About us

Viya is a product built for you by the people of ShipitSmarter (est. 2000).

Like most tech companies, we’re a diverse bunch of people united by a desire to leave the world a little better than we found it.

We try to achieve this by developing technological tools that empower organisations to optimise their shipping processes.

Viya is meant to help shippers — and, by proxy, carriers — of all shapes and sizes navigate the unique challenges and requirements of B2B shipping.

To explain why we’re building Viya, allow us to tell you a short tale of shipping and technology.

A Tale of Shipping and Technology

Once upon a time, typewriters, file cabinets, landlines, and switchboard operators were essential parts of a shipper’s toolkit. Transport documents and invoices were processed by typing them over by hand, and shippers telephoned carriers to arrange the transportation of goods.

A seed of change was planted in the 1960s when Master Sergeant Ed Guilbert developed a form of electronic communication for the US Army. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) lets computer systems connected to the same underground network communicate with each other.

It took a while, but in the early ’90s, EDI became a widespread tool for supply chain management. It allowed shippers, carriers, and receivers to let their internal systems communicate automatically. Documents like order confirmations, shipment requests, and invoices could be automatically shared between departments — such as transport and logistics, sales, and finance. This automation increased productivity, streamlined inventory, and eliminated errors caused by manually copying documents.

With the rise of the internet, new kinds of shipping solutions arrived. These solutions made it possible to let external systems communicate with each other. One of the first was ShipitSmarter, the shipping platform foundational to our 25 years of experience in ICT and Logistics. To this day, ShipitSmarter facilitates the automation and optimisation of the shipping processes of world-renowned enterprises.

Solutions like ShipitSmarter are tailored to an organisation’s individual needs. Because of the many person-hours involved in implementation and maintenance, they require significant investments. This initially caused the economic gap between big enterprises and SMEs to widen, as these solutions were financially out of reach for smaller organisations, making it harder for them to compete.

The 2010s brought a partial solution, with online shipping platforms like Shippo (USA) and SendCloud (Europe). These providers offer one-size-fits-all, scalable shipping solutions with pricing models suited for companies of all sizes. They offer collective discounts on shipping rates and provide standard connections to the APIs of well-established carriers and e-commerce platforms.

While these platforms have proven to be a growth accelerator for many e-commerce businesses that ship exclusively with Express carriers, B2B shippers don’t profit from these solutions equally. They can use them for their Express deliveries but have to communicate with other (Road and local) carriers by other means.

To this day, if B2B shippers want to have a carrier portfolio that perfectly meets their individual needs and manage all shipments from one place, they’re forced to invest in expensive custom integrations. In practice, this means many organisations compromise on their carrier selection to use a standard shipping solution or scramble to keep track of their shipments in a Spreadsheet.

Organisations that can afford custom integrations face their own limitations. They depend on IT (partners) to update their carrier connections and shipping requirements, diminishing their supply chain agility.

Meanwhile, B2B customers expect a prime delivery experience that matches their experiences as a consumer.

The result is many frustrated B2B shippers and unhappy customers.

If only there were a scalable shipping platform that’s malleable enough to cater to the personal needs of B2B shippers and scalable enough to make it accessible to organisations of varying sizes…

To all this, we say: challenge accepted.

How We Are Organised

ShipitSmarter has a very flat hierarchial constellation: there is the Managing board and then there are all other employees in a direct hierarchial line to the board.

Being a product organisation, meaning products are the responsibility of empowered product teams, the organisation consists of three product teams accompanied by a commerce- and a finance team. Each team is ideally sized between three and eight people, giving space to the drive, experience, creativity and knowledge of all team members. Our office is located in Hilversum where most of our colleagues enjoin a hybrid working pattern, bouncing of ideas and having fun when being physically together, enjoying efficiency and personal creativity when working from home.

Board of Directors

Michiel van Mourik, Chief Executive Officer

Michiel has a background in business economics that lead him - before joining ShipitSmarter - to work for several companies in different industries. He was more than thirteen years a Director of Finance for a large, International family business: Verder International B.V. In that position he has setup the backbone of Finance. He was responsible for financial reporting, financing structures, taxes, restructurings and acquisitions in a phase of substantial growth. Michiel van Mourik started at ShipitSmarter in 2018 in the position of CFO and is CEO of ShipitSmarter from 2020 onwards. Under leading of Michiel and Edwin ShipitSmarter made a turnaround and is nowadays a healthy organization. He always had a great interest in building organizations where people love to contribute. Today, Michiel lives happily at biking distance from the office in Hilversum. See Michiel on LinkedIn.

Edwin Schuijt, Chief Product Officer

The exposure to software creation, logical reasoning and the scientific approach as part of the Geophysics curriculum prepared Edwin with a firm base for a future in technology. From startups, providing the first mobile payment system, to vested logistics parties, Edwin has always been looking for solutions on the edge of technology, using the latest tech to enable new business capabilities. When given the opportunity to participate in a vested technology company in 2020 - ShipitSmarter - being responsible for technology and product development, there was no other option than to fully embrace the challenge! Now, a few years later, product development has become the main focus, but always with technology at heart, not only as an enabler, but also as an accelerant for business development. Edwin is living in Amsterdam, from where he can easily reach the ShipitSmarter office but is also close to the North Sea to play around with wind and waves. See Edwin on LinkedIn.

Edwin Schuijt, Chief Product Officer

The exposure to software creation, logical reasoning and the scientific approach as part of the Geophysics curriculum prepared Edwin with a firm base for a future in technology. From startups, providing the first mobile payment system, to vested logistics parties, Edwin has always been looking for solutions on the edge of technology, using the latest tech to enable new business capabilities. When given the opportunity to participate in a vested technology company in 2020 - ShipitSmarter - being responsible for technology and product development, there was no other option than to fully embrace the challenge! Now, a few years later, product development has become the main focus, but always with technology at heart, not only as an enabler, but also as an accelerant for business development. Edwin is living in Amsterdam, from where he can easily reach the ShipitSmarter office but is also close to the North Sea to play around with wind and waves. See Edwin on LinkedIn.

Ownership

ShipitSmarter is privately owned by the managing board and employees. This results in a high commitment and motivation to do what is in the best interest of the company and its customers.

Join Us

We’re a diverse group of people with a shared love for innovation and grilled cheese sandwiches. Our lunch conversations range from home improvement projects to music and whether or not getting Botox at 30 is part of a pop star’s job description.

We’ve fully embraced hybrid working. Our sweet spot is spending two days a week together in the office. On the other days, everyone is free to enjoy individual contributor time from home. Even though we all like to take the initiative and figure out solutions on our own, we’re also generous in sharing our knowledge and expertise with each other.