“You can have the best technology in the world, but if you don’t have the right data and you don’t configure it, Garbage in, garbage out.”

Tim Judge, President & CEO of Agillitics

“If you don’t fix the right problem at the right spot, you’re going to get replaced.”

Nate Endicott, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Alliances at RateLinx

The quality of most business decisions today is tied to data, technology, and speed. This includes transformation efforts that have broad implications for any enterprise or supply chain leadership team.

RateLinx and Agillitics recently announced a strategic partnership that will offer accelerated supply chain transformation by combining Agillitics’ upstream data capabilities and RateLinx’s logistics data and services.

Tim Judge is the President & CEO of Agillitics and Nate Endicott is the Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Alliances at RateLinx. In this conversation, they tell Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton about:

· How technology has to be fueled by quality data that is configured enough to be efficiently operational in its intended setting

· Why having the right people in every role in an organization has a direct impact on how much customers will trust that organization to make decision on their behalf

· Why the combination of these two organizations’ strengths will make it easier for their clients to get to the next level

Intro (00:00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world. Supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things. Supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:00:28):

Hey, good afternoon. Scott Luton and Greg white with a year on supply chain. Now, welcome to today’s show Greg, how are you doing? I’m doing great. It’s been a big day of production here, right? And, uh, we’ve got an old friend joining us. I say old friend, like a week old, but, but it’s good to have him back. We, Hey, we’ve got a home run show that will wrap up production today on we’ve got two business and technology leaders doing big things, massive things in supply chain. And we’re going to dive into the background, dive into what they’re doing today and where they’re headed. So stay tuned for how we’re going to be working hard to raise your supply chain leadership IQ. Um, all right, so quick program. And before we get started, Greg, if folks enjoy today’s episode, what kind of advice would typically give them?

Scott Luton (00:01:17):

It’s tough question, Scott, let me, uh, let me think about that a little bit. I would say go to YouTube or supply chain now, radio.com or wherever they get their podcasts crop. That’s right in that order, you know, I changed up the order there. I do subscribe. So you don’t miss a single thing, including conversations like today, where we’re going to be featuring let’s go ahead and bring in our featured guests, Tim judge, president and CEO of agile at IX, Tim. Good afternoon. Hey, anyone guys. Thanks for having me. Great to have you back. We love our repeat guests and you are a hit, you and Shannon were hitting on the live stream. So great to have you. Um, and also Nate in the cot senior vice president, global sales and alliances with our friends at rate Lynx, Nate, how you doing? It’s God, thanks for having me.

Scott Luton (00:02:05):

Absolutely. Thanks for joining us new guys here. So take it easy on him. Well, Hey we, um, while Nate is new to the show rate links is not, we really enjoyed, uh, featuring Shannon on a couple of past shows, including last week’s live stream, working in rubbing elbows with Corey and the whole team at rate links. And Nate, your ears have been burning because we have heard a lot of things, uh, related to all the big things you’re doing out in the marketplace. So great to have you here. I’m looking forward to learning firsthand. All right. So, uh, for starters, and we want to dive into who you are first and where are you from an anecdote or two about your upbringing. So let’s start with you, Nate. Nate, tell us, where’d you grow up and you got to give us the goods on your upbringing a little bit, the goods. Well, I grew up in Southern California. I’m in Cyprus, actually grew up right by the beach. I think I still

Nate Endicott (00:03:00):

Have a sand in places that stand doesn’t belong behind the years and everywhere else. But I grew up as a sponger as a kid. So I used to, uh, boogie board, uh, Tuesdays and Thursday mornings, even during high school years, we’d go out about six miles from Huntington beach and, um, grew up playing baseball and South orange County and had an awesome upbringing. Um, my dad was a music producer in LA. So why not? It’s either LA or I think Nashville. Right. But I grew up in Southern California actually grew up a couple doors down from tiger woods. So that’s the famous, uh, claim to fame with, with tiger. Uh, the only two golf lessons I ever had in my life were with Earl at the Navy course. And so he grew up, had a fun, um, upbringing and so Cal and, uh, spent a lot of time in the Midwest. Grandparents had a farm out there. So I kinda got the best of the Midwest in the winter and then got the heck out of there and enjoyed the beach all year round.

Scott Luton (00:04:07):

Wow. You were like ran on Footloose, right? Right. Absolutely. So cool, man. I’ve got so many follow up questions. Greg did it before I knew. Yeah. So for starters, what type of music did your, did your father produced most?

Nate Endicott (00:04:24):

Yeah, so he was a Christian contemporary Christian music producer, uh, spent a lot of time in LA and obviously everywhere, but mostly it was writing string arrangements for, you know, guys like Amy Grant and BBNC, Steve Wyman’s and Steven Curtis Chapman, but kind of the contemporary Christian artists. And then obviously that pulled them into doing a lot of different type. Um, and then he was an executive vice president for a company called Maranatha music down in Southern California who produced a lot of the Christian artists and Christian music that still be in played, you know, throughout the globe today

Scott Luton (00:05:03):

Was four that you mentioned or for my favorite Steven Curtis Chapman. Right. I don’t think ever gets enough attention in particular. Yeah, definitely. Alright. So that could be a whole episode. All right. Baseball, you mentioned what position go back a step before baseball, do you think you can explain to us Nate, why the lessons from Earl stuck with tiger, but not yet.

Nate Endicott (00:05:25):

Right. Um, I don’t know. I think I did beat him a few times. Um, but no, I, yeah, exactly. I think I’ve gotten a few more. Right. You know what? He spent a lot more time behind a tree. Earl would take us out to the Navy course and he would basically dump a bucket of balls and would tell us, you know, until you can get in, in three behind the street, um, you know, we’re not going anywhere. And it was like, it wasn’t like, Hey, let’s work on your mechanics. It was forget. It’s all about risk. And I think that ties great to even what we do today in business, um, and helping organizations out, but it, it definitely shaped, I love, and I’m a good for, you know, scramble with player that’s for sure.

Scott Luton (00:06:13):

That’s awesome. That’s a great lesson, man. Huge. Uh, all right. Final question for you, Nate is baseball. What position is it?

Nate Endicott (00:06:21):

Yeah, played up the middle. Uh, it’s short and second close the little in high school. Just, they wanted a, I guess a little mix of strong arm, but uh, played up the middle and then went on and played along each state, um, got drafted, played, you know, 1824 months and then decided that, uh, the family man that I was, was very hard to, uh, live out in the baseball world so quickly drafted shoe drafted red socks and the braids out of high school. So where did you wind? Where’d you wind up playing, uh, AA with the red Sox and, um, ended up was that then back then it was, I want to say, yeah, yeah, man,

Scott Luton (00:07:09):

Nate, I had no idea now that’s not fair. And all the pre-show prep, the hot, some of this stuff, some of this baseball and music, it’s fascinating. So AA really glorious for anyone who doesn’t know that’s $11,000 a year Hartman over a garage in bologna sandwiches for a living

Nate Endicott (00:07:29):

With no man. His

Scott Luton (00:07:30):

Right.

Nate Endicott (00:07:32):

Yeah, man.

Scott Luton (00:07:34):

You were earning your key by purse. That’s awesome.

Nate Endicott (00:07:37):

Yeah. When they looking for,

Scott Luton (00:07:39):

To dive more into your role with rate links here momentarily, but we also want to get to know Tim judge a lot better, Tim. We didn’t get a chance to much with the live stream, right. To really dive into your background. So we’re going to do that today. All right. So Tim, where are you from and share a couple of things about your upbringing? You know, you got to give us the goods there too.

Tim Judge (00:07:59):

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So I’m a long Island, uh, New York native, um, grew up in Merrick long Island or, uh, AKA where Amy Fisher’s from, um, or Ben and Jerry as well, Lindsey Lohan. Um, so we have a long history of, uh, of interesting people. Um, we, uh, I grew up near the beach, right? So boogie boarding, uh, some surfing, um, you know, growing, growing up, uh, you know, so close to the beach is the thing I miss in being down in Atlanta. Um, great, great upbringing, um, you know, great parents. My, uh, uh, little sister just had a baby last week, so first time Okal um, thanks. Thanks. So she’s doing, she and the baby are doing great. Um, you know, COVID has been interesting, uh, going through big, big, big life changes like that, as I’m sure you guys can attest, um, you know, for, for Nate and baseball and golf. For me, it was basketball. So I was up at, at, on the courts that, you know, but 4:00 AM 5:00 AM every day playing. Um, and, um, shooting was my, was my, my, my thing. I wasn’t the best dribbler I was fast and I could shoot so three pointers, um, where and foul shots were where my, my deal

Greg White (00:09:14):

Did your range start when you stepped on the court?

Tim Judge (00:09:18):

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I got, I got in trouble many, uh, many a game for that as well. I’m aware that range was, uh, but, uh, yeah, it was very, very exciting. Um, ended up going to Georgia, coming down here for Georgia tech, um, staying in Atlanta, Atlanta ever since. And, uh, you know, um, music is probably, you know, you mentioned, I w I’ve been in, um, it’s been a little bit, well a while, but growing up in, in, uh, rock bands, play guitar, um, you know, some men been in and out of different, different bands my whole life, uh, you know, from a, from a music perspective, but also DJ-ed, um, and in college, uh, as well spent two summers in a Baeza, uh, Spain deejaying and in front of some big crowds and the like, um, those days are a little, little, far, far from here, far from now, but in a lot of ways, a lot of ways. So I’m trying to figure out how to DJ named Tim. Oh, God, I had a lot, uh, the, the, uh, DJ, uh, Loki, uh, uh, was probably the one that I use the most. You will watch, somebody will be doing it right now.

Greg White (00:10:30):

Hey, did you play basketball at Georgia tech?

Tim Judge (00:10:34):

Uh, no intermural at tech. Yeah. I could have, I could have, uh, you know, played, um, you know, potentially, um, but, uh, but no, I didn’t do or detect division one was way, way, way better than, than I, than I could compete with Greg.

Greg White (00:10:50):

I very, very reluctantly want to pass the Baton to you to dive into their professional journey. These are very interesting from a personal standpoint, you know, what I think is important that we’ve learned here is, and you two should both know this is that we are putting together a supply chain, gang bang. So we always need musicians. We’ve got a Mike from Tosca. No, no, I’m sorry. Um, Brian, uh, we’ve got a drummer anyway,

Tim Judge (00:11:22):

Steve, Steve, Steve hopper, by any chance, he’s got, he’s got a band, uh, some supply chain guys and he plays drums. Uh, so it just made me think of him.

Greg White (00:11:35):

We need to book them for a live stream and we need some production help too. Yeah. Some deal-making help down there, Nate. So, yeah. And even two lessons from Earl is, is, uh, more, more than I got. So I’m sure I can learn a lot. Alright. Alright. Sorry guys. Let’s look, we, you guys are professionals at times we’re professionals. Um, so let’s talk a little bit about that after you guys got done deejaying and, and surfing, eventually you had to get a job. So, uh, so Tim, let’s start with you and tell us a little bit about your professional journey and how you came to be where you’re at and maybe, you know, kind of like a, a Eureka moment or a pivotal moment or particular, um, a particular mentor that meant something, you know, that meant something meaningful to you.

Tim Judge (00:12:30):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I appreciate, uh, appreciate the question, Greg. So I, um, I came down, I had no idea what, you know, I knew I was good at math and engineering sounded like something that was, uh, was good for, for, for people that were analytical. I started in computer engineering or electrical engineering and took a lot of CS classes and realized quite quickly that, that wasn’t wasn’t for me. I don’t, I didn’t have the attention span. I had roommates that can code for 24 hours a day and absolutely loved it. And I have nothing but respect for those individuals realized very, very quickly that wasn’t for me. So switch to kind of industrial and systems engineering side. And I had some really good professors that I think were, were definitely mentors, both as an undergrad. I’m an IEE as well as, uh, for my, for my MBA at Georgia tech as well.

Tim Judge (00:13:20):

Um, that kinda, you know, ch you know, shed light on, on statistics and innovative ways. Um, you know, I had doc dr. Jane Ammons, who is I had for three statistics classes, um, you know, as an undergraduate that was really, um, you know, really good and made. And she talks in supply chain too, and made it kind of fun and interesting why it’s important. So that was kind of always in the back of my mind. Um, and then some great professors, um, you know, in my, in my MBA as well, they kind of gave me that little bit more of that entrepreneurial spirit and what it’s like to start a company. And Greg, I know you can, you can attest to that, um, business plan competitions, and, you know, not only how to design the perfect product, but maybe just as importantly, how do you market that, that product or service, um, you know, to get, to get people excited and, um, and the likes.

Tim Judge (00:14:10):

So a lot of that was new to me at the time. So a lot of great mentors, um, there, um, and then when I graduated from tech as an undergrad, I started at, uh, a company which is a small kind of knit, um, group in bindings called geo comm TMS. And I worked with, uh, you know, gentlemen, Chris Russell, and Robert Khaleesi, and a lot of supply chain guys. And it was really neat cause you would have the CEO and director of marketing and VP of solutions and your VP of sales all within 10 feet of each other, you know, and I’m a 22 year old kid, you know, just starting his career and getting to, you know, mentored by, um, you know, people in supply chain and that have been there for 30 years. And not only that, but in different areas. Right. Um, and get a little bit of everything.

Tim Judge (00:15:00):

Um, so they ended up being sold to, uh, to red Prairie then became JDA. Now, blue honor. Uh, I ended up going, um, cause I was in involved in a lot of the presales and demoing activity ended up going to work at Manhattan associates, which is the largest end of my career was about seven years. So predominantly in their warehouse management, uh, product, you’ve probably heard of their Manhattan’s WMS. Um, so I got involved in that. My first project was for FEMA, um, right before hurricane Katrina. Um, yeah, so I could probably, uh, you know, by, uh, you know, talk your ear off about some of the, the, the stories from, from that project alone. But I really understood the importance of supply chain then, and you know, what, what happens if we don’t get, you know, products like water and, and, and meals to, to hurricane victims.

Tim Judge (00:15:52):

And even though it had absolutely nothing to do with our software, um, you know, working with, with teams and government to be able to track packages and, and stuff like that was, it was really cool. Um, so kind of stepped in into supply chain and then seven years later went and got my MBA. Um, I worked at, you know, supply chain consulting, um, company, um, for three years, um, Invista, um, kind of led the, uh, director in their supply chain solutions practice. So big implementations. Um, and also, you know, I love love Manhattan, but being, you know, working for a software vendors is different than, you know, kind of in the consultancy side of things and what you can do with customers. Um, just the nature of it was a good experience. Um, and that I’ve also done a couple, couple startups in between and, and things like cognitive computing and neural networking, um, that was kind of ahead of its time. Um, and what I learned from that is just how important timing is to your entrepreneurial suits, right. Even having a great idea that everybody needs, if it’s not quite at the right time, um, it’s, it’s still like an uphill uphill battle. Um, and then six years ago I started agile Lytics and, um, you know, we’re, we’re really, really, uh, kind of, uh, I think a unique culture, um, just had four new, uh, college hires start this morning, um, as they start yeah. As they started their career. Thanks. Uh, appreciate that.

Scott Luton (00:17:21):

Tough to find good talent these days and to find four and hire four, that’s a great win.

Tim Judge (00:17:27):

No, I appreciate it. It’s God. And, you know, and, and I think in this, in this current climate and an environment, um, you know, to be able to do that, um, you know, we feel very, very fortunate, right. Um, you know, as I kind of said, you know, maybe a little bit, uh, tested to on the last call is very fortunate. There are a lot of companies out there are struggling, as you mentioned, struggling to find talent, struggling to pivot, change their business practices with the, you know, with everything going on with COVID. Um, so definitely, definitely fortunate and kind of rolling with the punches a little bit.

Greg White (00:17:58):

That’s outstanding. I’m interested from all of that. Seems like you’ve had quite a few kind of pivotal moments, but I mean, can, does one in particular stand out as something that really changed your perspective or shifted your direction?

Tim Judge (00:18:19):

Yeah. You know, it’s interesting cause they don’t always line up with what you, what you think would be, um, I’ll tell you real quick. I was out, um, uh, I was doing and you guys, everyone on this call I think can attest is, are really, really difficult. Hey, I’ve been up a hunt, you know, I worked 120 hours this week. It’s 3:00 AM. I’m at a distribution center center. We can’t ship product. Right. It’s three days from Christmas. Everybody is absolutely exhausted and irritable and like, why did we get into technology? Why are we, why, why is this so complicated? And there was a warehouse manager that I was, I was working with, they were trying to roll out, um, you know, different reports so we can kind of see what’s going on and is there a huge backlog of, of work and, and fill rates down and, um, and everything.

Tim Judge (00:19:07):

And he’s like, we spent millions of dollars on these software solutions. Why can’t I manage my warehouse effectively? Why, why is this difficult? And I didn’t have a good answer for, I said, you’re right. It shouldn’t be that difficult. And, um, that was kind of the pivotal moment where, where I’m like, you know what, there’s so much opportunity in technology and just quality people out there that it doesn’t need to be that difficult. You know? And I didn’t have an answer at that time. I don’t know that I have a full answer now, but, um, but that was kind of the pivotal moment to say, yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, technologies is, is moving so fast and how do I connect that technology, um, or technologies and people to, to solve business problems so that we can manage our transportation and our warehousing and our ordering. And, um, and it doesn’t need to be that tough.

Greg White (00:20:06):

I might’ve been that guy accepted it. I like that. You mentioned the house manager, Hey kid. Um, maybe before your time. But, uh, a company that I worked for in Phoenix was one of the first to implement PKMS for Manhattan and frankly, a bit of a pivotal moment for me too, because it took so much consulting and it took so much fidgeting is what I called it at the time. And I just thought there has to be an easier way to do this. Um, and there is, and a lot of companies like you guys have gotten to that point and we talked to a lot of companies that have frankly changed the paradigm for how people integrate technology. So I think that’s a really valuable pivotal moment if that’s what you want to call it. Yeah. That’s the why isn’t it much easier. Yeah.

Tim Judge (00:21:03):

Right. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think in an exposed to Greg, you know, Greg, just the importance of data, right? So you can have the best technology in the world, but if you set it on the last bar, right. Garbage in, garbage out, if you have the, you know, the, you don’t have the right data and you don’t configure it. Right. Um, you could have a great system. Right. Um, and it’s, but it’s taken a look at, you know, the importance of the data and are we getting out of the system, what we, what we expect to get, to be able to make, make decisions. Right. Um, and what I found is a lot of the transactional systems are great at capturing information, write them, scan this, this palette. Don’t tell me to put it away. Um, but taking a step back, is that, what does that mean? How are we performing? How many staff should I bring in today? You know, how does, how do am I meeting our customer demands? It’s not,

Greg White (00:21:53):

Yeah. What do I use it? Right. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s incredibly powerful. That’s where bridge solutions that take that data and turn it into something valuable, become so critical, especially in this day and age when you have to be so, Oh my gosh. I almost said agile, but I guess I should really. Yeah. I mean you do, right. I mean, you have to be resilient. You have to be agile. You have to be responsive. So absolutely well, that’s awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I mean that, you know, that’s just, it, it’s great to hear how people come up because it helps us understand the perspective that you have on the world and how you approach it. Right. As a founder. Yup. Alright, Nate, top that. Right.

Nate Endicott (00:22:38):

I mean, to me coming out of playing ball, I mean, I had to figure out, Hey, what am I going to do with my life? When I sat down for college, they asked, I want to be an architect. And I love drawing and you know, design and I sat down and, you know, the administrator ad the administration, people that are in the admissions office for the baseball team, they sat me down and said, Hey, what do you want to do? And I told them, and they said, well, where’s your portfolio. And I just laughed. I’m like, what portfolio? I mean about that. And the glove, what do you mean? And I have golf clubs in the back of my trunk. And so right on the spot. And I said, Hey, the, the tutor for the baseball team nudged me and he said, just say communications.

Nate Endicott (00:23:21):

So I said, okay, I’ll do communications. So that that’s really, I mean, you know, my bent just the way I’m, I’m a big believer in you. Can’t put in what God left out. And, um, you gotta stay focused on your gift sets and leverage your strengths. You still work on your weaknesses, but coming out of, you know, playing ball, I had to figure out I hadn’t graduated yet. So I’m like, man, I just want to go spend time with kids. And I was a youth pastor for a couple of years and like, Hey, I’m going to go figure this thing out. I still thought maybe I should go back and play ball. I started my own baseball, hitting and fielding kind of lessons and Academy. It was called in the beginning, the big innings where you started, but never ends. And, um, had like 75 kids out here in the Valley in Phoenix and quickly realized that, uh, you know, just like data centers in some ways going away because of the cloud, it was like, fields are going away quickly.

Nate Endicott (00:24:16):

I was forced to figure out, okay, I gotta do something different. I started my own marketing organization. It was called Endicott creatives, nothing creative about the name, but I had kind of a, a name out there already with some, some brands that I was helping and quickly realize that I could outsource some work and get a lot of help. And so I created a team in the Philippines and had a couple of project managers and started just doing biz dev work and creating, being an entrepreneurial learned a lot from my grandpa passed away. I don’t know, a couple months ago, but it was 99 and was really the guy that shaped me as far as business and entrepreneurialship and how to treat people and live, you know, never, never want a day to go by where, you know, someone on apology and just simple things in business and how to take care of customers.

Nate Endicott (00:25:04):

But that creative side of me on that marketing side, I kept running into technology companies and one was a global freight audit payment provider. And they approached me and said, Hey, come and help us. And, uh, I was buying the years in the industry. I was really young and I’m like, man, you know what, this’ll be great. They had a horrible SEO presence. They really didn’t have a website. They, you know, we had just won a huge deal with, uh, with, with HP. And they said, Hey, six, you got to outsource 60%. Um, and you have six months to do it. So we went and I had already had that globalization kind of mind frame and mindset. And so we quickly opened an office in the Philippines, open an office in Costa Rica, open an office in Prague. And then, um, you know, I think we, and then in the air Scotland, so we had the global presence, um, quickly realized that, uh, this, the supply chain world is, is big and freight audit and payment is a teeny, teeny, teeny tiny piece. And it’s the piece around the invoice. And it’s like, man, I can’t, you know, I’ve got scars too. I’m around just having discussions on how do you help your customers go solve problems that we need just to have invoice data. So I spent many years there helping them globalized and ended up taking over sales and marketing

Scott Luton (00:26:25):

Real quick. When you, as you were expanding globally, again, give us an idea in terms of the timeframe. Cause nowadays is probably a little bit easier to do that kind of stuff, but I get the impression, this was a few years back when it was more challenging.

Nate Endicott (00:26:38):

Yeah, I would say it was between Oh five and Oh eight Oh seven Oh five, two Oh seven. And, uh, it was easy to, it was hard to find good people. Um, obviously just with my background in ministry and the nonprofit world, I’m on keynote, it’s we’re human beings and we all have our flaws and human beings are, you know, messed up and we’re all wacky in our own ways. So let’s go find some good people in each area. And so we went out and tried to find a kind of a general manager, uh, you know, in a couple that had the same values that we shared from an executive team and tried to help instill our values in them. And then they, they kind of knew everybody. So we tried to navigate the political side in each of those regions, um, and then try to just find good talent and good people.

Nate Endicott (00:27:27):

What we realized is a lot of our customers were in those areas and to, in order to get that logistics, mind frame, um, and expertise, you kind of had to go and start hiring customers and people. And that’s kind of how we kind of built those reasons. But yeah, it wasn’t a time where you were doing a lot of Skype calls and, you know, bandwidth was bad and it was hard to communicate and people didn’t have fluid hours. It was really very hard, you know, stops and customer service. Wasn’t the best back then. But yeah, so like after globalists globalize and that company, you know, I, I moved on to another opportunity where, uh, my dad always kind of told me, he said, Nate, you know, go to the place, whatever you want to do in life and your next venture go to the place that’s doing it the best.

Nate Endicott (00:28:14):

And so I’ve kind of always put on that hat and, um, go learn from the best. So if I was gonna do podcasts, I’d probably come and sit in your backyards and hang out with your families. Wow. That is an unpaid endorsement things. I try to instill that in my kids and even in our culture at rate links, it’s like, Hey, look, you know, you guys have an awesome opportunity here. And we do feel, um, in, in privileged of what we do, but being able to do that back then when I did it, I chose to go to another freight auto-payment payment company that I thought was kind of on that forefront and spent a couple of years there. And I mean, I quickly realized that, you know, freight audit is dead. You know, it’s like, you know, what’s the, you know, what’s, what’s good about, you know, short pain and invoice and creating problems for the carrier and the customer.

Nate Endicott (00:28:59):

And it’s like, there’s no good in that. And how do you create an adversarial relationship? And it’s like, Hey, all this data’s out here. How do we build leverage that I then went and took a, another role, which was kind of like a part ownership role in a company that was based at a Europe, had about a year and a half stint with them. I was the only guy in the U S won some big deals for them and thought, man, let’s open an operation here and we can do it. And then it kinda hit me, woke up one day and I’m like, man, you know what? I need to stick to my core. I had just had our fourth and final kid and he was going through heart surgeries. We found out that when he was a little boy right in the Euro, 28 weeks old, he had a, what they called a aortic stenosis, but it was severe.

Nate Endicott (00:29:45):

And, um, he needed to have something and he was going to die. And so we, by the, uh, the grace of God and some data and some smart guys that are super smart, uh, in Boston, they were able to do surgery on my son, inside my wife’s belly, basically save his life. So going through that, wow. And trying to open up an operation in the U S I’m like, you know what, this, I need to, you know, hit the reset and I want one more reset. And so I remember waking up when I was in the, uh, Boston and I woke up and had a couple emails from some RFPs that we had participated in. And basically it was one of those emails. As I know, Tim, we’ve all gotten that says, Hey, thank you so much for participation, but we decided to go with another direction.

Nate Endicott (00:30:32):

And every time you get that, you have a choice to either not respond or pick up the phone and try to still engage with the relationship. And I’ve always thought, thought I’m going to engage. So I picked it up and they had gone with rate Linux and saw I’m like, man, I got to figure something out. So I sit in the hospital, I’d link, sent a LinkedIn message to Shannon. Vaillancourt our president. And I said, Hey, I don’t know if you checked your LinkedIn, but if you do, I’d love to have a discussion. I’m at a critical point in my career and I’m excited to go do something different. This is where I kind of feel like the freight audit world is at. I’m looking for a company that has a lot of data mindset, that’s data, first approach. And, um, I recently lost a few deals to you.

Nate Endicott (00:31:13):

Can we talk? And he says that I’m the only guy he’s ever responded to on LinkedIn, but he responded because I was in Phoenix and he wanted to open up office in Phoenix. And so we talked and so two days later we spent, I don’t know, a couple of hours on the phone talking about the industry, talking about scars and just a future mindset on, Hey, how can we go build something? If the industry is 10 years behind, what are we going to do? And so I think that was a moment in my career where I had to think about, do I want to just go be a part of something again? Or do we want to go be a part of something that’s, you know, really a part of something. And so I, I hit that pause button. He flew me out to Madison and met with, um, the other owner of the company, Frank and hit it off. And, um, I haven’t, haven’t looked back, but I think that was one moment in my career. Uh, and I’ve had many more, I can always hear those mentors in those people that I’ve placed myself around. Kind of asking me that question, Hey, are you with the right people? Um, you are who, you know, you become who you hang out with, you know, are you, you know, making strides to become better or are you just stagnant? And, um, that was, I think when I decided about six and a half years ago and I joined Raymond,

Scott Luton (00:32:25):

You know, Greg there’s so much to dive into. I thought we were, I thought we were doing something on the personal side of establishing the personal background with both Tim and Nate here. But the professional background is so key, a lot of contrast between Tim’s and Nate’s, but you know what, the beauty of that is that in supply chain, especially at supply chain 2020, we need a wide variety of skillsets. Right. There’s something for everybody in, in global supply chain. So I love, and Nate, I really appreciate, um, your approach and, and, and kind of your journey and how you, and really how you shared it. I think I had a pivotal moment. Yeah. And I mean, you can’t put in what God left out. I think that is, uh, an important recognition to understand what your gifts are that’s right, right. And to roll with that, whatever it is, like you said, never Trump stop trying to improve yourself.

Scott Luton (00:33:23):

But if you start with those core strengths and you went back to that at some point as well, right. That sense of focus is important. So what we want to do next, and by the way, Nate, really sorry to hear about your grandfather. Uh, I’m sure there’s, there’s a, there’s several numerous conversations. We could talk about some lessons learned there, but we’ll revisit that, but, uh, all the best to his family sounds like he lived a really full and rich life and his legacy is alive and well, so, um, all right. So what we wanna do next, uh, Tim and Nate is we want to, we want to dive into each of your organizations and what they do and your role, right. And then we’re gonna, uh, go into a really neat partnership between the organizations. But for starters, let’s set the table a little bit more here. So Tim starting with you, tell us about what agile attic stuff.

Tim Judge (00:34:17):

Yeah, sure. You know, quite simply I tell, um, my friends, family, uh, employees, where we, we like to think of ourselves as this is the supply chain data scientists. Well, what does, what does that mean? Right? Is, is really connecting the dots between data, um, and, and operations. Cause, you know, you see, everyone will tell you just all of the data issues. Um, you know, as data gets gets, we get more and more from a volume perspective and variety and in the big data challenges, it’s just going to intensify. Um, so being a company, a trusted advisor, uh, for our customers to be able to really, um, enable them to leverage that data, um, you know, for, for true insights and making decisions, um, and getting more uncomfortable with those latest technologies, um, you know, as things do, do accelerate, which we, which we know that they will.

Tim Judge (00:35:13):

Um, so bringing that demand expertise, both in supply chain data in it, um, kind of together, uh, I like to call it the supply chain unicorns, um, the it group, because it is kind of like the Jack of all trades. It’s hard to find those skillsets in one person. So we do a tremendous amount of cross training, um, and, and staying on top of those technologies. Um, and thankfully we do have great, great. And, um, in industry experts like yourselves on, on, on this call, um, that really helped facilitate that. Um, and then really, um, you know, implementing, you know, best in class analytics for our customers. Um, and then, you know, making sure that they can sell, they can sustain, um, those skills. So sometimes that’s helping them build those teams, doing some of the heavy lifting upfront, um, on a variety of technologies. Um, so that ultimately, um, you know, they’re not beholding to us. They can kind of run on their own and grow and then we can go and focus on more complex problems and keep, uh, keep all our young staff, uh, motivated and challenged and, and happy work yourself out of a general work SL right in the job, right?

Scott Luton (00:36:24):

The supply chain unicorns team, the herd keeps getting bigger and bigger. Y’all have grown quite a bit as evidence with the four hires you’ve made here lately. Um, as founder, president CEO, where do you spend your time?

Tim Judge (00:36:38):

I am the chief psychiatry now. Just kidding. I think it’s, you know, and Greg alluded to it on the last call. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s exciting to me is you’re, you’re doing a little bit of, of everything. So it’s always at the beginning of the day. Okay, well, how do I put the first things first and then, and then go tackle that. Right. So, um, you know, and that changes, you know, from priorities on, on my time and even within, within the business, you know, kind of day to day. Um, so kind of taking a step back and really focusing, you know, on, on that. Um, if I err on one side it’s, it’s the people, um, just because I think I’m building the right team and if you treat your, your team right, um, and give them the tools that they need to do, um, you know, they’ll go find the customers, your customers will be, or will be happy.

Tim Judge (00:37:27):

Um, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re learning, you’re growing, they’re helping each other learn. They’re helping each other, you know, we’re allow you to kind of, to, to, to kind of step, step away and get out of their way. Um, and we’ve, we’ve done a really good job. I think of hiring really, really bright, hungry, you know, I would say humble, hungry, humble, and smart, right? The smarts, a little bit of a given Georgia tech in schools like Georgia tech, do a lot of the hard work for us by, by, you know, making sure, but it also means emotional intelligence and, um, you know, and, and those types of we focus on the soft skills, the even more so than, than the hard technology skills and then humble, super important. Cause if you get, you know, big, big egos and, and in that, that completely kills it.

Tim Judge (00:38:14):

You need to be open to new ideas and, and, and ideas, and then hungry, right? Making sure I I’d take a hungry really hungry person, um, with less degrees and less experienced any day of the week, right? What that, that fire, they have to be able to move fast. They have to move fast for our customers, um, and seek out, you know, value. And that requires kind of that, that hungry work ethic and passion. So, um, so yeah, most of my time is enabled to make them honestly, just making sure that they have what they need, um, and then connecting them to, you know, to the right certifications and right, um, learning and right organizations where they can continue to learn. So then when our customers come to us and they expect us to, you know, understandably understand both the market and the technologies and what they’re doing, um, that they can be confident that we’re making the right decisions on and suggestions on their behalf.

Nate Endicott (00:39:09):

Outstanding. And there’s so much more there, but Nate, let, let’s keep setting the table. Let’s talk about rate links. You know, some of our audience may remember some of the recent episodes that we, that we, uh, sat down with Shannon Vaillancourt and learn more about the model, but let’s refresh our memory. What does right. Links do and where do you spend your time? It’s it’s it’s I think hard sometimes when someone comes up and says, Hey, what do you guys do? Cause there’s a lot. And I think, uh, when you boil it down, we really help organizations ship, track and pay less for freight. And, um, we are a logistics technology and services company, and, you know, we have a TMS, um, we have freight audit and payment, and then we also one of the top providers in the track global track and trace world it’s I think, you know, it’s trying to help organizations, you know, gather all this data, you know, you’ve got to collect it and then it’s integrating all this data together, the shipping data tracking data and voice data, and then how do you help them, you know, go use it.

Nate Endicott (00:40:16):

Um, but there’s a lot of, uh, we’re data first company. So everything we do is really around data and helping our shippers, our customers leverage data to go impact, um, the bottom line and go impact SGNA, go impact EBITDA and it’s um, yeah, I think the three big areas that we typically help customers around is, you know, cash servicing cost. And I always like to sit down and have that conversation. Cause if, if you really ask them, you know, peel back the onion and it’s, you know, make it personal, they are best customers stolen that comes to us that has pain, not just looking for a product, um, cause if you don’t fix the right problem at the right spot, you’re going to get replaced. And so we, we have, I think we’ve lost one customer in the history. I think one of the things that’s good about what we’re able to do is help them drive the, you know, and understand that we can impact, you know, their bonus in some ways. And so a lot of our trans logistics, supply chain chiefs, you know, supply chain officers that have latched on to rate links, um, always are us. Thank you notes. And

Scott Luton (00:41:34):

Hey, appreciate it. Cause they really do. They take you and, you know, customers that like you, they take you wherever you go. And, uh, they, they don’t miss their bonus cause they’re leveraging data in the right way. That’s a powerful incentive for sure. Um, I love how some of the, the inner interlap between the two organizations and what you do is really that powerful spotlight to, to, um, provide visibility in many ways, which is, you know, it’s been the rage for years. It will be, uh, just a bigger emphasis based on the 2020 challenges moving forward. But, but, but also making sure it’s the right data, it’s accurate data. Um, you know, all the data sources are playing nice in the sandbox. So many critical, uh, elements there that allow organizations to move faster and, and Nate, as you put it ship track and pay less for freight, I love simplicity is such an underrated quality in 2020.

Scott Luton (00:42:32):

All right. So Nate, uh, one final question about you and right links before we talk into talking about it’s pretty exciting partnership is where do you spend your time? I mean, I head up sales, uh, and alliances and, uh, so I get to spend most of my time on that side, also the marketing side, but, um, helping customers in our client engagement teams, you know, get the most value out of, you know, our solution again, in the KPIs and metrics that we provide to our customers are helping them, you know, impact business in such a way that it, it means something to them personally, too. So it’s, um, you know, from the front of the sale all the way through and, um, on the Alliance side, just helping our partners, which were obviously excited about the analytics partnership, but helping our partners gain, uh, the most value out of our solution as well.

Scott Luton (00:43:23):

And, uh, sites the most, my time on the sales side. And then just as important as the partnership side as a, that’s a big piece of our revenue and where we’re going in the future. Love it. Alright. So let’s talk about rate links and agile Lytics. Greg, there’s some big news here, right? Yeah. I’m dying to know. I mean, what, what kind of leverage these two companies together creates, right. Like wonder twin powers, activate thinking that exact thing. All right. So Tim, let’s go back to you. So tee things up. How are we going to be working together here?

Tim Judge (00:43:57):

Yeah, I think, you know, from an analytics perspective and just per, you know, quick context, when we, you know, got, got our start, it was very much visibility. You know, how do we use better visualization and dashboards and real time alerts to manage our RDCs or our transportation network, um, you know, combined with some of the things we’re doing and, you know, planning and design. And you know, now I think that the, there there’s an opportunity because, you know, there’s blurring of, of responsibilities of functions within the supply chain. Um, and, and that’s breaking down barriers and walls, uh, for those teams to work together. There’s, I think there’s, um, blurring of responsibilities across it and operations and that combined with everything we talked about and data is now is a really good time to really focus in on how do we truly provide better end to end visibility, um, with the technology, the availability of the data, um, and what really the one area it was, Hey, let’s, let’s look for a partnership that already gets real time.

Tim Judge (00:45:03):

Updates has relationships with carriers, um, to, to, to get the speed of implementation and speed to value that our customers are really, uh, really looking for. Right. Um, so how do we sidestep some of the bureaucracy, some of the slow down some of the, getting access to the data and tap into, um, with the company, um, to provide it, their technology, their relationships, their data combined with our solutions expertise and getting insights from that data, combining it with inventory and an order demand and all the other types of data elements that we, um, that we pull and aggregate and cleanse and harmonize for our customers. Um, it’s like a match made in heaven. Cause now we can go to a customer and say, Hey, well, what is a control tower? Right? It’s the ability to, you know, to sense to get the right data, to, you know, to get into one place, to enable advanced mathematics and things like prediction and you know, what to do next.

Tim Judge (00:46:02):

Um, but if you talk to any of those customers, their challenges always is always data. The second thing is, um, is that right links, you know, in talking with different companies that I’ve had challenges in the transportation visibility space, it usually comes down to one of two things that I see, and I love you guys’ opinion. One is, uh, is the carrier onboarding process, right? So having done that with carriers and, and having those relationships in place, um, the second thing is data quality is, Hey, we implemented this and, and we’re not trusting the, the insights and the ability and taco at Shannon and innate. And knowing that data quality is number one on their list and they get it. And that’s where their focus is. Um, you know, made us feel comfortable that, Hey, this is a good partnership with our combined, you know, focused and obsession. I’ll even go as far as to say obsession with, um, ensuring data is, is clean and relevant and timely. So, um, to enable all the other things customers want to do, because without that, your, your hose before you get started.

Greg White (00:47:05):

Yeah. And that is critical, right? I mean, right now, one of the biggest issues in the industry for accomplishing what your clients, your joined clients are, are trying to do is the availability of data or the timeliness of that data. All right. So Tim did a very nice job setting the table there, Nate, about the partnership, but what, what would you from rate Link’s perspective

Speaker 6 (00:47:30):

And why did you do business with this guy? I can’t have seen him

Nate Endicott (00:47:37):

The gym and all the Marriotts and

Speaker 6 (00:47:40):

Healthy breakfast is key. Definitely understand data quality.

Nate Endicott (00:47:44):

You mean the need for speed? So, no, I think, um, you know, one thing that, you know, partnership a partnership just to have a partnership is always to have a partnership. That’s a waste of time. And, um, Shannon and I have always, you know, from a vision strategic standpoint, we always want to partner with guys that it’s a lasting partnership and it’s truly solving a spot in the market, uh, that is helping customers. And I think one of the things that it’s just known out there, um, and it’s one of the reasons why I went to Ray links. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve partnered, um, is I think what a coach has done, but also just business as business. I mean, people go and source and the cure, you know, at TMS, then they procure a free audit payment provider and then they procure or sorts of tracking provider and there’s three different silos, none of which really actually go and fix the true, true, true root cause issue of data, right?

Nate Endicott (00:48:38):

And then you have this whole left side, you know, the order demand and inventory and all this other data, and it’s all out there and it’s, uh, people throw people at problems and, um, when there’s a computer and so it’s like weak, if you can eliminate exceptions and you can drive people to focus. I just think companies have realized that, you know, having data silos has crippled their decision making. And I think that’s, uh, you know, why I’m really excited about this partnership. And I know that we’ve talked about it on the last call, but you know, what the data quality brings. And it’s really the uniqueness of rate links I believe is, you know, being able to deliver accurate, complete, and timely data. And with that in, in Tim’s team and what they’re doing, bringing all this together, uh, you know, you don’t have to go buy a, you know, a two to $5 million, you know, control tower hub.

Nate Endicott (00:49:37):

That’s got all these different apps in it. And the days for, you know, a time to value a quick ROI are now and going and hitting your initiatives is now. And how do you do that now? And that’s why we’re excited about partnering, uh, bringing them into our, our customers, us going to their customers, and then together what we’re going to be able to do. Cause this whole control, you know, big data was a big word back then. And it’s like people going about like, you know, lowercase data, little thing, tiny data. So it’s, I don’t know. We, you know, quickly help organizations, um, go out and impact their bottom line and give them in visibility, um, to be able to go make decisions and then be able to, I think, measure and

Scott Luton (00:50:28):

What they’re doing so that they’re not having to, you know, go out and spend months and months to develop, you know, some modeling exercise or it’s, how do you bring that time to value shorten? Cause it’s, you got to quickly re you know, hit, repeat, and you want to make sure that, you know, the unintended consequences before you go make any business decision that’s going to impact potentially your job. Now you are preaching to the choir, especially the one in Greg white. He, Greg, I know one of the things you love talking about is how the days have largely gone for the 24 month implementations of technology. So, so based on what you heard, Tim and Nate share Greg about this partnership and about what it will add to the market and their, and their clients, what stands out the well? So I have, I have my own idea, but I would love to pose this question to you all first.

Scott Luton (00:51:26):

So put on your Socrates hats and think philosophically, because as I was having this discussion, or as you were each sharing your part, I was thinking, what would my reaction be? What would I hope to accomplish with this joined effort of the two of you? So I’d love to pose that question to you. What do you hope is happening back at your customers headquarters or offices based on what YouTube put together here. I mean, I know you expect them to be, um, curse, like cursing, joyfully, but, but what, what, what results and what I’m feeling, what a sense of relief, what pains relieved? Do you hope that they’re getting out of this?

Tim Judge (00:52:12):

Yeah, sure, absolutely. So I would say, you know, my, our, our customers, uh, at least the direct relationships that we have probably here, you’re probably sick of hearing me tell them that there’s, you know, there’s, there’s an easier way and getting them to that, um, you know, to that next step. Um, I think that, that they, they would, they would say, you know, there’s still a lot of work to be done because, you know, there’s still a lot of companies out there that really have very separate transportation groups, very separate inventory groups, very, you know, um, separate sales organizations and marketing, some of what are coming together. Um, and there’s been huge strides right. To, to bring that together. Um, one of the things that I think is, is, is really where it’s going to become very, um, known, obviously coven helped a lot with that.

Tim Judge (00:53:02):

Understandably, because a lot goes into, you know, trying to figure out what’s the best path to take after something like COVID changes our demand completely, right. And how we service that, that demand differently. Um, the second thing is I would look to traditional processes like SNOP L E S S IOP, um, uh, total cost to serve any, any problems you’re trying to solve that require, you know, if you think about freight and, um, inventory and marketing and merchandising, uh, working together and need their data and that that’s expanding more and more of those use cases, um, are gonna be like, Oh, shoot, this is, this is, this, this is, could be a really cool partnership because we’re bringing together best in class trans visibility with inventory. And, and how do you make decisions without that? How do you sit in an SNOP meeting and not take vendor leads time into consideration and understand transportation, LC?

Tim Judge (00:54:03):

You’re just, you’re just kind of guessing, right? So bringing that all together, um, is gonna increase the accuracy of the data. And it’s very difficult to do with one platform. Um, because there’s, it’s a frag. Most of those markets are extremely fragmented, you know, and Greg, we talked about that is there’s, don’t get me wrong. There’s best in class solutions in each of those areas, you know, but who’s helping to bring that together to make those holistic decisions, uh, you know, across the supply chain. It’s not going to be one specific mender. That’s focused on an area, right?

Nate Endicott (00:54:39):

You can’t be the merchandising guy pointing the finger at the logistics guy. Who’s pointing the finger at the inventory guy. You’ve got to break down those silos, not just do that, but also create more than just communication, but collaboration and back and forth information that allows each to improve the other’s practice. Nate, what’s your take? What are your customers, what are they going to be singing the praises of when it comes to this new partnership? I mean, I get excited for our customers around just the forecasting side. I mean, I think, you know, we, again, we typically are bringing in that transfer rate data, that order shipment tracking and invoice. And, uh, everybody always asked us, you know, like, Hey, can you bring in the inventory side? You know, can we, how do you help us on the, you know, demand planning or, you know, order demand.

Nate Endicott (00:55:28):

And it’s like, you know, this now enables us to be able to extend ourselves to, you know, be able to collaborate them and with them and solve a problem. And it’s, we always are asking them, you know, Hey, why do you want to do this? What problems that solve? And they need to tell us it needs to be their idea. And then we’re going to come around and put our capes on it and help them. Um, I think to the, you know, the rest of the industry, you know, if you think about it, you know, at T everyone’s got a TMS, you know, they do, they have one, they’re doing it some way, shape or form. So they’re going and try and sell a big global TMS project. You know, those days in some ways are gone too. And it’s like, Hey, why do you go?

Nate Endicott (00:56:05):

You don’t need to go and invest in a buffet when all you want is salad, no dress. And no one of the things that we mailed printing machine, I got them coming, man. But at TMS data, it’s 25 to 50% of your spend. That’s based off of that. How do you measure and monitor, you know, your decisions, you know, or your models when it’s based off of that. And so it’s like, I’m excited to bring all that data together. Uh, you know, all this data Lake stuff. I mean, we were at the Lake, you know, two weekends ago and my cousin in law said, Hey, so what do you guys do? And, um, it was in a Lake called the Watson Lake and Northern Arizona. And you can’t swim in it because it’s got too much mercury. And I’m like, man, how do I explain this to him?

Nate Endicott (00:56:50):

He’s a firefighter in Louisiana. So I’m like, we’re kayaking through it. And I’m going, you know what, see all this crap, every time we’re canoeing and kayaking and we take a stroke and there’s crap on the end. You can’t, you don’t, can’t see where you’re going. And we basically just clean all that up, make it swimmable where you know, where you’re going, you know, or, you know, you can go to, you can jump in and see what’s going on and quickly identify, you know, if there’s a shark around or, you know, if someone says, Hey, what’s around the corner, you can dive in and look at it. And then suddenly it’s, I’m like, that’s kind of what we do. We just clear all this up and make it usable lakes so that you can leverage it. And I think, you know, the industry has been waiting for a time to value of 90 days or less.

Nate Endicott (00:57:34):

And the days of going and having to ask for capital of millions of dollars of projects to go deliver, no ROI is done. They’re looking for trusted partners. And that’s what I get excited about is that Tim’s got it. And he’s very, you know, he’s got a credible presence in this industry. People respect them. And in the same way, we have a lot of, you know, 380 plus customers that, you know, are looking for a way to impact more. And so I just, we get excited about what’s to come. You know, we have a webinar coming up October 6th to that. That’s exciting. Talk about that for a second. Y’all y’all both mentioned control towers earlier in the conversation, and I gotta tell you building a control tower in 30 days or less is impressive. So Tim and Nate, let’s talk about what folks are going to learn on that webinar. So Tim, you want to start.

Tim Judge (00:58:31):

Yeah, sure, absolutely. And Nate, you can please please feel free to add. So what I’d like to accomplish or what webinars people to, you know, to understand is, you know, if you talk to any customer, um, you know, they have unique requirements and they’ll tell you again, and again, we’re, we’re unique in her requirements. And I think there’s, there’s some underlying truth to that, right? The way that they do, um, in build and, you know, unfortunately I think the market has kind of tried to put all of customers into a box, right? So we think about the large GRPs and, you know, here’s, here’s how we’re going to do it. And you’re going to conform. If you want to change, it’s going to be a customization. That’s going to take X amount of time. So everything that we do, how do we shrink as Nate said, shrink down that timeframe.

Tim Judge (00:59:15):

Well, it starts with, okay, what KPIs are we defining? So we’re going to select, you know, you know, 10, you know, call it five to 10 of their CA uh, key KPIs, understand upfront before we even get in the door, how they, how they’re calculated, how they, how they measure those, what systems we, you know, we go on go after, um, and then come up with a very succinct strategy to move that on to, you know, a consolidated front and layer in all of the freight data that Nate’s team already gets from, from those carriers. Right. Um, that they can, um, get direct from, from, you know, from, from the source with, of course the customer’s permission and really just start going and be clear that, Hey guys, at the end of 30 days, or an extended 90 days, you’re going to get more than just a PowerPoint presentation from us, uh, that tells you what you should do.

Tim Judge (01:00:08):

You’re going to have a living, breathing, um, solution, um, that you can get started with, right? And it’s, it’s bite small, too fast. What can we get, are we gonna get every single KPI that we, you know, that we can possibly do? And every, every source in 30? No, of course not. Cause it, cause if you’re a company you’re always going to be growing and changing, but what you want is to give them enough value, to be able to start making decisions, you know, across, um, you know, across their disparate data. So they can kind of see, you know, how, how we can get value that quickly, which I think will be, will be industry. Um,

Nate Endicott (01:00:45):

You know what I mean, what I would add to that is just around, you know, the three buckets of cost service servicing cash. And it’s like, Hey, where are your focused? And everyone’s trying to build these data lakes. They’ve been doing it for months and months and months and years. And they’ve invested so much time and energy and money. And it’s like, Hey, look, you’re a retailer stick to making clothes. You know, you’re a manufacturer, a pool supplies, man, just stick the pumps, you know, like don’t, and it’s like, Hey, we’ve outsourced this. And what they realize is you absolutely can go do this on your own. It’s very expensive. And now with cloud services, you know, it’s, it makes it a little cheaper, but it’s the maintenance of it all. It’s like things change, you know, a rate change, you know, and it’s like, Hey, where are you going to update that?

Nate Endicott (01:01:26):

And it’s gotta be up there and all these places and all that impacts this. So for us, you know, the way that we go and integrate the carriers, um, I mean, I think, you know, this morning we had a just, I’m thinking of a customer in my head, just that kind of goes to potential this partnership. But you know, they’ve been struggling with realtime track and trace and connecting to carriers and data quality issues and invoice side. And what took nine months on to go in and try to figure out and spend a lot of money on, you know, it’s taken us four business days to go connect to these carriers and we’ve already showed them, Hey, this is how we can go fix these data quality issues. And so it let’s face it an integrated data quality issues, as you know, Tim’s talked about, and what we’ve talked about is we’re going to go and integrate this data.

Nate Endicott (01:02:09):

We’re going to help, you know, be able to point some dirt, you know, things out, um, turn on some KPIs and kind of point them in the right direction. But, uh, we can absolutely light these things, uh, very quickly. And, um, they can keep focusing on strategy and how they can impact the business versus getting so close to doing it. And then when they go do it, the data’s out of date and then they got to go read, you know, do it all over again. And they still are, you know, have that, you know, garbage in, garbage out mentality,

Greg White (01:02:38):

The experts be the experts. Right. And then you can move a lot faster. Greg. I know you’ve got a comment here. So many, um, one Tim, congratulations, you added from last week. I know we’re crediting you for the last week, but you added your t-shirt is bite small chews chew fast. Yes. Uh, I wanted to stop you when you said so then, but you were grooving. So I didn’t want to mess that up, but I want to repeat, you will have more than a PowerPoint in 30 days, I will have a resolution. And I think that is important that that needs to be said frequently and loudly and repeatedly, because that is the difference in what, in what this partnership and cloud solutions and, um, modern technology can and does deliver versus the old way more than a PowerPoint in 30 days. I think to that point, Greg and I wish I had thought of that one.

Nate Endicott (01:03:37):

It’s one of the things that’s frustrating, you know, from our side, you know, we’re not, you know, we’ve got a name rate and links we’ve been around since Oh two, never needed VC money and it’s like tennis, you know, it’s like, Hey, we’re, you know, one of my favorite movies of all time is Hoosiers, you know? And it’s, I love those, you know, it’s like, Hey, you don’t count on them, but man, they are going to rise to the occasion and they’re going to deliver. And it’s like these, um, Cinderella stories. And I, I think the, you know, the whole thing like with us, you know, a lot of guys probably think, you know, I can’t get fired if I go choose them, they it’s the gap, but you can hit your bonus, you know, and measure and monitor if you, you know, twos for this analytics thing.

Nate Endicott (01:04:16):

And I think that people will realize what’s taken them years. It can be sped up and now they can go focus on it. But, uh, you know, the other teacher thing, which, you know, that drowning in data and starving for information is one. And then the other one is, you know, with data quality, you can not digitize. You can digitize the decision making. And I think there’s just so much good stuff that comes from the potential partnership, you know, the partnership itself and the potential opportunities that customers have to actually do something instead of just resting investing. Cause those days I think are, are long gone.

Greg White (01:04:53):

Well, especially now those kinds of things have been exposed. Look, Amy, lose your job by picking, you know, big player X, but you could lose your company and it’s happened

Nate Endicott (01:05:04):

And plenty. Yeah, absolutely.

Greg White (01:05:06):

So October 6th for the webinar, what make sure that we’re real clear on that we’re going to include the direct registration link in the show notes of the episode, come learn from the folks are doing it,

Scott Luton (01:05:18):

Uh, has set up a control tower in less than 30 days and get more than the PowerPoint as that’s correct. Said love that. And Greg, well, let’s make sure our audience knows how to connect with Tim and Nate and their respective organizations. Yes. Tim guys tell us how folks can connect with you.

Tim Judge (01:05:37):

And it’s a great question. And you know, and I know it’s normal to send to the website and my goal over the next, you know, several months too, is to make our website much more of an interactive. Um, and I love what you guys are doing. Um, you know, with supply chain now and, and going for getting material and video and an easily searchable, I’d like to kind of give that a similar type experience to, to our customer base and make it a place where they can go and, and, and pose questions about control towers and digital twin, right? There’s so much noise and confusion, so long answer, but, but our website will be good and you have my commitment. It’ll be, it’ll be more interactive. Um, as we move forward, we just launched a, a forum for that. And then the other thing is I think the whole demo market, and, you know, as you mentioned, Greg PowerPoints are great, but I don’t think people have the attention span to look through a 90 and 90 slide deck anymore. Right. So how do we put examples right on our website? So you can go and click on the deck on dashboards, get a look and feel of how everything’s working and how it worked for your business, I think is going to be a, you know, kind of a, a good thing. So website and LinkedIn, you know, adage Alytics, um, you know, and all social media, but LinkedIn is probably where we’re most active you on LinkedIn as well, Tim. Yep. Oh, and me personal. Yeah. Sorry, Tim, Tim, this question, the world, isn’t it,

Scott Luton (01:07:02):

Tim. I love how you talked about, you know, really engaging folks that reach out. And, and it sounds like you’re a willing to compare notes and have those whiteboard discussions and just talk practitioner practitioner, which is so valuable. It always has been, but, but these days, especially when it is, everyone’s kind of, there’s less access folks, you know, there’s not the events, you know, you can’t, there’s less avenues for that. So I love that approach there. Alright, Nate, let’s make sure folks can connect with you and with rate links.

Nate Endicott (01:07:31):

Absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn connect, love to connect. Uh, we’re always one or two connections away. I think from anybody in this industry, it’s a small industry, but a big world. Um, and for railings as well, we have a LinkedIn come follow us, um, and get the, uh, what could just kind of are taking our blogs and our blogs and everything that we’re putting out there. And then our website, www.ratelinks.com and, uh, there’s a lot of right railings to the next. And there’s a lot of opportunities to just do connect with us, talk to pro uh, do some free analysis, but, uh, absolutely we are there and looking for to connect. Wonderful,

Scott Luton (01:08:16):

Wonderful. Greg, I’ll tell you this conversation here, uh, you could power a city block with the amount of passion, uh, from these two gentlemen in this episode, right?

Greg White (01:08:27):

Yeah. I think what’s really powerful about this is the transformation there. I said it. Okay, bingo. Um, it is, it is the power of transformation here. It’s the power of the wealth of data and, and a mechanism to, uh, build it. And we’re not talking about rookies here either, right? This is a new age solution by, by two professionals who are two groups of professionals. Who’ve been in the industry for a while. They get it. And they also get the new age of data and solutions. And that’s a rare, rare combination. You have so many companies that have the kind of level of experience that all of us here have, that are stuck in the past. And these groups see the future. They’re building the future, they’re doing it right now. And that is incredibly powerful stuff. So, um, you know, write links right. Only took them 18 years to become an overnight success. Right. That’s not uncommon in fact, so, uh, it’s funny because Nate, I, I heard that several times, um, around, I don’t know, 2014, 2017, man, you guys are an overnight success. I’m like, yep. Just nine years to overnight success, right? Yup. It’s funny how long it takes to build that. And by the way, if you ever doubt that, look at how long some companies were around. We learned about them, Uber and others, so great work, good sustained, um, solutions, experienced professionals with, uh, a future vision. It’s brilliant.

Scott Luton (01:10:08):

Love it. Alright. So let want to thank Tim and Nate, Tim judge present CEO of agile Lytics and Nate indicat, senior vice president of global sales and alliances at right lengths. Another great discussion as much fun as we have with livestream. Really enjoyed this deeper dive here, Tim and Nate. Thanks so much for your time here today,

Greg White (01:10:29):

Scott. Thanks, Greg. Yeah. Thanks guys. Thanks guys.

Scott Luton (01:10:32):

All right. So Hey to our audience, hopefully enjoyed this conversation with these gentlemen. As much as we have, don’t forget the October 6th webinar. I will include that link, make it easy, Greg. Uh, you get the final word before we sign off here. Well,

Greg White (01:10:47):

First of all, Tim Tim’s office is near one of my favorite barbecue restaurants on the planet. And Nate is from, is in my wife’s hometown. So I’m going to go visit these guys at some point. Look, this is, as I said, this is a really important thing we’re breaking through in an industry that desperately needs it. We’re breaking down silos. Nate said it well early on, right? Stay in lane, know what your

Scott Luton (01:11:14):

Gifts are. And that is true. And, and I’m sure that they are seeing like so many of us across the industry are seeing that retailers and other shippers, they are staying in their lane. They know what they’re good at. They’re good at merchandising and sales and marketing and assessing the consumer. And they’re letting other organizations handle those aspects of the business that really need deep, deep expertise. And they’re doing it with solutions that are much, much easier and quicker and more reliable to implement and grow on. Well, put, as always said, Hey, freight audit is dead. And if you have any questions around that, reach out to Tim and Nate and they’ll explain exactly why and why it should be. This episode needs its own merge, right? Hey to our audience. Thanks so much for tuning in gosh, so much, so many t-shirt isms, but more importantly, so much thought. And been there, done that right here as Greg says, the future is now. And so hopefully you enjoy the conversations as much as we have on behalf of our entire team here at supply chain. Now, including Greg white, this is Scott Luton. Thanks so much for tuning in, find us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. Hey, do good give forward and be the change that’s needed. And on that note,

Intro (01:12:29):

I’ll spot you now.