#interview: By providing complete transparency across the supply chain, Kizy is reshaping entire industries

Alexandre Luyet, co-founder & CMO of Neuchâtel-based Kizy Tracking, will be taking part in FORWARD, the new Innovation Forum for SMEs, on April 19 in Lausanne. He will be taking part in the workshop proposed by our Alp ICT team at 1:30 p.m. on the theme of "Does the future of my company depend on the IoT? There's still time to sign up for this full-day event and benefit from a 50% discount on the entrance ticket: just ask us for the promotional code.

You can also find interviews with the other two speakers at our workshop here: Philippe Menoud, CEO of IEM and José Demetrio, CEO & co-founder of Géosatis.

Alexandre Luyet will talk about the prospects offered by the digitization of the supply chain. 

Alp ICT: Kizy, in a few words?

Alexandre Luyet: Our company was founded in 2014 and currently employs around 15 people, between Neuchâtel and Taiwan. Our mission? To improve logistics operations by providing first-hand data on the condition and location of goods and equipment anywhere in the world. Kizy's vision is to help bring supply chain players into this new era of Industry 4.0. By providing complete transparency across the entire supply chain, Kizy is reshaping entire industries: postal and courier markets, insurance, freight forwarding, textiles, the food industry, containers and shipping, automotive, the pharmaceutical industry. Our tracking solution is designed for Industry 4.0. It uses the latest data storage and processing technologies to offer a scalable, low-cost solution that's easy to integrate.

Alp ICT: How is the IoT reshaping industries? What are the most revolutionary aspects?

Alexandre Luyet: Digitizing industrial processes provides greater visibility across the entire supply chain, enabling us to cut costs, save time, collect valuable data, improve service quality, build greater trust with customers and optimize coordination between the various partners. The benefits are many and varied, and the majority of major logistics players are now aware of the benefits and have already taken the digitalization plunge. 

Alp ICT: A case study?

Alexandre Luyet: Among our customers, Asendia uses our trackers to carry out test shipments and analyze their network in greater detail. Kizy gives them complete transparency over the entire chain, from sender to receipt in the customer's mailbox, through all intermediaries, whatever the country. In this way, we can see precisely where shipments are being held up, identify the source of the delay, and provide customers with detailed data that objectifies cases of dispute. As a result, customer relations have been strengthened, and service quality has improved. A company specializing in supply chain auditing experienced a 50% cost reduction for their quality tests and a 60% reduction in the time taken to deal with customer complaints. Construction projects saved 20% in on-site coordination time. 

Alp ICT: How do you differentiate yourself from the competition?

Alexandre Luyet: Our solution has a significant advantage for large-scale deployment, while offering a very attractive cost (10 times less expensive than GPS solutions). Designed for the specific needs of logistics, our tracker is the most flexible and powerful available on the market, combining autonomy, accuracy and global coverage. Our open API makes it easy to integrate data into our customers' systems, as well as exporting it for detailed analysis. What's more, our flexible business model is low-risk: pay-per-use pricing and online credit management mean you retain total control over your costs. None of our competitors covers all these elements, even though the market is very dynamic.

Alp ICT: At the end of 2017, you signed a major Chinese customer. Can you tell us more about it?

Alexandre Luyet: Indeed, this is our biggest Chinese customer. We have good development prospects in Asia with the revival of the "Silk Road". China is investing heavily in infrastructure renewal, particularly rail and road links between Asia, Russia and Europe, to offer an alternative to slower sea and more expensive air transport. Many of our customers operate long-distance transports, and need to track and collect detailed data on their supply chain. The Chinese customer we have signed up with is a major player, and we are currently focusing on deploying this project.