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TRANSFORMING YOUR GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN EXECUTIONThe impact of globalization is one of the big changes impacting modern businesses. The combination of both digital electronic processes and highly efficient global supply chains has enabled any business to become truly global.

Transforming a global supply chain requires a fully digital solution. Ensuring that all of the key capabilities are digital is essential to deploying a comprehensive and cohesive solution that works interactively. Without that, the organization will be left with bits and pieces that may work well individually, but can’t provide a complete picture without a great deal of manual intervention. The key components of a full digital model include:

Sourcing Logistics Trade Operations Trade Compliance

A fully digital solution spans the entire product lifecycle from concept and design to receipt. Every party – internal and external – needs to be digitized to play their part in the solution. All of the data around products, suppliers, transactions, and movements also needs to be digitized.

Finally, all of the external software systems, like ERP and TMS platforms, need to digitally share data with a single, common platform. The ecosystem is now digital.

Meeting the ‘Be Global’ imperative

Cross-border sales

Cross-border sourcing

62%

69%

FIGURE1. HOW DO YOU EXPECT YOUR COMPANY’S ACTIVITY IN EACH OF THE FOLLOWING AREAS TO CHANGE OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

Percentage responding increase significantly or somewhat

Globalization is viewed as an imperative by nearly all orga-nizations. Being global also introduces a level of complexity that can become daunting if the right processes and tech-nology are not utilized. And getting it right is critical as there is a tidal wave of cross-border activity coming!

The Strategic Imperative for Digitizing the Global Supply Chain Execution Process

Market Pulse

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It is not surprising that there is still much to be done. Deploying a holistic and comprehensive solution that can support an enterprise-wide digital-first strategy is a major undertaking. Engaging a partner such as Amber Road that has a full digital solution is critical to ensure that activities done by individual groups, as is the case for 42% of the respondents, don’t become standalone information or process silos that cannot easily be integrated.

Investments in global supply chain solutions are increasingPerhaps the single most telling measure of interest or intent to deploy a new technology platform is the investment level in it. In this case, more than 80% of the respondents are going to somewhat or substantially increase their investments. In fact, only 4% said they plan to decrease their investment. It is likely that this is a result of poor overall market conditions at those firms, rather than a lack of desire or commitment.

2 OVERCOMING ENTERPRISE AGIL ITY CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

This digital model is not only the basis for transforming the operations of the supply chain, but also the foundation for providing key capabilities that enable more efficient and effective business processes. Best-in-class solutions deliver such key capabilities as collaboration functionality, increased automation, and analytics.

The benefits a digitized global supply chain solution provides are so substantial that organizations deploying this technology will have a fundamental competitive edge in the market. Those that don’t may end up as digital roadkill. Every aspect of the supply chain can now be optimized in a coordinated fashion to derive maximum benefit. Not only are individual activities less resource-intensive, but an integrated solution reveals system-wide savings potential.

Risk is also reduced, with more complete information to stop problems, as well as the ability to identify problems that often occur in the handoff from one step or process to the next. Lastly, with a holistic perspective, supply chain leaders can now quickly identify and eliminate bottlenecks or process problems that reduce agility and flexibility. As a result, the organization can turn on a dime with reduced change cycle times and faster time-to-solution.

THE STATE OF THE CUSTOMER—A SURVEY OF GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSFORMATIONOne of the most common questions from enterprises that are working to transform the supply chain is, “What are companies like mine doing?” The ability to understand what requirements, benefits, and plans these firms have provides highly valuable input. To gather this information, a proprietary survey on this topic was conducted by IDG in March 2018, with 100 completed interviews.

The importance of a “digital-first” strategyThe need for a fully digital solution is outlined above. The vast majority of the respondents to this survey hold this perspective. In fact, not a single respondent said they have “no plans” for a digital-first strategy. And every respondent with $750 million or more in annual revenue is already proceeding with one.

Market Pulse

FIGURE 2. TO WHAT EXTENT HAS YOUR ORGANIZATION ADOPTED A “DIGITAL FIRST” APPROACH TO BUSINESS PROCESSES, OPERATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT POINTS TODAY?

We have made process, operational and/or technology changes on an enterprise-wide scale to support digital transformation

One or more departments or business units have made process, operational and/or technology changes on their own to support digital transformation

We are currently piloting digital technologies

We are creating a digital transformation strategy n=100

n=100

FIGURE 3. HOW DO YOU EXPECT YOUR COMPANY’S LEVEL OF INVESTMENT FOR THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN TO CHANGE OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

Increase significantly

Increase somewhat

No change

Decrease somewhat

Decrease significantly

36%

22%

59%

15%

3%1%

42%

9%

13%

Market Pulse

Smaller organizations (less than $750 million in revenue) are just as focused on investing in this type of solution as their larger brethren. Deploying a truly useful digital supply chain solution isn’t simple, and to maximize the investment, many firms are looking to highly experienced vendor partners to help them succeed.

Primary objectives for a global digital supply chain solutionA digital global supply chain solution can support many different benefits and business objectives. Understanding how a similar group of organizations values these potential benefits provides some insight. However, it should not be forgotten that a best-in-class deployment must provide all of the key features to unlock the true value in the global supply chain execution realm (sourcing, logistics, trade operations, and trade compliance). Incomplete solutions focused only on the headline features are a poor choice. A comprehensive solution helps ensure there are no blind spots or process gaps that would result in inefficiency.

Although respondents said revenue growth is their primary objective, the importance of lower costs/higher margins has a larger combined percentage. This finding aligns with anecdotal information that indicates most organizations believe there are substantial inefficiencies (higher costs) in their current solution. Efficiency drives revenue. A more efficient business can develop systems for pricing flexibility, which can increase revenue. An efficient supply chain results in fewer stock-outs, thereby increasing revenue. Finally, an efficient supply chain can better meet customer demand, which also increases revenue.

It is also important to identify the functional benefits a company can expect from transforming their global supply chain execution processes. While the big-picture items are easy to identify, the consistent importance of many

operational benefits (collaboration, agility, sourcing, security, innovation) are noteworthy given that the question focused on primary benefits. The five functional benefits above are all critical components of a digital business. Both singularly and combined, they improve daily operations and enable the business to better compete. It is worth noting that for larger companies in the sample (more than $750 million in revenue) both collaboration and agility scored almost 50% higher as measured by percentage of respondents.

Two things stand out in the above chart. First, all of the top three options are similarly popular. While the response to cross-border sales is slightly higher than either trade or sourcing, the difference is not substantial. The other noteworthy finding is that nearly all of the respondents expect cross-border activity to increase, while less than 5% expect a decrease.

Technologies driving next-generation solutionsThe survey asked what specific technologies will be most important for supporting the global supply chain management strategy. It is not surprising that the ability to get more value from existing data by using analytic techniques is the most common choice. Supply chain is just one area of the modern digital business that will be driven by analytics. Automation-centric technologies also scored well, as expanding the automation continuum is an important part of being digital. Solutions that don’t have the automation, collaboration, and analytics capabilities needed to support a digital business should not be considered.

HOW AMBER ROAD DELIVERS ON THE PROMISE OF A DIGITAL GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINAmber Road is an industry leader, providing best-in-class, digital global supply chain management solutions that have been proven in real-world deployments. With decades of

FIGURE 4. WHAT ARE YOUR COMPANY’S PRIMARY OBJECTIVES WITH RESPECT TO GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN/TRADE MANAGEMENT OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

3 OVERCOMING ENTERPRISE AGIL ITY CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Grow revenue

Lower costs

Increase profit margins

Improve collaboration/information sharing

Increase agility/flexibility to adapt to market changes

Optimizing sourcing decisions

Mitigate security and compliance risk

Enable innovation

Increase efficiency and productivity through automation

Integrate data silos/improve visibility into operations of partners & suppliers

46%

35%

31%

22%

22%

21%

20%

19%

19%

13%

Market Pulse

experience in this specific discipline, the company has the strategic understanding to deliver a comprehensive solution that meets current and future requirements. The company is a leader in transforming global supply chain execution processes for organizations in every industry.

The hallmark of the company’s offering is a solution with broad and deep functionality that covers the entire global supply chain operation, not just pieces or segments of it. Their comprehensive solution includes all three key components of a global digital supply chain: sourcing, logistics, and trade. Further, the solution delivers the collaboration, automation, and analytics functions that position the customer for success.

Unique capabilities and differentiators help Amber Road stand apart from their competitors. These include:

A broad and deep holistic solution footprint spanning global supply chain execution processes

Integrated management of country-specific trade regulations to provide automated validation and ensure compliance with dynamically changing rules across the globe

Highly experienced and knowledgeable implemen- tation and support teams that have the deep knowledge and expertise to inform and support an organization’s needs

A prebuilt supply chain network that provides an important head start for achieving real digital collaboration

A highly configurable and flexible architecture to ensure that the customer is able to meet their specific needs without creating a custom solution.

Documented Tier 1 cloud hosting services to maintain the highest levels of confidentiality and reliability.

KEY TAKEAWAYSAs the level of competition among businesses increases to a fever pitch, digital technologies have become the difference maker. This is also true within the global supply chain execution realm. Unfortunately, not every supply chain solution is truly a digital solution. To meet the digital-first imperative, you need a completely digital platform. Digitizing the global supply chain not only improves internal operations and capabilities, but also creates a competitive edge when designed and deployed effectively. As you start or continue your project, now is the time to make the best decisions that will yield the future benefits your organization requires.

Choosing the right solution partner is Job#1. The most critical capabilities for success that these solutions must include are:

1. A robust platform covering the broad capabilities associated with cross-border execution (sourcing, logistics, trade operations, and trade compliance)

2. Integrated digital trade regulations3. A highly configurable architecture 4. An experienced implementation and support team

It is also important to ensure that your solution fosters collaboration, increases automation levels to drive efficiency, and delivers the dashboards and analytics to inform decision making. Limited or partial solutions will create problems and bottlenecks.

For more information on how you can make the best decisions for your digital global supply chain project, please click here.

4 OVERCOMING ENTERPRISE AGIL ITY CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

FIGURE 5. HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE FOLLOWING TECHNOLOGIES AS PART OF YOUR ORGANIZATION’S GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT STRATEGY OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

Data analytics/data visualization

Software automation

Data integration

Business rule automation and management

IoT (“Internet of Things”)

Blockchain technology

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Machine learning

70%

62%

61%

57%

57%

53%

51%

50%

Percentage responding critical or very important