First and foremost, the fragmented, top-down model of siloed data across functions within business organizations is leaving critical revenue and efficiencies on the table. A single, trusted source of standardized, structured company-wide data can reveal areas where parts or materials might be shared, shipping might be consolidated to lower costs or reduce trips and fuel consumption, product design might be simplified, and so on. And with 80% of supply chain-related data now generated externally by upstream and downstream partners, third-party providers and devices, strategic decisions made internally and dictated out to the supply base and channel partners can be costly.

An ability for internal functions and external partners to share information in real time and collaborate on matters ranging from sourcing to production to delivery to after-sale service and asset management, is increasingly critical. Collaboration is essential as sustainability and commercial objectives are integrated with overall business rules and strategy.

Connectivity is essential to visibility, but that visibility must be actionable — to sense and respond quickly to disruption, but also to uncover patterns in orders, production processes and shipping that affect performance and costs. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are already embedded in many supply chain technology solutions, to provide operators analytics support in managing massive data volumes and decision-making complexity. 

SAP Digital Supply Chain, a division of German enterprise resource planning software giant SAP SE, is a cloud-based supply chain-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform offering end-to-end, fully integrated modular solutions to companies of all sizes. Join SAP DSC for a look at 2024 must-haves and reasons why.  

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