Resolving Critical Data Gaps in High-Value Shipment Tracking

🧩 Problem

A critical 3rd-party API integration began failing intermittently, preventing TRK’s platform from retrieving real-time tracking data for high-value shipments. This led to customer escalations, data blackouts, and operational risk for clients relying on visibility for regulated or time-sensitive deliveries.

🧠 Discovery & Research

• I conducted data analysis on device telemetry logs to isolate failure windows.

• Correlated missing tracking data with 3rd-party API downtime to confirm root cause.

• Worked with Field Application Engineers (FAEs) to validate the impact across customer accounts and priority shipments.

🔧 Key Decisions & Tradeoffs

• Initiated discussions with the 3rd-party vendor to assess mitigation strategies or redundancy options.

• Aligned with engineering leadership to prioritize a graceful fallback mechanism on the platform.

• Set clear expectations with the customer, balancing urgency with feasibility given vendor constraints and internal capacity.

🚀 Execution & Delivery

• Proposed and delivered a temporary workaround by serving aggregated GPS telemetry in the UI — giving customers approximate location data during outages.

• Created a structured project plan with scope definition, milestones, and ownership across teams.

• Led cross-functional stand-ups to ensure tight coordination between front-end/backend teams and support during hotfix rollout.

📈 Outcomes & Impact

• Mitigated potential customer churn during API downtime by maintaining partial service.

• Introduced a new backend enhancement to log and monitor all 3rd-party API failures.

• Improved system resiliency and customer trust by proactively communicating progress and fallback plans.

• Established a repeatable framework for handling third-party service dependencies across other parts of the platform.

💡 Reflection

What I’d Do Differently:In hindsight, I would recommend setting up SLAs and active monitoring for third-party services earlier in the integration lifecycle — ensuring visibility and failover readiness from day one.