What a controlled pilot evaluates.
The pilot is the onboarding model. It runs one representative shipment on a single record, maps every handoff, and produces a written basis for a decision, before anyone commits to a rollout.
A pilot is deliberately small. One shipment, the partners it actually involves, and your team working the record as they would on a normal week. The goal is not to demonstrate features; it is to find out whether one operational record changes daily execution for you, and what a rollout would require.
The steps below are the standard shape. The scoping call adapts them to your process.
The pilot, step by step
Select the shipment
One representative order: a usual supplier, a usual lane, the partners you normally work with. Not the easiest shipment, and not the strangest.
Map the handoffs
For supplier, forwarder, broker, documents, tracking, customs, and costs: who sends what, when, through which channel, and where it currently gets lost.
Configure the workspace
Roles for your team, scoped access for the partners involved, and the required document set for the scope.
Run the shipment on the record
Create the record at order readiness, collect documents, record milestones and partner exchanges, own exceptions, and keep the cost view current through arrival.
Review the evidence
Compare what the record showed against what actually happened. Identify where the record was ahead of the inbox, and where it lagged.
Decide
Fit, integrations, partner access, security and data controls, and migration needs written down, with a proposal if there is a fit.
What gets written down
Fit
Does the operational record match how your imports move, including the exceptions? Are the four dashboard questions the ones your team asks?
Integrations
Which systems should feed the record (orders, tracking, documents), what the pilot handled manually, and what should be automated before rollout.
Partner access
Which partners used scoped access, which replied by email, and what access model works for rollout.
Security and data controls
Roles, scopes, retention, and the answers to your security questionnaire, reviewed with your IT or compliance contact.
Migration
Which historical shipments, if any, should be brought in, and what can stay in the old spreadsheet as reference.
Verification checkpoints
Which decisions in your process must always be confirmed by a person, and where the record should require it.
To run the pilot
- One representative order with a confirmed supplier, forwarder, and broker
- A named owner on your side for the shipment and a contact in purchasing, logistics, and finance
- Agreement from the partners involved to receive requests through the record or by email
- Your security questionnaire, if you have one, so it is answered during the pilot rather than after
- Access to the current tracking spreadsheet or equivalent, for comparison
Ready to scope a pilot?
Send us one representative shipment and the partners involved. We reply with a proposed scope and what we need to start.