Author: Andy Lloyd Dec 01, 2022 2 Min READ

The Next Phase of the Extensiv Journey: 3PL Central is Now Extensiv

2 Min READ
The Next Phase of the Extensiv Journey: 3PL Central is Now Extensiv

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Today, we take the next step in our journey to unify under the Extensiv brand by saying goodbye to the 3PL Central brand and website (Skubana, Scout, and CartRover will live on for another month or so… we can’t do it all at once!). We are nearing the completion of a journey that began almost 20 months ago with the acquisition of Skubana.

The acquisition of Skubana was the first external indication of a new direction for our company. We decided to go beyond being the leader in 3PL Warehouse Management to provide a better way for brands and 3PLs to work together. Simply put, we recognized that brands are increasingly dependent upon the services of 3PLs to meet rising consumer expectations, but this interdependence was creating inefficiency and frustration.

The software that brands and 3PLs used to run their businesses were not designed to work together. In fact, the lack of integration was consuming massive amounts of brands’ resources and attention, distracting them from their core competencies of developing products and scaling their sales. Extensiv was created to address the biggest challenges of both brands and 3PLs.

Ensuring accurate data exists in all the right places is particularly challenging. Because most brands are selling on multiple channels and fulfilling from multiple nodes, they need an information infrastructure that ensures the accuracy of their data across all the systems they use to run their business. And while the integration of their operational software with 3PLs is a critical piece of the puzzle, brands also struggle with all the different software they need to operate their businesses as they grow.

Extensiv brings together the capabilities of CartRover, Skubana, and Scout into a single product that eliminates the painful system migrations brands go through as they grow. It’s easy to adopt and natively interoperates, including working seamlessly with the industry’s leading 3PLs. Extensiv ushers in a new era of how brands operate. Extensiv is a single platform that reduces or eliminates tens of thousands of dollars of annual spend on IT resources and allows them to focus all their time and energy on building their brands and selling more inventory.

Just as Extensiv will help brands run better and sell more, we will do the same for 3PLs. One of the biggest challenges for 3PLs is integrating to brands' sales channels and then maintaining that connection. Because our software for brands will seamlessly interoperate with our 3PL software, it reduces the time and effort 3PLs spend on integrations.

Further, this simplified integration model will help 3PLs win more business. Extensiv Fulfillment Marketplace eliminates the inefficient and months-long process of getting started with a 3PL and allow brands to find the right 3PL partner—entirely online.

All our products are designed with the partnership of brands and 3PLs as the center of our mission. The Fulfillment Marketplace is the first example of how we will connect brands with 3PLs, but we are just getting started. Our goal is not only to provide the technology 3PLs use to operate their business, but also to build the tools they need to streamline the buying experience for brands and grow faster.

Finally, Extensiv Network Manager allows 3PLs to win more business by collaborating with other 3PLs to quickly launch 4PL networks that reduce delivery time and expenses and allow 3PLs to compete with highly funded 4PLs.

While today marks the end of the first phase of our journey, it is more of a beginning than an end. Over the next few years, we will revolutionize the fulfillment industry beyond nearly everyone's expectations. The foundation of this next chapter will be the same as our success to date: our loyal customers collaborating with our intelligent, motivated, and ambitious employees.

The past 20 months have been a wild ride, and I can’t thank the Extensiv Team enough for all the work that went into our company’s transformation. It is remarkable that we have been able to continue to grow our core business while spending so much time and energy on rebranding, repackaging, and integrating four different businesses. The job never gets easier, but the opportunity and rewards will continue to grow.

It is a privilege to be on this journey with this team. As I’ve been known to say, WE’RE GETTING STRONGER EVERY DAY.

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https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/20995814/3PL%20Central/Images/andy%20lloyd.png
Andy Lloyd

Andy Lloyd is a software innovator with more than 20 years experience at high-growth companies, ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. As CEO of Extensiv, Andy is passionate about driving strategy, innovation, and growth to logistics and supply chain businesses and their customers.

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