With ever-changing business challenges such as transportation costs, volatile demand and an evolving customer base, supply management organizations are exploring new and unique ways to use collaboration in their supply chains. One such effort is turning traditional vertical collaboration strategies on their side and may change the way organizations view their supply chain - and their competitors.
Inttra, provider of an independent platform for booking and managing ocean freight, has created what it says is the industry's first standardized electronic bill of lading.
Modern spend analysis systems are capable of incorporating a huge variety of types and sources of data - everything from supplier data to contracts, purchasing transactional data, financial data, risk data, and much more. However, the power of these systems is often limited by the availability, completeness, and quality of spend-related data from source systems.
Analyst Insight: In recent years, an increasing number of organizations have sought to make their supply chains more environmentally friendly. According to APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking in procurement, 48 percent of organizations initiated "green" procurement policies as of fall 2011. As organizations feel more pressure to monitor their environmental impact, they must consider the potential effect of enacting green procurement policies on their bottom line. - Becky Partida, knowledge specialist, APQC
Aras, a vendor of open-source product lifecycle management (PLM) software, has made available cloud-based replication technology for Aras Innovator, developed by Ilesfay, a provider of data-replication services for organizations with distributed work groups.
The cloud offers the potential not only to transform how supply chain organizations procure IT capabilities but also to fundamentally change how they manage business processes.
An increase in the number of suppliers, customers, carriers and countries is changing the importance of collaborative synchronization between all parties in the multi-tiered global supply chain.
Analyst Insight: Recently, Big Pharma went through a significant period of mergers and acquisitions to gain a global market presence and product offering expansion. Now it appears the tides may be shifting. A segment of Big Pharma is shedding non-core business units and focusing on core profitability. But the acquisition strategy is not dead. These diverging paths are both focused on increasing flexibility and profitability to adapt to market uncertainty. Supply chain planning and adaptability have moved forward as integration of business units has increased in all regions of the globe. - Brian Hudock, partner, Tompkins International