May 29, 2025 - 5 minutes read
Supply Chain Visibility Software: In-House vs. Outsourced
Supply chain leaders are investing heavily in technology to gain visibility, improve efficiency, and manage growing complexity, yet many aren’t seeing the payoff. In PwC’s 2025 Digital Trends in Operations Survey, 92% of supply chain professionals say their tech investments haven’t fully delivered the expected results. Integration challenges and inconsistent data quality continue to undermine visibility efforts across global operations, prompting some companies to consider whether building an in-house solution could provide more direct oversight or address integration gaps.
A centralized visibility platform is essential to modern supply chain operations; however, identifying and selecting the best solution presents its own challenges. This blog examines the advantages of building an in-house solution versus buying an existing supply chain visibility software, and outlines key considerations when evaluating a potential visibility partner.
Why Supply Chain Visibility Software Is Essential Today
Supply chain visibility software plays a critical role in enabling data-driven supply chain operations. As companies seek to improve performance and reduce risk, understanding the specific challenges this technology is designed to solve is an essential first step.
Below are some of the most common obstacles organizations face today, along with how purpose-built systems help address them.
- Disparate data systems across partners: Supply chains today operate across dozens of systems and formats – from EDI and APIs to emails and spreadsheets. Visibility software must integrate these sources to provide a real-time, unified view.
- Limited internal IT bandwidth: Most IT teams are already stretched thin with core system maintenance and internal priorities. Supply chain outsourcing to manage tech integrations and implementation can ease the burden on internal teams.
- Delayed exception management: Without accurate data, issues like missed pickups or unexpected delays are often discovered too late to take corrective action.
- Lack of standardized processes across regions and modes: Ocean, air, parcel, and truck shipments each follow different operational workflows and data conventions, making it difficult to consolidate information without specialized tools.
- High cost of manual workarounds: When visibility gaps persist, logistics teams often resort to manual tracking, phone calls, and spreadsheets, which drives up labor costs and increases the risk of error.
Build vs. Buy: Choosing the Right Approach to Supply Chain Visibility
When evaluating how to implement visibility software, companies face a critical decision: whether to build a platform internally or implement an outsourced SaaS solution. This choice is strategic, as it impacts long-term scalability and the overall ability to stay resilient in an unpredictable supply chain environment.
A useful framework for this decision involves assessing five core dimensions:
- Business Objectives – What’s driving the investment? Speed? Flexibility? Competitive differentiation?
- Technical Complexity – How difficult is the integration across systems, modes, and partners?
- Speed to Value – How quickly must the platform deliver measurable impact?
- Total Cost of Ownership – What are the short- and long-term financial implications?
- Internal Resources – Does the team have the bandwidth and expertise to support a build?
The table below outlines how in-house development compares to SaaS across these key areas:
While building a custom solution may offer a higher level of control, it often requires substantial time, budget, and internal expertise – resources many organizations can’t afford to divert from core operations. SaaS platforms, on the other hand, are designed for scalability, ease of integration, and faster time to value. For most companies, especially those seeking quick deployment and enterprise-wide visibility, a supply chain outsourcing approach delivers a more efficient and sustainable path forward.
How to Evaluate the Right Supply Chain Visibility Partner
Identifying the right supply chain visibility partner involves evaluating both the technology and the long-term fit. The most effective solutions meet current needs while remaining flexible enough to adapt as supply chain requirements evolve.
Areas to assess include:
- Scalability: Support for growing shipment volumes, new business units, and multimodal expansion.
- Integration capabilities: Flexibility to integrate with existing supply chain and transportation management systems across EDI, API, and flat-file formats, plus existing carrier and supplier connectivity.
- Operational alignment: Ability to support current workflows without requiring major process changes.
- Ongoing support: Proven responsiveness, dedicated account management, and a clear roadmap for feature updates.
- Security and data governance: Defined policies for access control, auditability, and compliance with regulatory standards.
Whether built internally or sourced externally, the value of a visibility solution depends on how well it integrates across systems and how quickly it delivers actionable insights.
Meet Agistix: Supply Chain Visibility Without the Complexity
For organizations seeking a reliable, low-lift path to visibility, Agistix offers a proven alternative to building in-house.
The platform is up and running in weeks – not months – and requires no changes to existing workflows or partner processes. With visibility across all modes, geographies, and shipment types, Agistix delivers centralized data on inbound, outbound, and third-party logistics activity. Carrier and supplier integrations are managed directly by the Agistix team, reducing internal burden and accelerating time to value.
Built for scale and flexibility, the Agistix platform supports global operations and evolving business needs through a suite of solutions that includes visibility, transportation management, and stakeholder-facing Microsites, all within a single platform.
To learn how Agistix can simplify supply chain visibility and deliver results faster, contact us today to schedule a demo.
