For the strategic sharpening of modility's concept and the customer-centred development for the market, WirtschaftsWoche magazine awarded Infront and KPS the special prize "Supply Chain Resilience". The award recognises modility's contribution to stable supply chains, particularly in volatile times, by opening up multimodal transport by rail to the broad logistics market. The "Best of Consulting" award is presented by WirtschaftsWoche once a year.
New platform unlocks business potential
As part of a strategy offensive, Hamburg Port und Logistics Authority (HHLA) looked for new growth markets along the logistics value chain. This growth potential was confirmed by Infront Consulting's strategy consultants in a digital marketplace for combined transport (CT) with easy access for all market participants. CT combines ship, truck and rail into multimodal chains as a future-oriented, climate-friendly transport alternative, because transports via CT are significantly more environmentally friendly than deliveries exclusively by truck. Yet, switching between carriers makes transportation planning more complex and therefore combined transportation was quite inconvenient and not always efficient in the past.
Resilient thanks to digitalisation
This changed in March 2021 with the startup modility: The provider-open and neutral brokerage and booking platform connects forwarders and operators in combined transportquickly and efficiently via an online portal - as the central comparison portal for transportation service providers.
Operators and railroads can now market their transportation capacities to a significantly larger customer base, and on the demand side, freight forwarders can find them easily and book shipments for their loads in as little as a minute. This flexibility shows its strength especially in unstable times and helps to ensure that deliveries arrive more punctually and the supply chain does not break down. More than 200 companies are now already registered with modility.
"We have built a promising business model into a successful logistics tech startup and taken it to the market in record time through the perfect combination of strategy, market knowledge and agile software development. Now we are focusing on scaling," explains Hendrik-Emmanuel Eichentopf, CEO at modility.
Innovative concept developed and also implemented
Infront's strategy consultants provided methodological and conceptual support to modility's management team during the development and validation of the concept. The development team of KPS AG, Infront's parent company, was involved from the outset and was tasked with the technical implementation. The early involvement of the development team enabled the balancing of the technical as well as the IT-specific requirements for the later product. A modular cloud architecture was built that could be adapted very flexibly to the requirements of the complex market and enhanced with some in-house developments. At the same time, the product was built with the focus on the users’ perspective simplifying access to CT. This integrated approach laid the foundation for successful scaling in the market from day one. Three partners continue enhancing the corporate venture after the successful market launch.
"Many companies are faced with the challenge of evolving their business model and opening up new growth and service fields through digitization," is how Axel Marschall, Managing Partner at Infront Consulting, classifies the project. "As strategy consultants, we ensure already during the conceptual phase that scaling and feasibility of innovative approaches are considered. Together with our team at KPS, we can navigate the technology landscape and also offer the agile implementation of solutions. This enables us to master complex challenges faster, more efficiently and in a more differentiated way."
