap all the extraordinary efforts over the summer months to highlight the most important need-to-know points about Shipium's growth.
Becoming Central to the Ecosystem
Earlier we announced certified partnerships with two of the leading supply chain platforms in the world: Manhattan Associates in Q1 and Blue Yonder in Q2.
Sometimes our industry loses sight of the fact that software for operations is mission critical to every business. The technology executes the day-to-day workings of the business, so nothing is more important than trust and reliability.
Being "enterprise-grade" goes beyond the slogan, and is a badge of technical availability, reliability, and scalability. But the business and human side matter, too. It means you are easy to work with, are dependable, follow through on your promises, and play well with others.
To that point, no greater criteria exists in supply chain software than compatibility and trust with existing systems a business is already using.
For Manhattan and Blue Yonder to acknowledge not just the importance of Shipium to the transformation of the industry, but the trust that they put in us to service their customers — this is the greatest honor Shipium has gotten in 2024.
We take this seriously, too. Internally we make being the best partner in the world a top principle.
More is in the works as well ... keep an eye out for major news with Körber, Oracle, and SAP that will all be announced in due time.
Carrier Endorsement
One half of our technology system is connecting into system of record partners like Manhattan or Blue Yonder. On the other side is us partnering and connecting into carriers.
Earlier in the summer we completed UPS Ready certification, earning the Inspire award along the way.
UPS was so thrilled with our approach to the program that they gave us the award to serve as an example to future program participants on what a perfect partner looks like. Why did we win the award?
- Our responsiveness to requests is world class.
- Our APIs were modern and easy to work with.
- Our technology scaled to the largest of UPS enterprise customers.
- Our engineering team gave feedback on the most recent APIs that was so helpful and essential, that UPS's engineering team actually adopted and made the changes accordingly, thus helping ALL UPS customers and technology partners beyond just Shipium.
That last one is a good example to give evidence that we care about the success of our customers above all else.
Hot on the heels in early September, we completed FedEx Compatible certification as well. The Compatible program is a big deal because it's an intense process only a few companies get through every year, and is essential to FedEx customers to trust verifiable and trustworthy solutions to use with their FedEx services.
Along the way as well we launched several more carriers and service methods, bring us up to well over 100 services now available on our pre-integrated carrier network. Many of our carrier partners give enthusiastic support and recommend choosing Shipium.
Analyst Validation
Continuing the theme of trust, Gartner published the Multicarrier Parcel Management Solutions Market Guide in May, and highlighted Shipium as a vendor.
We have a wonderful relationship with Gartner, as the analysts in the supply chain space seek out novel innovations that are moving the industry forward. We were excited to collaborate with them on Shipium's inclusion.
The Market Guide had this to say:
- "Most providers of ERP, transportation management systems (TMS), order management systems (OMS) and warehouse management systems (WMS) do not specialize in parcel capability. Rather, they partner with a noncompeting multicarrier parcel management solution (MCPMS) to support their customers."
- "Optimize and consolidate parcel shipments by using an MCPMS as a complementary solution to the TMS and/or WMS, ERP or OMS, or as a transportation solution for shippers that primarily use parcel as their mode of transportation."
It is essential that modern operators look to a solution like Shipium to pair with their OMS, WMS, and TMS in order to manage the complexity and rising costs of today's world.
Geographical Expansion
We scaled our operations in Canada and Mexico and expanded our carrier coverage in those geographies. It's exciting to be able to service international brands, and we have big announcements coming soon regarding other geographies.
Machine Learning Evolution
We are now processing hundreds of millions of data points for our ML models, with the leading application being our dynamic time-in-transit model supporting Delivery Promise EDDs and Carrier Selection rate shopping.
We have tested over 127 models and deployed over a dozen to production.
The data science team has grown, and the maturity of the program has increased, which is an essential understanding when thinking about modern supply chain tech: anyone can slap "AI" on a label, but true data science requires data scientists running a data science program. Ask yourself if other solutions have those to tell if their claim is real.
Continued Growth
I'm excited that 10% of the Fortune 30 have turned Shipium to optimize their shipping operations and improve their customer experience. Our customer base has more than doubled this year, and by some point in 2025 we expect to be the 6th largest shipping network in North America, by our estimates. (After Amazon, Walmart, etc.)
Enterprise shippers are turning to Shipium to modernize their tech stack, but we are also seeing them want to chart a different journey for themselves.
After spending 20 years at Amazon building the program powering Prime’s operations, we are seeing the same evolution play out among customers. The market is leading us to the same core needs:
- Connect the customer experience to the supply chain.
- Optimize the backend to bend the cost curve
- Automate with workflows to create flexibility and time for strategy
Shipium’s end-to-end platform gives companies a new operating model focused on these principles. It provides the workflows necessary to make a promise you can keep, then keep the promise that you made.
Our growth this year has been the ability to help slot in wherever a company is on their journey, as every business is different. We are giving them confidence and cross-org alignment on a path towards profitability and customer focus.
We are excited to work with you in 2025. Have a wonderful peak season!
