Echo Global Logistics and Blue Yonder team up for pricing technology integration

Chicago-based third-party logistics and technology-enabled transportation services provider Echo Global Logistics, and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Blue Yonder (formerly JDA), a provider of AI-driven and end-to-end supply chain management services, said today that they have established a partnership, in which Echo will integrate Blue Yonder’s Dynamic Price Discovery offering, to automate rapid response price quoting and capacity for shippers.   

With the Blue Yonder Dynamic Price Discovery offering, Echo officials said that company can now provide shippers with near real-time price and capacity matching, coupled with tracking capabilities through the BlueYonder Luminate Platform, which is powered by Microsoft Azure and meshes data from internal and external sources across shippers’ digital supply chain ecosystems, in order to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), for smarter and more actionable business decisions.

Echo Global Logistics President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Menzel told LM that Echo and Blue Yonder had been in discussions for months, leading up to this announcement, adding that there were various factors that drove this decision.

“Although Echo has EchoShip, our own industry-leading shipping portal that streamlines many processes for shippers, we recognized that supply chain professionals at many of our large clients utilize a TMS for their shipping needs,” said Menzel. “While small/mid-size shippers are often able to take the time to visit a portal like EchoShip, to obtain spot pricing for truckload shipments, these systems are often not optimal for large shippers. Through this partnership with Blue Yonder, Echo will be able to provide large shippers with the same digital capabilities and access to a large TL network that they would get through EchoShip, but directly within the system/workflow that they prefer.”  

This collaboration marks the first partnership that Echo has had with Blue Yonder. 

Menzel said that Although Echo has had some clients who use Blue Yonder’s platform that it have integrated with in the past to push tracking status information, this is the first time Echo and Blue Yonder are working together in a more comprehensive way.  

When asked about the main benefits of this integration for shippers, Menzel explained that shippers utilizing the Blue Yonder platform to manage their day-to-day shipping needs can now get instant access to Echo's truckload pricing and nationwide capacity through this integration. 

“Historically, this is an activity that can be incredibly time-consuming for shippers throughout North America to execute on a daily basis,” he said.

From Blue Yonder’s perspective, Terry Norton, Vice President of 3PL & Transportation at Blue Yonder, said in a statement that by integrating with its dynamic price discovery solution through its Luminate Platform, Echo Global Logistics will be able to provide an enhanced experience for freight shippers in the marketplace.

“The way truck contracts are managed today is changing and becoming more modern so having real-time visibility to their supply chain will allow Echo's clients to make more informed decisions,” he said. “We designed our solution to meet this growing need in the digital freight marketplace.”