Thanks Mike certainly worth keeping an eye on

@RobN I've been tracking this one for a while. One of analysts made reference to it on last week's results conference call.

Here's the relevant extract from the call. I'll then go on and give some more background to this issue, for context, and explain how I am thinking about it.

Analyst: Bob Chen JP Morgan

"Hey, morning, team. Just a question for me around engagement with your larger commitment customers. I mean, we've got one of your really big customers out there publicly talking about transitioning away from CargoWise onto their own software. Like, how do you sort of deal with that sort of scenario?

Do you sort of try and engage with them to limit that sort of churn? Also, I guess, you know, given you're sort of taking a big cost out step in your product development part of the business as well, does that sort of imply, you know, that the barriers to developing the CargoWise One software is lower now, and you're more reliant on the network effects across the business?" 

Zubin Appoo

Thanks, Bob. Look, let me go through the first part of your question first. I'm not gonna comment on any individual customers, but let's just talk about all of our customers here. We spend a lot of time with our customers, and we have strong relationships with them. The really important point to call out here is the CargoWise Value Packs and why it is such an essential ingredient here. You referenced CargoWise One, but what we're talking about here really is CargoWise Next and the CargoWise Value Packs, which are now rolled out to 95% of our customers. Remember that the 5% of customers that are not yet on that represent these very large customers that are on long-term commitment agreements, and they do not get access to the benefits that we are releasing through the Value Packs. Most importantly, those would be the AI automation and efficiency benefits.

If you think about what I said during the presentation, customers that are on CargoWise Next and are using the Value Pack, particularly the 4 agentic AI capabilities and our future AI workflow engine capabilities, they will be far more productive and far more efficient than those that use other systems or spend their time building in-house systems. We've spent 30 years building this product. We've invested close to $1 billion US dollars over the last 5 years in R&D, and what we are building is something we are very proud of, and we are convinced it totally reshapes labor in the industry. That's to the first part.

Now, to the second part of your question as to what this does to productivity and CargoWise Next build. It's important to say that this is a program that we are not just doing today. This is a journey we have been on now for quite some time. Since last year, we've invested heavily into AI tooling, AI training, showcasing for our team, and most importantly, we have a number of examples, deep examples within the team where we're seeing productivity accelerate. We're seeing language translation of the product done in much faster times.

We're seeing the build of our global customs system now accelerate because of large language model coding. We're able to modernize and maintain our code bases and patch our code bases much faster. We're even seeing examples where we can solve defects and system defects, system bugs, nearly autonomously in some cases, using a swarm of agents. We're building tests, we're doing code reviews, we're identifying edge cases. We're obviously resolving customer service incidents now using our Ace AI agent that's been part of our product since the CVP launch. Over the last few months, when we've seen how rapidly tools like Claude Opus 4.5 and even OpenAI's GPT-5.3 Codex have developed, we are now ready to take that next step. In terms of what this does to CargoWise, in the short term, this probably doesn't have much impact on output, but it means we can get that same level of output with far less input. In the long term, however, this is a real breakthrough for us. This means that we can achieve far greater levels of output for far greater levels of input across product development, customer service, and potentially other parts of the business as well. 

Further Background

DSV has been a CargoWise customer since 2007.

DSV acquired DB Shenker in April 2025, and DB Schenker brought a number of its own in-house systems into the acquisition.

DSV has acknowledged in its annual report that it maintains both WiseTech’s CargoWise One and its own/internal systems (notably Tango from DB Schenker), with a data layer syncing them. Management stated that a decision will need to be made on which platform the company ultimately standardises on, implying a potential transition away from CargoWise One over time. This is not a simple switch announcement, but it is the direct corporate language where DSV signals a strategic choice and future direction regarding the use of freight-tech platforms. 

Specifically in the DSV 2025 Annual Report it states:

“We are advancing our transport management systems, with TANGO for Air & Sea and STAR for Road. Both systems are in use in our operations. We are assessing the TANGO system, while we plan to broaden the application of STAR further in the coming years. At present, we are focusing on ensuring that the systems’ architecture is based on the latest available technology.”

and

“In the Air & Sea division, we are currently combining our operations into two transport management systems (TMS), which are synchronised through our data platform without any additional manual intervention. Looking ahead, we plan to transition to a single TMS platform for the division. We are currently testing both platforms and working on a roadmap to guide the shift back to a unified platform covering all our global Air & Sea volumes following the Schenker integration.”

“Our road freight operations are being migrated and consolidated into one modern TMS platform and will serve as the future transport management system for the Road division. With the acquisition of Schenker, we also acquired numerous other TMS platforms… In total, the more than 20 platforms will now be migrated to just one unified platform.”

While Cargowise is not named in the Annual Report, the "two TMS platforms" in Air & Sea are:

• Cargowise (the legacy DSV platform)
• TANGO (ex-Schenker platform)

The Annual Report therefore publicly confirms:

• A live platform comparison is under way
• Investment in a data layer syncing the systems implemented already
• A roadmap towards a single system

At the time of the Annual Report (issued recently) there was no commitment yet as to which way DSV/DB Schenker will go.

My Assessment

With the advent of agentic AI potentially lowering the barrier for DSV/DB Schenker to build out their in-house system and replace CargoWise, the introduction of the CVPs/New Commercial Model comes at a critical time.

If the big customers are really against the transaction-based pricing of CargoWise, there is probably no other LGFF that is better positioned to act now to build out their internal capability.

This is definitely one to watch and, indeed, the industry and the investment analysts are tracking this closely.

The key decision for the DSV Board is whether developing and maintaining its most mission critical software capability is a strategic capability that it wants to retain in-house. Clearly, in selecting Cargowise in 2007, their decision was to go with a best-in-class vendor. So the question is whether i) the acquired capability of DB Schenker, ii) the change in the commercial model and iii) the availability of AI tools altogether lead to a change of strategy.

If they stay with Cargowise, I think that is a resounding endorsement of the strength of $WTC's competitive advantge.

If they take it inhouse, it is not a given that others will follow. While DB Schenker's in-house systems are not unique in the industry, they are definitely in a small minority.

In any event, it is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

Disc: Held