HOW SUPPLY CHAIN ORCHESTRATION BOOSTS AGILITY, SIMPLICITY AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCEWhy every manufacturer and logistics provider should prioritize Supply Chain Orchestration

INTRODUCTION

Executives in global supply chain organizations understand that interoperability between enterprise systems and trading partners is an increasingly essential target for improving supply chain operations. They also understand that managing the many connections between these systems, and ultimately achieving perfect supply chain orchestration, has traditionally been a monumental task. Today, that is no longer the case.

Advances in supply chain technology mean that critical supply chain management (SCM) upgrades can be undertaken either prior to or alongside an ERP upgrade. Increasing amounts of data mean that critical SCM upgrades must be prioritized, even ahead of the ERP in some cases. Organizations need a way to gain visibility into their supply chain data, and capitalize on that data, right now. They cannot afford to wait for their new ERP tools to be fully functioning. That could take years.

In this eBook, we reveal which cloud-based technology platforms can give businesses the power to harness the benefits of a highly orchestrated supply chain right now, without adding another level of IT complexity or introducing a new data or system silo.

It is no longer necessary to wait until an ERP upgrade is complete to drive additional value from your supply chain. The direct integration of a B2B messaging engine with your existing data systems will provide the single source of data truth needed to achieve complete supply chain orchestration, without requiring you to re-engineer business processes or replace business systems. This is particularly true when trying to sync multiple ERPs, business systems, and trading partners across your entire supply ecosystem.

In fact, mapping every one of your many business systems to one central messaging engine − and connecting to every one of your suppliers through an orchestration platform – will actually minimize the number of resources required to automate data aggregation in the back office. It will also

facilitate the distribution of a single, continuous and digestible data stream to all stakeholders on the front lines of your supply chain − even if you have to rip and replace systems in the future. That is why upgrading your supply chain orchestration technology ahead of your ERP is not only realistic, but preferred.

For many line of business and IT managers, however, there exists an ERP-first mindset that is understandably hard to shake. ERPs serve as the mission-critical backbone for most enterprises. Doing anything to jeopardize their stability and functionality can put an organization at risk. Fortunately, today’s more advanced cloud-based supply chain orchestration solutions help to address these concerns.

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT TO RETHINK HOW YOU MANAGE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN DATA

First of all, it’s important to note that supply chain orchestration SaaS vendors run, own, maintain and manage their solutions. This relieves IT of the responsibility of having to maintain and manage the integrated solution while also migrating, upgrading or replacing the ERP system—a lengthy process in many cases. So, as the ERP upgrade proceeds and scope creep inevitably morphs the project, IT does not have to undo months of custom coding to accommodate a new feature or function in the orchestration system.

This is not always the case with supply chain management (SCM) platforms. Many are incapable of connecting with third-party data systems in a similarly centralized manner. Therefore, they tend to be integrated on the perimeter of your supply chain architecture, connected exclusively to one or two systems targeted to a specific business function, such as logistics management or demand planning. That is one reason why the system-agnostic design of today’s top-performing supply chain orchestration platforms is so beneficial. But, not the only reason.

Those who opt for a supply chain orchestration (SCO) solution do not have to be concerned with

retraining users and rebuilding connections to trading partners and customers like they would if they tried to use an SCM platform. Unlike SCM technologies, SCO solutions can facilitate a tightly coupled relationship with the ERP, external stakeholders, internal business processes, and workflows without the challenging and lengthy integration and management requirements. So, as the ERP project changes, the cloud-based SCO platform continues facilitating a perfectly-coordinated supply chain operation as if nothing new is happening—driving your many procure-to-pay workflows, enabling global collaborations and, ultimately providing complete, uninterrupted visibility into your supply chain transactions so that you can execute well-planned operations.

This operational consistency and enterprise system flexibility is exclusive to SCO technology and accomplished in two main ways. The first is via the device-agnostic portal interface that internal and external stakeholders can configure, typically without the help of IT. New features are simply rolled out through the portal with no disruption or drain on internal IT resources.

MAINTAINING OPERATIONAL CONSISTENCY AND FLEXIBILITY DURING ERP UPGRADES

Flexibility is also achieved by directly mapping the supply chain platform to all internal business systems (i.e. ERPs, CRM, WMS, TMS, etc.) along with all trading partner and critical customer enterprise systems. The supply chain platform then becomes the SCO “engine”—for multi-system data integration, distribution and analysis. Legacy supply chain operations/ERP systems are proprietary, meaning they are built with end-user lock-in as a primary concern for the vendors that sell them. While open data standards are employed to move data around the different systems that interface with the supply chain operations/ERP solution, feature sets within these applications

are highly interconnected, requiring months of testing to ensure that a change in one place does not interrupt important functionality elsewhere in the ecosystem, like in the accounting or reporting systems.

SaaS based SCO solutions, on the other hand, are designed from the outset to be vendor agnostic and loosely coupled to underlying infrastructure, networking and storage resources. This makes it simple to route data between a cloud-based SCM solution and customers’ ERP solutions without delay, as the constant technical disruptions from ERP upgrades are all but eliminated from the SCO equation.

BEYOND THE PORTALHow supply chain orchestration boosts agility, simplicity and

business performance

When an supply chain orchestration platform is used to facilitate communications between you and your trading partners’ many enterprise systems, the data that flows through the core messaging engine provides a unified view of your supply chain data regardless of organizational or geographical boundaries.

If the manufacturer is using Oracle and their supplier uses SAP, for example, this poses no barrier to achieving perfect supply chain orchestration. The orchestration platform’s ERP-syncing messaging engine simply ingests and outputs data, which is then mapped to the appropriate fields and formatted in the supplier’s and manufacturer’s systems—all within seconds. In fact, supply chain orchestration updates to the ERP often happens faster than the manufacturer’s or logistics provider’s system can update itself.

For example, batch processes that update production databases on a schedule instead of continuously can introduce errors if the

data being consumed by one system is out of sync with another. Left unchecked, even small errors can lead to millions of dollars in costs to reconcile orders.

However, if you engage a cloud-based supply chain orchestration solution, its powerful messaging engine will automatically accept, modify and distribute updated data back to the systems of record.

ORCHESTRATION ALSO IMPROVES COMMUNCIATIONSAll stakeholders will be talking the same talk, even if they

speak different languages

Supply chain orchestration solutions enhance the ERP or back office system to provide a complete picture of the supply chain across the enterprise and trading partners. This single source of truth means that decision makers will always be working with the most up-to-date information. This cuts down on confusion and enables a “management by exception” workflow. All this is accomplished simply because the data used to make decisions and take action is the most accurate and up-to-date information available.

The other benefit of implementing a supply chain orchestration platform—ahead of any further ERP investments—is future proofing. Regardless of what happens with the ERP system—you could change vendors, upgrade to a new version, and implement new IT management frameworks—the supply chain system remains unaffected and, thus, uninterrupted. Orchestration workflows and business logic are similarly shielded from changes to the ERP system because the only thing traveling between your orchestration platform and many enterprise systems is data. This separation of core functionality

maintains a stable environment that suppliers can rely on to remain consistent as they make changes to their own internal systems and workflows over time.

For the C-Level specifically, one of the major benefits of engaging with a supply chain orchestration solution is the exclusive end-to-end visibility gain. Supply chain orchestration technology platforms that utilize direct-connect messaging engines are aggregating and filtering volumes of data in real time. As such, they produce the holistic operational view that decision makers require to improve planning accuracy, optimize the supply chain flow and, thus, improve the overall customer experience. Other benefits can include the ability to shift CapEx spending to OpEx. Dollars once locked up in software licenses, management, infrastructure, and the staff to manage the many IT systems online today can be reallocated to more business-focused activities (like upgrading the ERP system) that benefit top line growth and bottom line savings.

BUSINESS BENEFITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN ORCHESTRATION SOLUTIONS

Top line growth is also increasingly tied to an effective supply chain because customers gain more visibility early in the supply chain cycle and have greater opportunity to react to supply chain disruptions. This makes it easier to deliver on the promises that lead to high customer satisfaction and loyalty. CEOs know this and expect efficient supply chains to help differentiate their businesses and deliver happy, profitable customers.

A cloud-based supply chain orchestration solution that frees up internal IT resources to focus on more business value-add activities increases productivity, frees up capital, and makes the business more responsive to customer demands. In today’s hyper competitive world, this is undeniably an edge that business cannot do without.

For more information about the benefits of supply chain orchestration, please contact us at info@onescm.com

About OneSCM

OneSCM is a pioneer in mobile enterprise data collection, recognized by top enterprises as a leader in optimization and supply chain management. OneSCM drives value by integrating software solutions with multiple ERPs while also anticipating future challenges to innovate and integrate emerging technologies.

OneSCM® is a registered trademarks of Aclate, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their owners.

401 Congress Avenue, Suite 26500 | Austin, TX 78701 | onescm.com

CONCLUSIONGiven that up to 45-50% of a typical manufacturer’s working capital is tied up in their supply chain at any moment, making the supply chain easy to manage, nimble and transparent has a major positive impact to the bottom line.