The Step by Step Process of a Network Analysis Study

A network diagnostic at NT Logistics is measured in weeks, kickoff to readout. Consulting firms scope comparable work at 3 to 6 months. That gap raises a fair question, and the honest way to answer it is to show the whole engagement, step by step. What we do, what your team does, and what shows up at the readout.

The speed comes from reps. NT has spent 28 years inside freight networks and manages over $2 billion in transportation spend. The analysis starts from NTelligence, the analytical framework we built for exactly this work, and from a veteran team that has usually seen your situation before in someone else’s network.

Step 1: kickoff and the data pull

One working session sets the scope. Which lanes, which modes, which questions you want answered, and what a win looks like in your numbers. Then your team runs the data pull: freight invoices, carrier files, and delivery data for the trailing 12 months, in whatever shape they’re in.

Messy is normal. Fragmented data from multiple systems is the usual starting condition, and cleaning it up is part of the job we quoted you.

Step 2: one defensible model

We normalize everything into a single model of your network. Every lane, every mode, every accessorial, every service requirement, reconciled into one picture that finance and operations can both look at without arguing about whose spreadsheet is right.

This step matters more than it sounds. A lot of the internal argument about freight cost is really an argument about the data underneath it. The model ends that argument first.

Step 3: cost-to-serve, lane by lane

This is the analysis itself. Where your freight costs are actually created: carrier mix, mode selection, service requirements, accessorials, operational complexity. We run the scenarios 28 years of operating has taught us to check first, because the patterns repeat. Mode mismatch. Supplier-embedded freight. Hidden accessorials. Lanes priced for the network you ran 4 years ago.

Step 4: working sessions with your team

Early findings get tested against the people who run your freight every day. If a recommendation doesn’t hold up in that room, it doesn’t make the readout.

This is also where the analysis earns its credibility. Your team sees how the model was built and what sits behind every number, so the readout lands in your vernacular, as your numbers.

Step 5: priorities and dashboards

Findings become a ranked plan: savings opportunities by category, ordered by impact and effort. We build the dashboards alongside it. Terry O’Brien, the CEO of TriMark USA, described the ones his team received as “easy to understand, easy to manipulate,” and that’s the standard. Dashboards your team can drive without us in the room.

Step 6: the readout

You walk out with a working model of your network that your CFO can defend, dashboards your team owns, and a ranked savings plan you can start executing that week. If the study confirms you’re running tight, that’s worth knowing on its own. Nine times out of ten, it finds real money.

What your team actually commits

A kickoff, one data pull, and 2 working sessions. Your operation doesn’t stop, and there’s no consultant team camped in your conference room for a quarter.

The engagement is short enough that the network we measure at kickoff is still the network you’re running at the readout. That’s the whole point of moving fast.

Want to see what your network is really costing you? Get Your Network Analysis or reach out and we’ll scope it with you.