Energy – Logistics & Transportation | Multi-Billion Dollar Capital Projects
The Challenge: Fragmented Transportation Visibility
A large North American energy infrastructure organization managing multi-billion-dollar projects faced a growing challenge across its transportation and logistics operations. Rail, truck, and marine movements were tracked through a combination of disconnected systems, spreadsheets, and manual processes.
While each mode of transport functioned independently, leadership lacked a unified, end-to-end view of shipments, costs, and billing accuracy—particularly across the rail network. This fragmentation created logistics blind spots, limited operational insight, and made it difficult to validate carrier charges or proactively manage exceptions.
As transportation volumes increased, these limitations began to drive unnecessary costs and operational risk.
The Objective: End-to-End Transportation Clarity
The organization sought to modernize how transportation data was collected, governed, and consumed. Their goals were clear:
· Establish a single, trusted view of transportation activity across all modes
· Improve shipment visibility and exception management within rail operations
· Increase billing accuracy and reduce cost leakage
· Enable executive-level insights to support better planning and decision-making
Most importantly, the solution needed to scale with the organization’s long-term infrastructure investments while remaining accessible to both operations and leadership teams.
The Approach: A Unified Platform with Microsoft Fabric
Iteration Insights partnered with the client to design and implement a modern transportation analytics platform using Microsoft Fabric.
By consolidating data from rail systems, carrier files, and operational spreadsheets into a governed Fabric environment, we created a unified data foundation that connects shipment movement, timing, and billing information end-to-end.
Key elements of the solution include:
· Centralized transportation data model supporting rail today, with a scalable path to truck and marine
· Automated data ingestion and validation to replace manual reconciliation
· Power BI reporting delivering real-time shipment visibility and cost transparency
· Governed, executive-ready insights designed for operational and leadership use
The platform was purpose-built to eliminate logistics blind spots while enabling confidence in the data driving critical transportation decisions.
The Impact: From Blind Spots to Business Insight
With a unified view of transportation activity, the organization is gaining measurable operational and financial benefits:
· Improved visibility into rail shipments and exceptions
· Greater confidence in carrier billing and cost allocation
· Reduced operational overhead through automation and standardization
· Executive-level insights that support proactive planning and cost control
Most importantly, transportation data has shifted from a fragmented reporting exercise to a strategic asset—supporting better decisions across large-scale energy infrastructure projects.
Looking Ahead
As the platform expands to include additional transportation modes, the organization is building a future-ready logistics analytics foundation—one that grows with their capital investments and evolving operational needs.
By combining Microsoft Fabric with a purpose-built, business-first approach, Iteration Insights is helping energy and transportation leaders turn operational complexity into clarity, confidence, and control.
