EFL 3PL and Fortude join hands to enhance business visibility

The teams from EFL 3PL and Fortude. From left: EFL 3PL Head of Data Science and Solutions Thusitha Gamage, EFL 3PL Assistant Manager – Business Strategy and Planning Dilhara Rupasinghe, EFL 3PL Manager – Business Systems and Innovation Sumeera Madurapperuma, EFL 3PL Chief Growth Officer Leroy Ebert, EFL 3PL and Freeport Director Sammy Akbar, Fortude Senior Vice President – Delivery Surangana Sarathchandra, Fortude Vice President – Sales and IT Hemantha Rodrigo, Fortude Project Manager – MSBI Uwinee Perera and Fortude Lead Architect – MSBI Gogula Aryalingam

Expolanka Freight (EFL) announced a group wide initiative of incorporating Business Intelligence (BI), commencing with the 3PL Cluster. In hand with implementation partner Intellint, a Fortude brand, the Power BI tool’s proven advanced reporting capabilities will significantly enhance EFL’s business visibility. 

The move comes on the heels of EFL adopting Robotics Process Automation (RPA) in its 3PL (Third Party Logistics) business in May. The award winning and transformative solution was implemented across all 3PL Fulfilment Centres and Freeport to support day-to-day operations, making it the first 3PL to have achieved this in Sri Lanka. 

“The introduction of BI will help us set the stage for advanced analytics such as supporting data insights on demand,” says EFL 3PL and Freeport Director Sammy Akbar. “EFL 3PL is on a hyper digitisation and efficiency drive, and this is the next step. We want to make our results visible in line with equipping ourselves for Industry 4.0.”

The company has selected Power BI, the analytics solution widely known to be the best-in-class. With the tool EFL 3PL can visualise their data and share insights across the organisation with an option to embed these insights in an app or the EFL 3PL’s website. 

By connecting to multiple data sources and integrating with other systems such as HighJump (tier one WMS), a CRM system, a Labour Management System and Oracle Finance, Power BI will bring EFL’s 3PL data to life with live dashboards and reports. 

In addition, EFL 3PL has established a Data Science and Solutions Division, which has deployed full time data scientists to review live data sets that will generate real time insights for managers and clients, enabling them to make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. The tool is developed and provided by Microsoft, a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms for 12 consecutive years. 

The implementation will be in three phases; phase one will include the HighJump and Oracle systems integration, leading to phase two which will encompass the integration of all other systems (the Labour Management System, CRM, HRIS etc). The platform will subsequently be extended to EFL 3PL clients during phase three, enabling real time visibility and decision making at their fingertips. 

EFL 3PL’s implementation partner for this initiative will be Intellint, who has vast experience in implementing data analytics solutions for global corporates, including organisations in the logistics sector.

“We look forward to working with a partner like EFL 3PL, to help uncover operational insights leveraging Microsoft BI tools,” says Fortude Senior Vice President – Delivery Surangana Sarathchandra. 

“EFL 3PL’s goal is to inculcate a data-driven culture with advanced and predictive analytics to help make business decisions quickly and confidently. The Intellint team specialises in leveraging Microsoft BI services to deliver these results with speed and visibility while saving costs for their clients.”

The transition to a BI platform is informed by EFL 3PL’s Industry 4.0 initiative. The goal is to uplift the benchmark so that clients float logistics outsourcing Requests for Proposals (RFPs) with EFL 3PL already in mind, said EFL 3PL Chief Growth Officer Leroy Ebert, noting: “Project DIOD is a carefully thought-through decision guided by Expolanka Holdings PLC Group CEO Hanif Yusoof. DIOD, once leveraged properly is bound to bring in cost savings to both clients and us.” 

He also added: “We are confident when we say EFL 3PL is positioned at the forefront of innovation in logistics. EFL 3PL provides the most advanced offering in the industry, strengthened with tools like RPA, HighJump, Labour Management System, CRM System, BI, etc.”