BRINGING HIGH-TECH TO LOGISTICS: THE ISRAELI PLATFORM POWERING GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS FOR THE WORLD'S LEADING COMPANIES
Unilog.sc is redefining how technology companies manage their supply chains. Rather than rely solely on warehouses and trucks, it offers a cloud- and IoT-based platform that provides full real-time visibility, proactive anomaly detection and dynamic management of global shipments and inventories. All this is achieved without requiring customers to change existing workflows or daily tools
A data storage company technician, whose hourly wage is $500, is scheduled to receive a critical package at 12:00, but it never arrives. Its whereabouts are unknown. It may still be en route, or held up in a parking lot or delivered but overlooked. Meanwhile, the technician sits idle, sipping coffee at a North California Starbucks. The shipping company bears the cost, and the customer is frustrated because a failed server has brought a critical system to a halt.
This is not fiction. It is a routine example of the 'pain points' faced by customers in today's complex global supply chains — packages that vanish in transit to reappear only at the end of the day; costly service teams that wait hours for delayed shipments; shipping and ERP systems that do not provide a truly accurate operational picture; and shipments damaged by extreme temperatures, shocks or physical impacts.
"When we talk about logistics for critical components and high-value products, we're essentially talking about risk management and data management," says Vered Rubin, COO of the Israeli company Unilog (Unilog.sc), which is spearheading a revolution in supply-chain management. "We decided to lift the supply chain off Excel spreadsheets and bring it into the real-time world. Our operational core isn't a warehouse, it's a smart cloud platform that connects dozens of global suppliers. We've built a data-driven SCM [Supply-Chain Management] system to drive operational excellence and meet the most demanding SLAs in the industry, all without maintaining a massive logistics workforce."
Rubin notes that logistics has traditionally been viewed as a conservative, paper-driven field, defined by regulations and physical operations. Like many other industries, however, it is being fundamentally reshaped by digital transformation.
"Unilog stands at the forefront of this change," she says. "It's harnessing advanced information management technologies together with automation and AI to modernize global logistics processes and enhance management and control of the supply chain across all segments, be they manufacturing sites, logistics centers, shipping companies or warehouses."
According to Tom Zavilianskey, Unilog's Israel Business Development Director, "the company has developed a unique technology that provides unlimited operational flexibility, the new definition of success in supply chain management. Our ability to create dynamic logistics solutions fully tailored to the technological and regulatory needs of our customers gives our model, Supply-Chain-as-a-Service, a crucial edge in navigating a global market that's weathered significant upheavals and crises in recent years."
Customer-Centric System Architecture
At the heart of Unilog's value proposition is its Logivice™ platform, the company's 'logistics control tower.' Logivice™ is a cloud-based system designed to orchestrate all entities and systems in the customer's supply chain, creating a single point of real-time control and visibility.
"Our platform speaks the language of hundreds of shipping companies, suppliers and third-party systems — ERP and CRM alike," explains Rubin. "It integrates all the data into one network that provides real-time visibility, control and fault prediction, from anywhere and at any scale of operation. Such visibility and transparency in logistics processes are critical, and our platform delivers a complete picture of inventories, orders and shipments, enabling continuous, real-time monitoring."
Logivice™ was designed to enable dynamic and flexible supply-chain management, she continues. It supports rapid growth, manages multiple suppliers and allows high responsiveness to market changes. "This unique capability of allowing customers to receive a customized solution that grows with them is what makes Unilog a true high-tech solution," she underlines. "Customers have access to up-to-date information, alerts and real-time decision-making tools, which enables efficient supply-chain operations with minimal human error. Logivice™ also allows for rapid response to events on the ground, whether at the macro (global crisis, new regulation) or micro levels (flight delay, port strike, truck failing to reach its destination)."
Alongside Logivice™, Unilog offers Ucontrol™, a customer-facing system that delivers an up-to-date global view of all logistics movements. The system incorporates a layer of smart sensors — essentially IoT labels with internationally compliant cellular communication hardware — that monitor shipments in real time, tracking location, temperature, shocks, light exposure and even package opening.
"We don't wait for failure," says Zavilianskey. "We activate configurable business logic that identifies patterns and risks, automatically sending proactive alerts to our logistics team. This ability to detect an 'accident waiting to happen' before it does, allows us to meet four-hour SLAs for critical missions, sometimes within 90 minutes." Ucontrol™ provides full visibility for all types of shipment, air, sea and land, according to Rubin and Zavilianskey, embodying the visibility and transparency principles that Unilog stresses.
Next-Generation Supply Chain Management
Unilog is part of the International Cargo Logistics Global (ICL) Group, a privately owned global freight forwarding and logistics services company and one of Israel's top five players in the area. It was established to develop a global operating system that gives Israeli exporters full access to digital logistics solutions, free from the limitations of traditional, asset-heavy logistics providers.
The company employs some 70 people at its Tel Aviv headquarters, supported by hundreds of outsourced employees worldwide. It has branches in the US, Canada, Thailand and Europe, enabling global deployment of its technological network and comprehensive support for customers.
Unilog recently joined the ranks of global logistics leaders when the research firm Gartner® included it in its prestigious 'Magic Quadrant' for 4PL (Fourth Party Logistics) providers, the next generation of advanced, digital supply-chain management. This recognition, alongside 17 of the world's well-established logistics giants, was, according to company executives, nothing short of historic. It marks the first time that a privately held Israeli company in this category has reached such a milestone, surpassing competitors dozens or even hundreds of times its size.
Responding to Real-World Needs
All Unilog systems were developed in-house through its internal software development department, after no external provider could meet the exceptional requirements and complexity involved. "This is considered rare in the logistics world and gives Unilog's customers a significant advantage in implementing complex logistics processes and adapting dynamically to evolving needs," notes Zavilianskey. "In practice, the entire system was built based on insights and accumulated real-world experience."
"The ability to rapidly tailor the system to customer needs, and to control resources and priorities in supply-chain management gives our customers a competitive edge," emphasizes Rubin. She notes that Unilog's software development department currently includes programmers, QA engineers, product managers and support staff, and stresses that Unilog invests heavily in R&D. The company views technological development as a strategic capability that not only sets it apart from its competitors, but also enables its customers to gain a tangible advantage in the supply-chain world.
What about integrating AI into the platform?
"It's already happening," says Zavilianskey. "We're integrating an AI layer on top of existing BI and KPI layers. At present, AI helps us accelerate development processes and respond more quickly to requests from our account managers and customers. In the near future, the system, which is a continuously learning and evolving platform, will itself be able to suggest improvements and upgrades."
A short pitch from Rubin about the company:
"Unilog serves global customers across technology, medical devices, semiconductors and more, through a broad network of suppliers and service centers worldwide. Our solutions are precisely tailored to each customer, are scalable as they grow, and resilient during crises or unexpected market changes. By combining data, proprietary technology and the global management of hundreds of logistics suppliers, we deliver unlimited operational flexibility. We continue to refine our model to offer the perfect balance of adaptability, alignment with customer needs across markets, and reliable, efficient operation."
In collaboration with Unilog
