Business and Competitive Intelligence in the Logistics Industry

According to market intelligence solutions provider Infiniti Research, logistics companies are increasingly beset by numerous challenges, such as competition, material and labor costs, volatile fuel costs and various compliance requirements. For these reasons, logistics companies have turned to business intelligence solutions, which, Infiniti Research says, bring about four benefits. First, they help reduce labor costs through the automation of data collection and report generation. Second, since staff are not needed as much to produce reports, business intelligence solutions reduce information bottlenecks. Third, these solutions provide access to contextualized, real-time and therefore actionable data. Subsequently, business intelligence solutions bring about better decision-making.

It is therefore beneficial for companies to have in-house advocates of business intelligence and competitive intelligence. Here are some BI and CI leaders in some of the biggest companies in the logistics industry.

Executive Profile: Victoria Cuesta, Senior Marketing Analyst at UPS

Victoria Cuesta has been serving as the senior marketing analyst for competitive intelligence at logistics company UPS since June 2018.

In the said role, Cuesta focuses on gathering and analyzing competitive intelligence. She spent much of the past five years immersed in the logistics and supply chain industry, serving as the senior marketing analyst for various UPS segments such as global industry segment marketing, automotive segment marketing and product marketing, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining UPS, Cuesta briefly worked for financial services company Citi as a consumer banking summer associate. The role required her to assess financial results from direct marketing campaigns designed to garner acquisitions with alternative funding. She was also tasked with forecasting expected results through 2015 to determine program profitability and building financial models to establish the expected return on investments and lifetime value of accounts for Citi and its partners.

Before joining Citi, Cuesta worked for nearly six years at Kimpton Hotels. Her roles for the hotel brand’s Morrison House include conference services manager and catering sales and services manager. In the said roles, Cuesta managed catering events and leveraged internal and external benchmarks to analyze key consumer insights, identify target markets and refine revenue generation strategy. She also recognized the service gap in the hotel and implemented a social and corporate catering-only event strategy that led to a 29 percent increase of overall food and beverage revenue and a 24 percent growth of room rental revenue. Additionally, Cuesta incorporated market findings into the hotel’s new menus, group and custom wedding packages leading to the hotel’s 33 percent overall on-year increase in food and beverage revenue.

Cuesta holds a bachelor’s degree in hospitality administration and multinational business operations from Florida State University. She also earned a Master of Business Administration degree in marketing, global business and entrepreneurship from Emory University.

Executive Profile: Rohit Sinha, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at XPO Logistics

Rohit Sinha is the senior business intelligence analyst at XPO Logistics, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based company specializing in freight brokerage, expedited transportation, global forwarding and supply chain management.

In his current position, Sinha is responsible for developing custom performance and management reports / dashboards using software like Tableau and PowerBI to facilitate strategic decision-making by integrating data from heterogeneous sources.

As a subject matter expert in data visualization and storytelling, Sinha also provides reactive and proactive advice for internal business partners and stakeholders, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Though he only started his career in 2013, Sinha has technical expertise in programming languages like Python and structured query language, as well as tools like RStudio, MS Excel, Jupyter Notebook, MS Excel, MS Project and SAS E-Miner. He is also knowledgeable in machine learning, specifically in the areas of bootstrapping, SVM, KNN, random forest and decision tree learning. Additionally, he is adept at regression, classification, clustering, web extraction and predictive analysis.

Sinha joined XPO Logistics after briefly serving as a business intelligence analyst for pricing and client relations at Gallagher’s operations in Brownsville, Texas. Gallagher is a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting firm dedicated to helping clients protect their assets and recover from losses.

He also spent nearly three years at Infosys, where he worked as a systems engineer. While at the company, Sinha helped increase employee performance by 21 percent through performance evaluation collaborations and contributed to the 12 percent reduction of the employee churn rate. He also analyzed key components of the staffing cycle for improved hiring and internal mobility and developed tools and techniques of organizational network analysis for better collaboration patterns in the company.

Sinha completed his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology and his graduate studies in information technology and management at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Executive Profile: Kiran Donepudi, Senior Director of BI, Analytics at XPO Logistics

Kiran Donepudi is a business intelligence professional who works at supply chain solutions provider XPO Logistics as a full-time senior director of business intelligence and analytics.

Donepudi has expertise in delivering large-scale business-critical initiatives including machine learning, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, deep learning, internet of things and many business intelligence platforms using tools and technologies on-premise and in-cloud.

At XPO Logistics, he uses emerging technologies like AI to find solutions for solving complex supply chain and logistics problems and oversees a multi-disciplinary global team focusing on cloud-based big data and advanced analytics, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Donepudi joined the logistics company in December 2016 as a director of business intelligence and analytics, responsible for designing a strategy for an enterprise big data initiative and establishing a framework for a big data analytics platform.

Prior to joining XPO Logistics, Donepudi was the director of business intelligence and technology retail company Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores and the technical program manager of big data and analytics at Sears Holdings Corporation.

He also worked as a specialist at Omron Automation for three years, leading a business intelligence portfolio of projects including reporting, platform migration and cloud computing.

Donepudi also served as a business intelligence architect at Aon Risk Solutions and GE Healthcare and a consultant at Novartis.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from University of Madras.

Executive Profile: Agata Dzieza, SEKO Logistics’ Manager of Business Intelligence, Client Services

Agata Dzieza is a 20-year logistics industry veteran who works as a manager of business intelligence and client services at SEKO Logistics, where she develops strategies and road maps for BI and analytics solutions.

Dzieza took the role in August 2019 and has since been responsible for supporting informed decision-making throughout the company, streamlining ad-hoc and standardized reporting functions, rolling out business intelligence solutions to end-users and making recommendations for the implementation of new systems.

She previously worked as part of the company’s business intelligence project team as a senior data analyst for almost two years, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The business intelligence professional joined the global supply chain solutions provider in September 2014 from A&R Global Logistics, where she served as manager of process and transportation system and carriers development.

Dzieza also spent more than eight years at Crystal Logistics as an operations manager, responsible for directing fiscal strategy, market evaluation, development and execution of long-distance transportation cargo operations.

During her tenure at Crystal Logistics, Dzieza helped increase revenues by 45 percent and optimize shipping capacity, and assumed control of all aspects of the operation, such as ensuring that all equipment and drivers are certified and compliant with regulatory requirements.

Dzieza holds a bachelor’s degree in technical management with a concentration in operations management from DeVry University.

Executive Profile: Thomas Tran, Manager of Business Intelligence at APL Logistics

Thomas Tran is a 12-year veteran at global supply chain services provider APL Logistics who currently works as a manager of business intelligence.

Tran is responsible for managing APL’s business intelligence team that develops data products for the company, setting a data-driven strategy to acquire and grow existing customers and closing the gap between data and business performance through the use of data warehouses, unstructured data and data visualizations.

He previously served as a senior performance delivery specialist based at the company’s office in Phoenix, Arizona. In this role, Tran implemented the Tableau platform for the company and developed a community of global change agents and developers to ensure better use of business data, according to his LinkedIn profile.

For almost three years, Tran also oversaw APL’s logistics operations for athletic footwear and apparel company Nike.  He developed a data platform for Nike to improve delivery precision and recommended the use of data to drive decisions.

Tran also facilitated the movement of cargo for Nike’s emerging markets from origin to final destination as an account manager.

After graduating from college in 2007, Tran joined APL as a solutions engineer responsible for leading efforts to design innovative supply chains using data. He held this role for a year before being appointed as manager of Nike emerging markets account.

Tran earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California, Berkeley.

ABOUT ARCHINTEL

ArchIntel provides highly customized, actionable daily intelligence and situational awareness for executives and their teams about competitors, customers, partners and business trends. Information gathered 24/7 is delivered via the ArchIntel Daily Intelligence Brief in a newsletter format by email and through a private online archive at www.archintel.com.