DHL’s Analytics Portal: Rx for vaccine shipping success?

As several pharmaceutical giants get set to roll out their COVID-19 vaccines on a global scale, international delivery giant DHL is gearing up to help by shifting its digitalization efforts into overdrive.

One key recent initiative was the development of the DHL Data Analytics Portal, a cloud-based, data-fed solution that gives customers access to accurate, real-time information so they can make quick decisions and take definitive actions that help them operate more efficiently and effectively.

“Our life sciences and healthcare industry customers are facing big challenges,” DHL Data Engineer Jasmine Miller said during a breakout session at Forrester’s Data Strategy & Insights North America online conference last month.

“From the globalization aspect to increased sophistication of product composition, heightened regulatory pressures, and escalating insurance costs, there are lots of opportunities and risks for pharma manufacturers.”

With the DHL Data Analytics Portal, DHL’s customers are well-equipped to navigate all types of issues.

Given that the product was built in consultation with some of DHL’s biggest biopharma customers, it addresses the pivotal insights those customers were looking for, such as easy ways to identify opportunities to transport to new countries, possible risks and hidden costs in new trade lanes, trends in operating procedures, and what temperature(s) a particular package experienced throughout the shipping process—a critical component of the vaccine distribution process.

“Being able to provide this kind of information is a true value differentiator,” said DHL Pricing & Data Operations Manager Carlos Palacios, who joined Jasmine for DHL’s presentation. “It plays a major role in satisfying existing customers as well as attracting new ones.”

What makes the DHL Data Analytics Portal work so well? According to Jasmine, it’s Domo Everywhere, Domo’s dynamic, embedded analytics solution, which has been powering the DHL product since it was launched earlier this year.

“When COVID-19 started, we had to provide our customers with access to in-progress shipments that were going into impacted regions,” Jasmine said. “(With Domo Everywhere), we were able to differentiate what was going to be inbound and outbound by country and by port, and provide even more information about these shipments, such as the last completed task.

“This allowed our customers to have quick insight into potentially impacted shipments as a result of COVID-19.”

Now, as another critical phase of the crisis response comes into view—getting the vaccines out safely and swiftly to all corners of the world—while online shopping continues to surge as a result of the pandemic, DHL and its customers are right where they want to be.

“Through Domo and other analytics tools, we’re able to combine important information into ready-to-go dashboards that allow customers to quickly see what the capabilities are on a daily basis,” Jasmine said. “It’s real-time information at their fingertips.”

To learn more about how DHL is leveraging data to make for an even stronger business network, check out its digital transformation story. To see Domo Everywhere in action, click here.