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Driving the future of freight: Trimble’s vision for an open AI-powered ecosystem

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At FreightWaves' recent F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga, Sector VP of Transportation & Logistics, Michael Kornhauser, offered a compelling look at the massive strategic shifts underway at Trimble. The conversation focused on the company's clear strategy: move past complexity to create a unified, high-value ecosystem that is safer, cheaper and greener.


Ending the “swivel chair”

Kornhauser immediately addressed the industry's biggest pain point: the disconnected ecosystem. When teams are forced to manually switch between non-integrated systems - the "swivel chair" problem - it creates data silos, errors and significant inefficiency.

This reality is backed by data: A recent Trimble/FreightWaves survey showed that a lack of integration is a top frustration, and nearly half of respondents crave a "centralized login or dashboard" for simplicity.


Connected intelligence

Trimble's answer is Connected Intelligence, built on an ecosystem that is secure, open and AI-powered.

    • Secure: By moving solutions like TMW.Suite SaaS to Microsoft Azure, security and data integrity are the non-negotiable foundation.

    • Open: "We can’t solve the industry’s biggest problems alone." This commitment to openness is why Trimble’s PC*Miler continues to work with competitors and why the company focuses on creating solutions that are "greater than the sum of their parts."

    • AI-powered: AI is the engine that turns the resulting connected data into decisions. 

"What we're doing with AI is really focused on implementing AI in the middle of the workflows that are already already connected," said Kornhauser, emphasizing that AI should automate "mundane" tasks to boost human productivity.


Strategy in action

Kornhauser pointed to several moves that define this new, open strategy:

    • Ecosystem balancing: The acquisition of Transporeon brought a shipper-focused "yin" to Trimble's carrier-focused "yang," creating a powerful ecosystem designed to "remove
       friction between the various players."

    • Focus on software: The joint venture with Platform Science allowed Trimble's telematics business to gain the scale and focus the market demanded, ensuring it found the "best place for our people and for our customers."

    • Integrated pricing intelligence: A perfect example of Connected Intelligence is the new integration of PC*Miler with the FreightWaves SONAR freight benchmarking program. By combining "the industry standard for rating" with "the industry standard for marketing intelligence," customers get both accurate mileage and real-time market rates in one place, reducing the need for "fewer and fewer login" points.

"Ultimately the customer wins," Kornhauser summarized, explaining that customers don't care about internal competition; they just want solutions that "work together to make life easier."

Check out the complete interview below to hear Michael Kornhauser's full insights on the future of transportation, or contact our team to learn how our solutions can maximize your supply chain’s efficiency and profitability.

Elevate your TMW.Suite to SaaS and step into the future of security and efficiency. Learn more about the benefits of TMW.Suite SaaS on Microsoft Azure today.

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