About Evans Network
Founded in 1939, Evans Network of Companies has grown from a single truck into one of North America's largest logistics and transportation networks. More than 1,000 independent freight agents broker freight across 8,000 trucks, managing $2.5 billion in annual transportation spend.
Known as the “Expedia of Drayage,” Evans moves containers from ports to inland destinations across North America.
The Challenge
Fragmented Data and Operational Risks
Disconnected, Siloed Data Sources
Data lived across numerous homegrown SQL databases and manually updated systems. Every decision required tracking down individual point persons — and data accuracy was always questionable.
Zero Automated Reporting
No dashboards, no automated data pools, no centralized reporting. Evans relied entirely on manual processes, resulting in slow, inefficient, error-prone decision-making.
Critical Operational Risk
When the developer who built Evans' core data systems passed away, it exposed severe vulnerabilities — a single point of failure with no documentation or redundancy.
No Governance or Compliance Framework
The absence of centralized governance created compliance risks and limited visibility into how data was accessed across the organization's many companies and systems.
“We had multiple sources, manual processes, people working in silos. There was no centralized data management or clear governance framework. We were not a data-centric company — none of our decisions were data-driven.”
AJ Chandra, Global Director of Data Services, Evans
The Solution
Why Evans Chose Keboola
Evans adopted a “data first” approach — centralizing and activating data immediately rather than waiting to modernize legacy systems. Keboola was selected for its ability to rapidly transform complex data scenarios into streamlined, automated workflows.
Native Connectivity to Legacy Systems
Keboola connected all existing sources — even broken and outdated ones — without requiring Evans to modernize first. 20+ systems unified from day one.
Speed to Value
New reports that once took 3 months were delivered in 3 days. Evans achieved full ROI within Year 1 of implementation — one of the fastest paybacks AJ had seen across any technology investment.
Scalable Automation
Overnight orchestration routines, automated data pipelines, and the flexibility to scale from a single data team to an enterprise-grade intelligence layer.
Enterprise Security and Governance
Purpose-built governance, PII anonymization, and multi-project security gave Evans the compliance foundation it had never had — without slowing deployment.
Implementation & Adoption
Evans’ 3-Year Journey with Keboola
Foundations
Evans connected 20+ legacy data sources and built its first centralized data warehouse. Data latency dropped from 4 days to daily. ROI was recognized within the first year — validating the data-first approach before any legacy system modernization.
Scaling
Evans rapidly expanded its analytics footprint to nearly 200 dashboards — covering revenue performance, sales, commissions, settlements, load counts, and gross vs. net profit. 75% of all data flows became fully automated.
Full Transformation and AI Readiness
Evans manages 2 million orders annually across 150,000 transportation lanes, with 100+ data points feeding a real-time dynamic pricing engine. Data quality improved by 60%. Keboola is now the intelligence backbone for every franchise in the network.
“Keboola allowed us to focus on being innovative and not worry about whether our toolset would be able to keep up with us.”
AJ Chandra, Global Director of Data Services, Evans
The Results
Key Outcomes and Competitive Advantages
Real-Time Dynamic Pricing
Keboola consolidates raw pricing data, identifies mileage buckets, and feeds a pricing engine factoring in weather, port tariffs, and market models across 150,000 transportation lanes.
Analytics Without Bottlenecks
From zero to 200 dashboards in three years. The Agent Health dashboard tracks ~20 KPIs across every franchise — giving Evans HQ the same network visibility McDonald's has over every franchise it operates.
Unmatched Speed of Delivery
Enhanced speed of development, with Evans able to roll out new data-driven solutions rapidly, setting a pace previously unimaginable.
“Keboola enabled us to put analytics ahead of traditional processes, making our company truly data-hungry and innovative.”
AJ Chandra, Global Director of Data Services, Evans
By the Numbers
Measurable Impact
Analytics Maturity
From zero analytics to 75% data-driven decisions, approaching 100%.
Dashboards
Close to 200 dashboards across all major KPIs.
Data Latency
Reduced from 4 days to daily (overnight refresh).
Report Development
From 3 months to 3 days for medium-sized requests.
Data Quality
~60% of data now higher quality through Keboola's processing engine.
ROI Payback
Achieved within Year 1 of implementation.
Dynamic Pricing
Real-time pricing tool active at corporate level, factoring in weather, port tariffs, and market models.
Governance & Compliance
Strengthening Governance and Compliance
Evans uses Keboola’s multi-project architecture to maintain strong governance, particularly for sensitive data.
Dedicated governance layers (L0 acquisition, L1 transformations, L2 modeling) clearly delineate responsibilities and permissions.
Advanced anonymization and PII management (hashing, salting, anonymized table joins) ensures compliant handling of sensitive data across PowerBI, Sigma, and every team in the ecosystem.
L0 — Raw Data Acquisition
20+ Sources
L1 — Transformation Layer
Quality Rules & Enrichment
L2 — Data Modeling
Business Logic & Analytics
Visualization & Consumption
PowerBI / Sigma
The Road Ahead
AI-Driven Future
Evans is building on its Keboola-powered data foundation to deploy a new generation of AI capabilities across its network:
Location Optimization
AI-driven routing agents targeting at least 15% improvement in routing efficiency across 8,000 trucks.
Traffic Prediction
ML models factoring in real-time traffic, weather, and port conditions to proactively reroute freight before delays hit customers.
Predictive Maintenance
Equipment management to reduce truck downtime and improve service reliability across the entire network.
Warehouse Management
Intelligent inventory and dwell-time analysis to optimize container staging and reduce port congestion.
“Keboola has given us confidence, clarity, and speed. We’ve transitioned from manual processes and siloed data into an automated, intelligent data ecosystem, enabling our network of over 1,000 agents to outperform the market. Keboola isn’t just a tool — it’s the heart of our data-driven strategy.”
AJ Chandra, Global Director of Data Services, Evans
