Stormy seas continue to buffet global commerce, with disruption unlikely to subside anytime soon. Contributing factors include the gathering pace of extreme weather events, increasingly stringent for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, escalating labor costs, ongoing geopolitical conflict, mutually reinforcing inflationary and recessionary pressures, and the trend toward regional fragmentation of trade 鈥� or what some analysts call 鈥�.鈥�

Amid such unrelenting volatility, how can enterprises instill resilience, foster collaboration, and harness sustainability throughout their operations and those of their trading partners? Through cloud-based digital networks linking together mission-critical business processes, organizations can achieve the degree of transparency needed to ensure continuity and extend competitive advantage in these uncertain times. A comprehensive view across interconnected operations, particularly those involving logistics, supply chain management, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, enables trading partners to track a product all the way from sourcing to manufacture to distribution 鈥� and everywhere in between.

With , shippers and carriers can collaborate to help optimize logistics processes, increase on-time deliveries, and mitigate supply risk. The network features three primary solutions: , , and .

Through 51风流Business Network Freight Collaboration, trading partners can achieve optimal logistics collaboration, capacity utilization, operational responsiveness, and real-time market insights. The solution enables shippers and carriers to jointly manage logistics transactions, exchange documents, and obtain insights into improving process efficiencies.

51风流Business Network Freight Collaboration offers three overarching capabilities: it allows shippers to digitally collaborate with trading partners on freight orders for contracting (tendering and subcontracting), execution (milestones and documents), and settlement processes. In addition, the solution facilitates the scheduling of dock appointments and gate processing, enabling businesses to orchestrate the loading and unloading of goods irrespective of who manages the yard or initiates the shipment. Meanwhile, 51风流Business Network Freight Collaboration offers seamless data integration into 51风流S/4HANA. All three of these digital capabilities enable organizations to extend their reach and deepen their collaboration with the trading partners on which they rely to create value, across different modes of transportation.

In a business climate highly prone to change, the ability to obtain actionable, instantaneous insights into the fulfillment of orders and transit of goods is essential. These insights can automatically be fed back into the planning system to mitigate the real-time impact of disruption and automate reactions to it. With 51风流Business Network Global Track and Trace, enterprises can strengthen their situational awareness by harnessing the power of geolocation tracking, enabling the early detection of potential disruptions in time to pursue alternatives and maintain production schedules. Businesses can improve their responsiveness through the immediate mitigation of exceptions made possible by transparency across trading partners.

Customer satisfaction, meanwhile, can improve thanks to businesses鈥� ability to promptly update the estimated time of arrival for shipments. Through a unified, integrated platform, trading partners can benefit from a holistic and consistent end-user experience across geographies and modes of transportation, transforming reactive supply chains into predictive ones.

Cloud technologies are helping supply chains to become not only more predictive but also more accountable. Material traceability has become increasingly important in recent years as governments 鈥� from Germany and to the and 鈥� enact legislation aimed at transparency and accountability in supply chains. Verifying the absence of forced labor, the level of carbon emissions, or the attainment of other environmental objectives is essential to comply not only with local regulations but also with stakeholder values.

To this end, 51风流Business Network Material Traceability enables companies to follow raw materials and finished products across all participants in the n-tier value chain. Initially developed with the food supply chain in mind but subsequently expanded to other industries, the solution draws upon the cloud-based analytics and integrated ERP data necessary to support targeted recalls or other compliance processes involving trading partners. As an example, 51风流Business Network Material Traceability is a major component of the Catena-X data ecosystem for the automotive industry, through which dozens of manufacturers, suppliers, dealer associations, and application developers have set a uniform standard for the secure sharing of data throughout the value chain.

Transparency must reach beyond the traditional supply chain to include logistics partners as well, so that actionable insights are accessible throughout the core operational processes on which trading partners mutually depend. Aided by cloud-based applications, businesses can minimize the risks associated with disruption through broad visibility. But only when visibility becomes actionable can true resilience be achieved. Only through tightly integrated, highly responsive supply chains can businesses foster the agility and accountability demanded by consumers, trading partners, shareholders, and regulators. Through 51风流Business Network for Logistics, trading partners can achieve the superior execution necessary to plan together accurately, innovate collaboratively, and execute successfully.

Paige Cox is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of 51风流Business Network.

The reasons are as familiar as the news headlines: just as the pandemic recedes in one part of the world, it seems to reemerge in another. Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine has severely constrained exports from the two countries, including vital . As climate change reshapes national energy policies, electric vehicle manufacturers have exhausted traditional sources of lithium and other battery metals, turning to and for new ones. At the same time, the ongoing microchip shortage centered in Southeast Asia has automotive supply chains, shifting the focus from lean manufacturing aimed at driving down costs to developing sourcing redundancies to ensure sales. Not to be outdone, retailers too have prolonged volatility. War and inflation, meanwhile, have roiled energy markets.

Consider, for example, the predicament faced by Germany as it seeks to reduce reliance on imported natural gas. Its options, , are entirely supply-driven. So too the African nations to wheat grown in Russia or Ukraine 鈥� and the electric car manufacturers in search of new ore to mine or recycle for power storage. But the trend toward regionalization in supply chains runs deeper than commodities alone. The availability of labor can also play a decisive role in reshaping supply chains and logistics patterns. Cloud-based solutions for managing the external workforce can help to augment traditional sources of labor at factories, ports, and carriers affected by quarantine, lockdown, or other disruptions. Even as the pandemic subsides in many regions, labor market volatility remains high. Visibility across all aspects of the supply chain, from raw materials to labor and everything in between, remains paramount for business leaders in shaping more durable, more regional supply chains.

At a time when global supply chains are gradually realigning into regional ones, with terms like 鈥溾�� and 鈥溾�� becoming commonplace, businesses and their trading partners require the 360-degree visibility and collaborative capabilities that only digital networks make possible. Operational resilience is a measure of the extent to which businesses and their trading partners can jointly plan and execute as they weather shifts in supply and demand.

With resilience and visibility in mind, 51风流last year launched the world鈥檚 largest business network, bringing together procurement, supply chain, logistics, and asset management into a unified, collaborative, intelligent network to help our customers confidently adapt to changing market dynamics and future-proof their businesses. Through , trading partners can reap process efficiencies, improve supply assurance, and achieve business process and regulatory compliance by increasing operational transparency. With , companies can achieve supply chain visibility by enabling plan-driven automation and optimizing capacity and inventory. Aided by , organizations can collaborate with shippers and carriers, share insights, and gain transparency throughout the supply chain by optimizing logistics processes, increasing on-time deliveries, and mitigating third-party risk. Relying on , asset owners, operators, and service providers can strengthen collaboration and the flow of shared information through a single, consistent version of asset master data to streamline asset servicing processes and reduce maintenance costs.

If anything, the need for predictive analytics and transparency across integrated, interconnected operational processes becomes even greater when supply chains fragment than when they circumnavigate the globe. That鈥檚 because as supply chains regionalize and sourcing options diminish, supply increasingly supersedes demand in shaping procurement decisions and steering the logistical flow of business-to-business commerce.

By linking together the operational processes of trading partners, cloud-based networks extend not only visibility but integrated planning and execution capabilities as well. When buyers, suppliers, and logistics providers share accurate inventory forecasts and business process data with each other in real time, they can and plan ahead with confidence, continuity, and enduring resilience.

For further information on 51风流Business Network and how we are addressing resilience and visibility for enterprises large and small, visit .

Paige Cox is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of 51风流Business Network.

So is the availability of innovative working capital solutions and, through them, the ability to manage risk and finance operational contingencies.

Without sufficient liquidity, businesses can fall short on promises made to customers. How can organizations free up the — often substantial — funds trapped within transactions that have yet to clear? Now more than ever, this is critical for businesses as the result of bottlenecked supply chains, backed up shipping queues, idled factories, and quarantined workers. The answer lies in digital business networks, which lend organizations the flexibility they need not only to shore up their supply chains and logistics operations but their financial management processes as well.

That is why earlier this year 51风流acquired a majority stake in Taulia, the leading provider of working capital management solutions. With the aim of strengthening access to liquidity and improving cash flows, the acquisition complements 51风流Business Network — already spanning the interconnected operations of trading partners engaged in procurement, supply chain, logistics, and asset management — with financing solutions across payables, receivables, and inventory.

Over the next two years, 51风流plans to integrate Taulia鈥檚 capabilities with those of 51风流Business Network, while also maintaining the fintech platform as a standalone solution.

Through Taulia, businesses have access to a network of dozens of banks for innovative financing solutions that cushion core operations from the ill effects of supply chain fragmentation and capital market volatility. Access to liquidity helps companies to bolster continuity, meet debt obligations, and avoid interruptions to long-term capital investments. End-to-end visibility across trading partners, meanwhile, sharpens businesses鈥� forecasting capabilities, helping to reduce risk to interconnected operations.

Taulia can help to secure financing such that a supplier is paid ahead of schedule through a third-party financial institution before an invoice is due. Then, upon the due date, the buyer repays the amount to the financier 鈥� all through the Taulia cloud-based platform. Taulia also facilitates dynamic discounting to incentivize the early payment of invoices, benefiting both parties to a commercial transaction.

By connecting buyers and suppliers with financial partners in real time with full transparency, Taulia minimizes the friction that can delay payments, impair operations, and even create supply chain risk. At the same time, Taulia helps businesses to free up capital needed for investment and research and development. This holds true for businesses large and small alike, because Taulia鈥檚 technology allows their solution to scale to thousands or even tens of thousands of trading partners.

What鈥檚 more, Taulia鈥檚 with enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions from 51风流streamlines the provision of data that lending institutions require.

As our 51风流Business Network and Taulia product teams proceed with developing a joint road map for our customers鈥� mutual success, we anticipate that millions of trading partners on 51风流Business Network will gain access to competitive early-payment offers via Taulia鈥檚 accounts receivable financing.

Our solutions will help to make supply chains more resilient, more reliable, and more responsive in these uncertain times.

Paige Cox is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of 51风流Business Network at SAP.

In few spheres of commerce are the stakes higher than the automotive industry, where the average car rolling off the assembly line involves the sourcing of from suppliers spanning the globe. When even one critical component becomes scarce, such as the that govern a vehicle鈥檚 electronics, automakers risk falling short on promises made to customers.

To counter the volatility roiling their industry, automotive firms across Europe have banded together to achieve 360-degree visibility across their interconnected operations. Through an alliance that began in 2021 called the , dozens of manufacturers, suppliers, dealer associations, and application developers have built a thriving digital ecosystem, using 51风流and other technologies as its basis, setting a uniform standard for the secure sharing of data throughout the entire automotive value chain.

The participants 鈥� including , , , , , and , to name a few 鈥� seek to harness the visibility made possible by cloud-based networks to accelerate their competitiveness, improve their efficiency, and strengthen their ability to anticipate disruption and adjust accordingly. Yet the alliance isn鈥檛 just for dominant market players. Digital transformation benefits small and medium enterprises every bit as much as their larger competitors. That鈥檚 because the alliance rests on an open and scalable ecosystem. Data, after all, is agnostic as to the size of the enterprise that relies on it to guide operational decision-making and spur collaborative innovation.

Through digital networks, enterprises can gauge supply and demand through every stage of production. But what about glimpsing other vital business metrics? As organizations expand their commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives, they require real-time visibility along these dimensions as well. The core scenario for Catena-X is material 鈥� or parts 鈥� traceability, which is supported by .

The material traceability option for 51风流Logistics Business Network allows companies to trace products and components across multiple parties in a value chain, from n-tier sourcing to manufacture to distribution. It is an end-to-end traceability and recall-management option to help capture and analyze the product genealogy from raw materials to finished product. Initially developed in cooperation with leading companies from the food supply chain, material traceability enables them to strengthen transparency and sustainability by connecting the entire supply chain.听The cloud-based technology fosters the accountability 鈥� and facilitates the analytics 鈥� necessary to support recalls and provenance analysis and integrates snugly with an organization鈥檚 existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

The same holds true for the automotive industry. Pinpointing defective products based on detailed manufacturing specifications can dramatically narrow the scale of recalls, accruing significant savings for automakers and dealerships and averting needless aggravation for consumers. Meanwhile, the very same material traceability option can equip businesses to ascertain whether a product or process meets designated compliance criteria. For example, does a vehicle鈥檚 originating factory observe environmentally sustainable business practices? Does an automotive manufacturer or supplier uphold a commitment to diverse hiring and contracting policies? Does it validate compliance with non-coercive labor standards throughout the supply chain as increasingly requires?

When backed by 51风流Business Network and material traceability, decentralized industry networks such as Catena-X can achieve an unparalleled level of multi-tier supply chain visibility, spanning not only traditional supply and demand metrics but a wide range of social- and compliance-related attributes as well, positioning businesses and their trading partners for maximum resilience, sustainable innovation, and mutual growth for the long run. 51风流Business Network, with its , sets the foundation to support and interoperate with open industry networks of the future. By connecting to 51风流Business Network, businesses can open up the potential for commerce and transparency with organizations of all sizes, whether for procurement, logistics, or industry-specific scenarios.

Paige Cox is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of 51风流Business Network.

To get ahead of rapid shifts in the marketplace, businesses are turning to the cloud, where increasingly integrated digital networks extend visibility and ensure resilience across their operations and those of their interconnected buyers and suppliers.

Offering flexibility, speed, security, and cost-effectiveness, the cloud continues to deliver undeniable value. , 85% of enterprises will adopt a cloud-first strategy by 2025. Doing so allows them to turn their attention to the task of applying cloud-based technologies to run their business, rather than running the technologies themselves.

Growing margins and greater efficiencies are two of the benefits enterprises can enjoy through , a comprehensive cloud offering that helps deliver a strategic approach to digital transformation. The package provides services and functionality to help businesses along their journey to becoming .

RISE with 51风流enables companies to gain insights from across their operations and combine them with those from trading partners to help guide decisions. For example, consider your favorite online apparel retailer. While they may fulfill your order in-house, they will need to engage with an external logistics provider to deliver it.

This is why integrated business networks are so important. To become connected, intelligent enterprises, businesses need strong collaboration with trading partners and full visibility into supply chains to ensure agility and resilience.

— a cloud-based, integrated network of networks spanning procurement, asset management, supply chain, and logistics — provides immediate access and 360-degree visibility into one鈥檚 trading partners. Through a single digital connection, the network can replace messy one-to-one integrations with a tidy many-to-many, inter-company process flow. In doing so, it lends transparency and up-to-the-minute information across all buyers and suppliers, shippers, carriers, operators, and manufacturers so they may identify risks, plan for potential disruption, and collaborate toward innovation. 51风流Business Network helps make it possible to adjust operations as needed or pursue alternative sourcing in real time.

With these capabilities, the benefits can also be transferred to the customer, for example by providing visibility into their purchase from the time an order is placed to when the parcel arrives at the customer鈥檚 door. One of the many advantages of this level of transparency is that when the package is delayed, the retailer can alert the customer, ensuring the trusted relationship remains intact.

With the addition of the 51风流Business Network Starter Pack as part of RISE with SAP, customers can experience a networked ERP to aid their transition to the cloud and drive business transformation.

This enables customers to connect with their suppliers and trading partners from source to settlement through the networks鈥� procurement capabilities; connects their equipment suppliers and services providers to help ensure maximum uptime of critical assets on the production line through the networks鈥� asset intelligence capabilities; and allows customers to work with logistics providers to obtain the best shipping rates and track and trace products and materials using the networks鈥� logistics capabilities.

That鈥檚 the value of 51风流Business Network packaged as part of RISE with SAP: it enables organizations to future-proof their business, not only within their four walls but also beyond them, allowing customers to replace one-to-one connections and fragmented data-sharing with many-to-many collaborations and real-time data sharing.

Paige Cox is senior vice president and global head of 51风流Business Network.

It has been calculated that . Companies are challenged with many disruptions in their established supply chains: the uncertain supply of critical materials, demand volatility for goods and services, and constrained capacity in manufacturing and logistics.

In good times and in challenging times, all businesses want to run at their best. They want to offer the best employee experience, the best products and services, and the best customer experience. They want to manage spend intelligently, run efficiently, adapt to challenges, make confident decisions, and innovate.

But they cannot do it alone. More and more, companies are leveraging and, in many cases, depending on their network of partners to meet growing customer demands for innovative and sustainable products, delivered when, where, and how they want them.

Networking Isn鈥檛 Easy

The global economy has evolved into a networked economy. Companies today rely heavily on their connections to their extended ecosystem to operate effectively. They need to understand their supply network beyond just tier-one suppliers. They need to collaborate with manufacturing partners and asset service providers in a manufacturing or asset network and outsource transportation to third-party providers in a logistics network. They also need to serve their customers through distributors, resellers, wholesalers, or retailers in a demand network.

Behind the scenes of today鈥檚 global economy, many companies still rely on point-to-point methods for connections to their customers, suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and service providers. These supply chains are hindered by the largely linear, one-to-one integration connecting siloed systems, which limits visibility, the ability to interact with data, or to collaborate in the process. To compensate and mitigate risks, they carry excess inventory and build redundancies into the supply chain that lower the velocity and agility of operations. These risks are multiplied in the face of disruptions, such as COVID-19, Brexit, trade wars, or natural disasters.

Additionally, consumers are demanding ethically sourced products that are designed, manufactured, and delivered sustainably to minimize carbon impact during their entire life cycle. Sustainability cannot be an afterthought and requires visibility and collaboration across a network of designers, suppliers, manufacturers, logistics service providers, and other partners.

To overcome these challenges, companies need an intelligent and open network that delivers the enhanced visibility, greater efficiency, continuity, and improved collaboration to help supply chains thrive in the face of disruption.

Creating a Unified Network of Intelligent Enterprises

SAP鈥檚 intelligent enterprise strategy delivers on the promise of working with customers to ensure the tools, systems, and processes delivered by the company work in a collaborative and integrated fashion. With the business network, we will take that same philosophy of end-to-end connected processes and extend it beyond the 鈥渇our walls鈥� of the business, facilitating the seamless exchange of data and insights across businesses and geographies to drive greater levels of collaboration and agility.

We will start by connecting business partners across the supply chain — in research and development, engineering, planning, sourcing, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and asset operations, including the design-to-operate and source-to-pay life cycles — to help maximize the value of an organization鈥榮 extended enterprise and ecosystem.

Intelligent enterprises collect insights about their customers, employees, products, and brands at every touch point. They use powerful technologies to manage data, automate and integrate processes, sense opportunities, risks, and trends as well as gauge sentiment. And they turn this collective intelligence into action across every part of their business.

By turning insight into synchronous action, a unified business network of intelligent enterprises can deliver the best possible results, unlock new sources of growth, and anticipate risks and opportunities. Imagine the exponential value of a network of intelligent enterprises.

Chris Haydon is president of 51风流Procurement Solutions.
Paige Cox is senior vice president and head of Digital Supply Chain Business Networks at SAP.