BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CloudSort Corporation, a leading logistics technology company redefining how packaged goods move through the supply chain, today announced it will mark its official launch at this year’s MANIFEST 2023 conference (booth 832) in Las Vegas from January 31-February 2. CloudSort’s proprietary software platform is transforming the middle mile – the infrastructure, technology and processes required to connect a package to a last mile delivery provider through a system that creates mutually-beneficial partnerships between the supply and demand sides of sortation and transportation – all while delivering value that enhances the end customer experience.
“What’s been lacking in our industry is a much-needed focus on the middle mile. Our platform eliminates rigid silos and competing priorities, creating solutions that benefit all the players,” said Derek Szopa, CEO of CloudSort. “What motivated us to design our platform was that technology has not evolved quickly enough to meet industry needs, and the existing system pits carriers against shippers and is riddled with mismatched incentives. We believe logistics shouldn’t favor the few, which is why we invented a new model for the middle mile that drives efficiency, flexibility, and scalability through a trusted network that breaks the stalemate and delivers results for everyone.”
Mastering the Middle Mile
The middle mile – that vital link between the first and last points of the supply chain – is the next blank canvas for innovation in logistics, and CloudSort knew that a bold new frontier could not come from incremental tweaks to legacy systems. It saw the middle mile as an under-leveraged canvas for innovation and the most promising space to develop new and nimble ways of getting goods from point A to B. Having tackled some of the biggest challenges associated with the middle mile, CloudSort’s revolutionary cloud-based sortation software is changing the game and brings together all the players – omnichannel retailers, online retailers, fulfillment centers and third-party logistics businesses (3PLs), shippers, carriers and end-consumers – with an ecosystem that reduces capital intensity and improves efficiency by moving work to the point of greatest value creation.
With the middle mile becoming more prominent in the industry than ever before, more companies are taking steps to directly control aspects of their delivery experience. CloudSort enables smarter choices about how shipments move from A to B, which benefits e-commerce by extending order windows and providing capacity that scales.
The CloudSort Platform — A Single Destination for Middle Mile Logistics
A first-of-its-kind cloud-based sortation software that sorts, groups and routes packages based on the parameters defined by a user or system, the CloudSort platform is modular - able to be configured in real time and focus on the delivery experience customers want, while reducing barriers to entry for organizations that want to take control of their own supply chain.
CloudSort takes an agile and adaptive approach that harnesses predictive technology to sort smarter and route better, which gives users a competitive advantage across the most decisive link in the supply chain. Its technology is inherently modular and infinitely scalable, and its solutions integrate seamlessly with partners’ operations making them secure and resilient.
Unlike Any Other Technology
Decentralization
Instead of relying on the traditional hub-and-spoke model, CloudSort mounts clusters of smaller, nimbler, and highly connected sortation centers that are easier, cheaper, and much faster to build. This allows the company to facilitate more direct shipments, produce significantly less waste, and place more deliveries closer to their destinations - sooner and more efficiently.
Intelligence
CloudSort’s secret sauce is its dynamic sortation software, which harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive technology for smarter sortation, and more efficient, sustainable and responsive routing. Its interoperable technology, designed for intuitive usability, integrates seamlessly with any existing tech stack, whether a shipper, carrier, or 3PL.
Participation
CloudSort offers multiple ways to engage with its platform - from pure technology enablement to end-to-end outsourcing or its unique hosting opportunities that let partners monetize their own sortation activities and assets. This modular approach empowers businesses to participate in the network at the rate that works for them, establishing the middle mile as a true business driver.
Legacy Problems that CloudSort Solves
CloudSort knows the current delivery system is riddled with friction and misaligned incentives, and while all the different players rely upon each other, they are working at cross purposes and playing as if it is a zero-sum game. As such, CloudSort saw a better way where everyone can win, which starts with the middle mile. Knowing that the industry’s complex, systemic problems required a paradigm shift and not just incremental adjustments, the CloudSort platform was designed to address these issues for shippers and carriers to trade in delivery capacity:
- Shippers face immense consumer demand for delivery that is curated and mostly free, despite rising transport costs.
- Carriers struggle to manage surging capacity demand through an existing system that was designed decades before e-commerce.
- First- and last-mile carriers are fragmented and disconnected from the package volume they need, which is a missed opportunity on both the supply and demand side.
- Warehouse space, equipment and labor remain underutilized all around the country, the result of long lead times and the challenge of predicting business requirements.
The CloudSort Ecosystem
Unlike other package level sortation systems on the market today, CloudSort sortation operations are easier, cheaper, and faster to build which puts deliveries closer to their destinations, sooner.
- CloudSort enables adaptive networks, rather than static pre-planned hub-and-spoke routes, through smarter sortation earlier on and that rely on AI and big data.
- There are multiple ways for partners to engage with the CloudSort platform through modular solutions that can scale up and down so it’s fully customizable. This means CloudSort technology is interoperable and designed for seamless integration with both shippers and carriers’ existing tech stacks.
- CloudSort’s human-first tech design engages, entertains, and empowers front-line employees to do their best work.
- CloudSort’s innovative and sustainable containerization solutions facilitate more direct shipment transfers and produce less material waste.
- The CloudSort platform enables businesses to tap into its system at a rate that works for them, which enables a safer ‘test and learn’ environment for innovation and experimentation. And it's inherently responsive to seasonal fluctuations in supply and demand.
- CloudSort also leverages the scale and coverage area of some of its biggest partners – the US Postal Service (USPS) for example - for final-mile injection.
Modular Solutions
CloudSort’s intelligent middle mile software platform is the backbone of its modular solutions, which can be configured to meet the specific and ever-changing needs of any business since it integrates with existing systems and partners.
- For businesses that only need the technology to transform their current operations, CloudSort integrates effortlessly with existing stack and systems, and manages everything from manifesting and routing to payment and tracking.
- CloudSort forwarding gets shipments from point A to point B by ground or air in the most efficient and cost-effective way, because its platform complements a partner’s existing operations and works alongside their teams.
- By becoming a host in its network, any business can monetize its sortation activities and assets while helping strengthen and grow the CloudSort ecosystem. In essence, partners can build their business by building the CloudSort network one node at a time.
- CloudSort offers a fully-outsourced delivery solution for the middle mile from dock to doorstep, by coordinating and optimizing every aspect of the delivery journey.
- CloudSort’s smarter sortation, better routing, and innovative containerization raise the bar on delivery. This means intelligent sortation earlier in the delivery journey has a compounding effect on speed and accuracy later on to ensure shipments get where they’re meant to go, faster.
CloudSort can turn an existing infrastructure into a strategic business driver.
The CloudSort Network
The CloudSort network is a combination of company and host operated facilities, where all facilities use the same software and follow established processes to ensure a uniform experience across all locations. The company currently has established operations in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Nashville, Indianapolis and Philadelphia.
CloudSort is hosted on the Google Cloud Platform through its CloudSort Console – an Internet-enabled administrative tool that gives partners the ability to configure stations and devices, while serving as the user interface to track operational performance in real-time. The CloudSort mobile app is an application designed to provide instructions to an operator through a wearable or handheld device with tools that deliver sortation information, load verification, container management and troubleshooting.
For more information about CloudSort, go to www.cloudsort.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter and learn more from CloudSort CEO here.
To see a software demonstration and meet the CloudSort executive team, including CEO Derek Szopa, join us at MANIFEST 2023 booth #832 at Caesar’s Forum in Las Vegas from January 31 – February 2, 2023.
About CloudSort Corporation
Incorporated in Bellevue, WA in 2019, CloudSort is a technology and transportation company redefining how packaged goods move through the supply chain. Mr. Szopa’s pioneering vision for the middle mile drives efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. No other provider offers a standalone, cloud-based sortation software solution harnessing predictive technology to sort smarter, route better, and unlock competitive advantage across the largest link in the supply chain. The future of logistics is agile and unbound.
