Data democratisation
“As businesses become better accustomed to fluctuating conditions, we’ll likely see a focus on longer term planning, but adaptability will be a key priority.” That’s the opinion of Nicky Tozer, SVP for EMEA at Oracle NetSuite.
“Easy access to accurate, real-time data streams that unify data from across the organisation has never been more important. Manually collecting and analysing data from different departments and spreadsheets not only takes a huge amount of manpower and time, but can lead to errors and poor decision making.
For growing businesses, integrating data solutions directly into their organisations will be a priority for 2022, allowing fast responses in a changing market, effective planning and informed decision making.
Henrik Smedberg, head of intelligent spend management at SAP Ariba & SAP Fieldglass, adds: “Visibility is always important in supply chains, in particular when trying to mitigate global supply disruptions that have become more commonplace in recent years. Amid this backdrop, it’s essential that companies have visibility of all their trading partners – including manufacturers, shippers, forwarders and others – and have the connectivity to deliver real-time updates throughout the process.”
“Key to achieving this is to shift away from the traditional linear supply chain where each step is dependent on the one before,” says Smedberg.
“Network strategies and making use of data-driven insights for forecasting will be important in avoiding repercussions from future shocks and shifts, replacing linearity with inter-connectivity, and allowing procurement and supply chain leaders to continuously monitor supply risk dependencies. Simultaneously, cloud-based models enable partner ecosystems to reconsider how they interact with one another, as they look towards engaging in supply chain innovation, where greener practices are prioritised and rewarded.”
Tom Fairbairn is a supply chain expert and distinguished engineer at real-time data distributor, Solace, used by the likes of NASA and the London Stock Exchange.
"Data is the lubricant in the machinery of supply chains, allowing the right decisions to be made and efficiency to be maximised. The proven way to access, use and act on data is through an Event-Driven Architecture (EDA), which allows the right data to get to the right application at the right time. Real-time, unified views of your supply chain reduce wasted energy, resources, and time, minimising environmental impact," says Fairbairn.
“Supply chains will have to be agile, nimble and flexible to counter significant challenges. Overnight, batch-based processing and planning simply won’t cut it. Real-time, fully-integrated and digitised supply chains are needed to reduce the impact of disruption to a minimum," he adds.
