Northwind Freight · Logistics · 2025
Replacing a spreadsheet that ran a $200M network
A dispatch and capacity platform delivered in eleven weeks, built alongside the team that would inherit it.
- Prototype to production
- 11 wksPrototype to production
- Loads dispatched per planner
- +22%Loads dispatched per planner
- Northwind engineers upskilled in-pod
- 6Northwind engineers upskilled in-pod
Services
- Product engineering
- Embedded teams
Stack
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Postgres
- Drizzle
- AWS
Duration
11 weeks
The problem
Dispatch ran on a shared spreadsheet with fourteen years of accumulated conventions and exactly one person who understood all of them.
What we did
- 01Shadowed planners for a week and modelled the rules that actually governed dispatch, not the documented ones.
- 02Shipped a read-only version alongside the spreadsheet so planners could compare outputs before trusting it.
- 03Paired Nexa engineers with Northwind’s team on every feature after week four.
- 04Cut over one lane at a time, with the spreadsheet kept as fallback for a full quarter.
Where it landed
Northwind’s own team has shipped every release since handover. The spreadsheet was formally retired six months later, and nobody has asked for it back.
Next step
Tell us what you’re building.
A 30-minute call with an engineer, not a salesperson. You will leave with a straight answer about scope, cost and whether we are the right people for it.
Or email hello@nexa.com · Austin, Texas · United States