FreightWaves SONAR, Keelvar talk data integration in October Webinar

FreightWaves SONAR and logistics software company Keelvar have teamed up to create a powerful integration tool for reviewing high-frequency supply chain data.

During Wednesday’s October Webinar, Nick Persin, director of strategic partnerships for FreightWaves SONAR, spoke with Dylan Alperin, VP of professional services at Keelvar, about delivering SONAR’s truckload datasets to the Keelvar platform.

“We are bringing in our low, medium and high contract rate pricing,” Persin said during the webinar. “We have our spot rate pricing, and then we also have some market intelligence, some context around those rates in our SONAR Lane scores.”

The collaboration helps procurement professionals make more informed decisions using real-time North American road transport data directly integrated into Keelvar’s platform, according to a news release about the service launch in August.

Alperin said in the webinar that the data from this integration is already available to customers using Keelvar’s platform.

“As long as you’re an existing FreightWaves customer – just work with Nick and the FreightWaves team – all you need is an API key from them that you can set up in your Keelvar account,” Alperin said. “Then, 100% of the features and options are there for you to use and start leveraging in your RFPs immediately.”

Additionally, FreightWaves SONAR has a 90-day proof-of-value concept offering available for prospective customers to try out at no charge. Persin said the integration with Keelvar is a simple “turnkey solution” with no technical or IT requirements needed by customers.

“The great thing about both of our companies is we’re here to support you throughout that journey,” Persin said. “So anytime there’s an issue or question [that] comes up, you have Dylan, myself, and our teams are available to make sure that the bid sheets are set up properly and that you’re seeing the data that’s flowing through.”

Alperin said the data can be utilized to run a more efficient and effective RFP. He added that using this data live in RFPs allows businesses negotiating with their suppliers to find “the best carriers on the best lanes with the best services at the right price.”

“I’ve been in a bunch of procurement conferences in the last week, and everybody’s constantly talking about ‘data being the foundation of everything we’re doing,’” Alperin said. “I think everybody gets that, but the question always is … ‘How do I get that data?’ To me, this is the ultimate answer to that question. If you are running a truckload RFP – and we’ve got other integration partners for other categories, but on the truckload side – there’s no excuse anymore for you to say, ‘I can’t get access to the data,’ ‘I can’t quickly integrate it into my RFP,’ ‘I can’t quickly update it,’ ‘I can’t understand how some of my lanes are more or less attractive.’ … You have all of that data now.”

With very little effort needed to set this integration up, Alperin challenged business owners to start leveraging the tool for their truckload RFPs.

“Whether it’s spot bids, whether it’s contract bids, [start using this integration] so you can really start making better decisions …,” Alperin said. “The more frequent you can be looking at this data, refreshing it and updating it, all of that’s available at your fingertips now, literally, in the system. You can just press refresh, and it will bring all of this data now over there to you. That’s the really exciting piece for me.”