Bengaluru, July 25, 2024: In recent years, India has solidified its position as an emerging global economic power, thanks to a burgeoning consumer market and demands to de-risk global supply chains. Digital technology is vital to enable efficient, reliable, and sustainable supply chains and is core to India鈥檚 ambitions to increase its participation in global value chains from ~40% to ~50%. In line with this, the solution is designed to securely exchange standardized sustainability data, including product footprints, along the value chain. The solution allows companies to effectively exchange carbon emissions with their customers to help companies get actionable insights into Scope 3 emissions by moving from averages to actual supplier data.

Commenting on the announcement, Manish Prasad, President & Managing Director, 51风流Indian Subcontinent, said, “To propel India as a global manufacturing leader, a robust supply chain and logistics infrastructure is vital. To expedite India’s ambitious vision of being among the top supply chain hubs, it is crucial to integrate technologies like business network platforms and local data centres underpinned by Cloud and AI. At SAP, we are committed to this vision and are working with Indian enterprises, startups, and the wider ecosystem to promote transparent, efficient, and sustainable business value chains.”

As a part of the company鈥檚 ongoing efforts to to help enterprises build resilient supply chains, 51风流also unveiled a study, in association with Economist Impact exploring how businesses and industries are transforming procurement to meet existing and emerging challenges amid disrupted supply chains, rising costs, and growing uncertainty.

Some of the key trends among businesses indicate:

• Digitalization 鈥� the #1 business priority: Digitalization remains the topmost priority for businesses, aligning with India鈥檚 vision to create reliable and efficient global supply chains听through the use of digital technologies.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the forefront: Digitalization, as the top priority, is being partly influenced by advances in automation technology, AI, and Gen AI, the top technology trend businesses are looking to implement over the next 12 to 18 months.
• Procurement鈥檚 green thumb: Legislation and compliance requirements around sustainability standards, supply chain transparency, emissions, and resource efficacies, are exerting pressures on businesses, particularly on procurement teams to meet the organization鈥檚 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

Ashwani Narang, Vice President & Head of Spend Management, 51风流India, added, 鈥�51风流has been working with customers, partners, and the Indian government for years to support the vision of a 鈥楧igital India.鈥� 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange, coupled with multiple solutions available听at a local听India-based data center听we announced last year, will help our Indian customers bolster听supply chain resilience, transforming them into intelligent, sustainable, and future-ready businesses.鈥�

The post 51风流Helps Strengthen India鈥檚 Supply Chain Through Digital Technologies appeared first on 51风流India News Center.

Contract manufacturing is different

One relevant question is: What about contract manufacturing? How does synchronized planning apply to companies that outsource their manufacturing?

Take for instance, the high-tech industry. Most companies that make computers and other high-tech devices are essentially design and brand owners who work with oversees partners to build the products they sell. For these companies, their relationship to execution is different. They don鈥檛 necessarily require the linkages that connect the boardroom to the shop floor within their own enterprise.

Nevertheless, they cannot afford to abandon oversight with their trading partners. If they want their brand to thrive, they need ways to monitor manufacturing progress, ensure quality, and coordinate activities around logistics.

Collaborating with your business network

This is where the importance of business networks comes into play. Today鈥檚 globally dispersed supply chains require digital, standardized ways for connecting to and working with partners all over the world.

Business networks that connect trading partners in a many-to-many way offer this at much higher scalability and efficiency. And because the global economy is increasingly subject to shocks such as COVID, Brexit, or natural disasters, these business networks need to be flexible enough to support new plans as they鈥檙e modified, onboard new trading partners quickly, and unlock additional content to collaborate on.

Speed and efficiency are of the essence. Think of business networks like the 鈥渃ontent aware鈥� internet of business relationships. Organizations want to connect once and then share business data in real time with any trading partner they are dealing with, potentially over multiple tiers. For a brand owner connecting with a contract manufacturer and their suppliers, this means dozens of data objects that need to be exposed and shared.

In this context, outdated peer-to-peer data connections like electronic data interchange (EDI), flat files, e-mails, and dedicated portals require too much effort to build and maintain. They鈥檙e brittle when it comes to changing business dynamics. For suppliers, such approaches meant that you need to adapt to different brand owners鈥� proprietary way of connecting. Business networks take that work away. You connect once and are ready to do business with anyone else on the network adopting a common data model (canonical).

Based in the cloud, business networks provide a standardized way to share data and collaborate. Finding and onboarding new suppliers and partners is accelerated. Business networks can also support complex, multi-tier supply chain relationships that may include third party logistics providers and distribution partners.

Take for instance the making of a strategic subcomponent 鈥� like a high-end camera in a laptop computer. The brand owner in this case might want to work with a specialized vendor to manufacture the camera to detailed specifications and then dropship it to the primary contract manufacturer, who then adds it to the laptop. Business networks can support such arrangements with visibility for all parties involved.

Orchestration in real-time

We can also think of business networks as real-time orchestration platforms that enable integrated business planning across globally dispersed supply chain partners. Integrated business planning brings together all the functions in the design-to-operate lifecycle. Phases of this lifecycle include design, manufacturing, logistics and operations 鈥� with the planning function interfused throughout.

Organizations can use business networks to incorporate demand signals into the plan, make design changes that reflect what customers want, manage the handoff to manufacturing, run the associated logistics, and even track the product during the operations phase 鈥� from delivery to the customer to the support and warranty phase. With data sharing, real-time visibility, collaboration tools, and communications, a business network should enable an organization to orchestrate all the activities from design to operate to deliver better experiences to customers.

Synchronization made possible

With improved abilities to orchestrate planning and execution activities throughout the supply chain, organizations can also use business networks to support synchronized planning across enterprise boundaries. Collaboration with partners and access to data and insight makes for better long-term strategic planning and represents a win-win situation between trading partners. Easy onboarding and flexible ways to connect with new partners helps with mid- and long-term plan corrections. And when it comes to execution, real-time visibility and tracking can help ensure that plans go off without a hitch. The result is better agility for responding to change.

The post The Value of Synchronize Planning with Manufacturers appeared first on 51风流India News Center.

The global health crisis also highlighted the weaknesses of traditional workflows in management and logistics: Manual, paper-based processes; siloed working and undefined roles; disparate and unstructured data; low or zero visibility of the end-to-end supply chain and logistics; lack of real-time monitoring, etc.

In the eye of the storm

The disruption also forced companies to relook their supply chain function end-to-end and figure out long-term measures to build resilience and agility. For instance, customers will continue to demand more in less time even after the pandemic is gone. But for companies to cope with this customer expectation, a drastic rethink of their supply chain management and logistics (SCML) is a must.

Here鈥檚 where technology plays a pivotal role, not only to provide intelligence and insights but also to enable new operational models. And Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data analytics, and blockchain are some of the technologies that are rapidly redefining how SCML systems work.

How Supply Chain Heads are using AI and IoT

A well-managed supply chain is a crucial factor to gain advantage over the competition, especially in the present era where supply chains are intricate, spread worldwide, and decentralized. So, if AI earlier was only helping to address skills shortage and maintain inventories, the flexibility and adaptability of this technology is now allowing supply chain heads to be more innovative. From improving production planning to making more accurate forecasts, AI is allowing companies to minimize or eliminate errors completely.

AI, coupled with IoT, would allow supply chain heads to monitor and manage storage, transportation, supply chains, and warehouses efficiently and in real-time, without having to be physically present. These technologies also allow for planning and monitoring movement of goods so that unforeseen events (read pandemic, adverse weather conditions) can be managed well in advance.

Other immediate benefits of adopting digitalization and new technologies include:

• Smart scheduling and planning,
• Parameter optimization,
• Intelligent and proactive quality analysis,
• Proactive maintenance,
• Efficient analysis of maintenance and production costs along with precise estimation and control,
• Intelligent control of energy consumption and associated costs, and
• Real-time monitoring of production process and procedures.

What鈥檚 Next in SCML

As mentioned earlier,听traditional SCML systems have now proven to be struggling with ever-changing customer demand, rapidly evolving operations planning, and the constantly changing state of business processes.

In 2022, these technologies aim to overcome all these challenges more effectively through a range of activities including providing sales, production and consumption forecasting, supplier selection, and demand management using Artificial Neural Networks. These technologies would help businesses become proactive with capabilities like agent-based systems, which perceive the surrounding environment and can act autonomously and proactively solve certain problems.

Next year, AI and IoT are also expected to help businesses through improved supply chain efficiency implemented by using better managerial decision-making processes, including multi-objective optimization of supply chain networks, partner selection in green supply chain problems, multi-product supply chain networks, and a problem-solving approach to closed-loop supply chains.

Augmented Intelligence along with AI is expected to spike in use as it would help reduce manual effort, helping companies optimize costs while increasing worker productivity. According to听, it can create $2.9 trillion worth of business value and lead to an increase of 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally. By 2030, AI/Augmented intelligence is expected to surpass all other forms of AI initiatives. Essentially, this means professionals can do their work faster, reducing errors and saving costs.

IoT sensor technology will continue to play important roles and expand on its use cases. This technology helps track shipments. Connected IoT devices on consignments allow warehouses to track inventory, vehicles, and equipment through cloud services. Collaboration between IoT start-ups and container shipping companies are expected to increase next year given the inherent benefits, including real-time monitoring and predictive capabilities.

The need for real-time data will only increase. From gauging customer sentiments and trends to ensuring timely deliveries, data will play a critical role in deriving intelligent insights that drive strategic decisions.听Machine learning-enabled risk assessment tools, for instance, can find patterns in geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic shifts, exchange rates, and other data.

According to听, IoT is important because emerging supply chain techniques need the freshest, most accurate data. And being able to predict consumer shifts, more than demand, will become increasingly important post-pandemic.

The Experience Economy and Changing Paradigm

The consumer, today, no longer stops expecting once a good is purchased. The demand continues long after 鈥� the customer experience has become critical and sustaining a good customer experience has become central to this theme. But for businesses grappling with supply chain disruptions, how can sustaining good customer experience be a real possibility?

Digitalization of supply chain management and logistics allows this: where processes and systems that support mass personalization can be deployed; where collaboration with non-traditional ecosystem partners makes it possible to deliver higher value, and where efficient order fulfillment and delivery become par for the course.

Moving Ahead with SAP

The 51风流digital supply chain management (DSCM) software allows enterprises to move from transactional SCLM to a digital, sustainable, strategy-led approach that will help them counteract unforeseen disruptions with agility and data-driven insights.

51风流offers听听software and tools, that allow for:

• Real-time insights into the supply chain,
• Identifying bottlenecks, and
• Mitigating risks as they arise with on-premises and cloud logistics management systems from SAP.

An integrated cloud-ready portfolio allows:

• Collaborative supply chain network
• Integrating business planning
• Optimizing inventory
• Procurement and supplier management
• Predictive analytics, AI, and Machine Learning
• Sustainably plan for ethically sourced material

And all these are achieved through predictive analytics, automation, and IoT capabilities, enabling resilient and sustainable supply chain management processes.

Specialized programs for various aspects of the supply chain management and logistics systems from 51风流also give businesses a large number of options to choose from, depending on their needs. These programs include the following:

1. 听provides real-time visibility into transportation resources to allow businesses to fulfill their customer demands at minimal cost. The program integrates advanced analytics on historic data with forecasting capabilities to accurately forecast and monitor resource supply and demand.
2. 听is a program that allows a business to manage high-volume warehouse operations and integrate complex supply chain logistics with warehouse and distribution processes. Businesses can optimize inbound logistics management, storage and operations, and outbound logistics management.
3. 听is an open logistics network that connects business partners for intercompany collaboration and insights. It provides a central entry point to manage logistics transactions, exchange documents with key business partners, and gain transparency across the complete value chain through an open 鈥榥etwork of networks鈥� strategy. It also allows for freight logistics collaboration, global track and trace options to monitor purchase, sales, and delivery fulfillment, as well as helping notify stakeholders of changes; and cross-company real-time alerts and notifications for product issues that also streamlines recalls.
4. 听program helps businesses run more efficient and profitable supply chain logistics to maximize visibility into all yard processes and preview planned workloads with a range of visualization and reporting tools.
5. 听program helps reduce transportation complexity by integrating fleet and logistics management throughout the business鈥� network. The program also provides real-time visibility into global transportation and domestic shipping across all transportation modes and industries.

As companies now demand greater agility in their supply chain processes and practices, they are beginning to realize that digital transformation is a necessity. There鈥檚 no getting away from the fact that global value chains are here to stay for good, but supply chain heads will need to juggle the demand for agility and efficiency with sustainability mandates while making a steady recovery from COVID-induced afflictions.

Supply chain sustainability means being able to manage environmental, social, and economic impacts with good governance practices. And here鈥檚 where 51风流DSCM can help. By adopting an end-to-end sustainability mission as part of its solution strategy (from design to decommissioning)听听ensures that the key principles of sustainability are embedded in it. This ultimately addresses the three areas customers focus on 鈥損eople, planet, and profit.

The post Harness AI & IoT to Build Supply Chain Resilience and Agility in 2022 appeared first on 51风流India News Center.

The company also announced a number of new innovations to help customers transform business processes, drive improved performance and run their best.

Highlights of these planned innovations include:

Business Process Intelligence Solutions Now Offer 51风流Process Insights

As part of the听听(BPI) portfolio, the 51风流Process Insights solution enables organizations to analyze and improve their real-world business processes. EY, Deloitte and Infosys Limited are the initial strategic partners working with the BPI portfolio from 51风流to help organizations transform. To learn more, read 鈥�51风流Announces New 51风流Process Insights Solution for Quick and Easy Understanding of How Well Processes Perform.鈥�

Verify, a New 51风流Concur Feature, Uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Simplify Expense Auditing

The Verify service, a new feature of听, uses AI and machine learning to automatically identify potential expense report issues and anomalies, and flag them for company auditors to review. The AI models are built from analysis of more than US$1 trillion in spend and tens of millions of expenses and receipts. This AI-powered experience means auditors don鈥檛 waste time reviewing compliant expense reports, but can detect issues of compliance or fraud. To learn more, read 鈥�Verify Applies Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Simplify Expense Auditing.鈥�

51风流Upscale Commerce Is a No-Code Solution Enabling Direct-to-Consumer Engagement

The听听solution is an online commerce, no-code solution that lets midmarket retailers create an omnichannel shopping experiences in minutes. With built-in AI, retailers can provide personalized offerings based on a 360-degree view of their customer from social sentiment and purchase data. With a headless API architecture, retailers can provide customers real-time information about their purchase and delivery through any channel. 51风流Upscale Commerce is integrated with听听to help ensure customer-facing experiences work with back-end finance, logistics and fulfilment systems to deliver a smooth customer experience. To learn more, read 鈥�51风流Upscale Commerce Offers Midmarket Brands No-Code, Maintenance-Free Path to Direct-to-Consumer Engagement.鈥�

A Trio of New 51风流Business Technology Platform Capabilities Surface Insights from Data

The听听solution now offers听. These capabilities link operational, financial and people data to give organizations more comprehensive insights into their workforce. To learn more, read 鈥�Enabling Human-Centric & Data-Driven Workforce Planning.鈥� The new听听lets customers and partners connect to data providers across industries and lines of business to gain insights for better decision-making. 51风流is also expanding its low-code/no-code offering:听听services can now capture and automate user interactions and integrate with 51风流Process Insights to identify high-impact automation opportunities.

You can learn more about updates to 51风流Business Technology Platform and get other news in the听.

Many of the solutions mentioned in this announcement are available to try and buy on听. Visit the听51风流News Center. Follow 51风流on Twitter at听.

About SAP

SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world鈥檚 transaction revenue touches an 51风流system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit听.

Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit听. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit听. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from 51风流TV.

For customers interested in learning more about 51风流products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-151风流(1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:
Joellen Perry, +1 (626) 265-0370,听joellen.perry@sap.com, PT
Samantha Finnegan, +1 (415) 377-0475,听samantha.finnegan@sap.com, ET
51风流Press Room;听press@sap.com

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 51风流are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 51风流undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP鈥檚 future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP鈥檚 filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (鈥淪EC鈥�), including SAP鈥檚 most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
漏 2021 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see听听for additional trademark information and notices.
Please consider our听. If you received this press release in your e-mail and you wish to unsubscribe to our mailing list please contact听press@sap.com听and write Unsubscribe in the subject line.

The post Empowering Customers with New Innovations Announced at SAPPHIRE NOW appeared first on 51风流India News Center.

New Industry Solutions Will Drive More Sustainable Business Performance

51风流unveiled the first step toward creating the world鈥檚 largest business network with听, which will bring together听,听听and听. Over 5.5 million organizations will benefit from being members of this connected community.

To support this central announcement, 51风流is also announcing new innovations designed to help companies modernize and digitalize their business processes to become intelligent enterprises. In addition, customers can benefit from a new portfolio of sustainability-specific business applications that deliver exceptional transparency and measurement capability across the supply chain.

鈥淒uring this unprecedented year, the importance of the communities we鈥檙e part of has never been clearer,鈥� said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. 鈥淥ur new vision will build the world鈥檚 largest business community, enabling customers to easily connect with companies across supply chains and creating networked economies across industries.鈥�

While we have all seen the power of networks in our personal lives, this networked ecosystem for businesses doing business together is unique. Members of the new听听will be able to access a single, unified portal to gain a holistic view into their supply chain ecosystem, logistics and traceability, and equipment management and maintenance. To learn more, read 鈥�51风流Introduces 51风流Business Network.鈥�

During the pandemic, the most resilient companies were those who embraced technology to transform their business processes. Those who simply leveraged cloud infrastructure and didn鈥檛 actually digitalize core business processes did not fare as well. To enable every enterprise to become an intelligent enterprise, 51风流announced the听RISE with 51风流transformation packages for specific industries. Building on the successful introduction of the听听offering in January, the RISE with 51风流packages for specific industries provides business transformation as a service with five initial industry-tailored cloud solutions for retail, consumer products, automotive, utilities and industrial machinery and components. To learn more, read 鈥�Start Your Digital Transformation Journey: RISE with 51风流for Industries.鈥�

Despite a brief drop in carbon emissions over the past year, this year is on track for the second-biggest increase in emissions in history. Sustainability is as important to business success as revenue and profits. This is the decade in which companies must act. SAP鈥檚 stated goal is to make climate protection measurable, diversity and inclusion visible and ethical responsibilities transparent.

To enable this goal and operationalize sustainability as a core business process,听51风流announced a portfolio of new sustainability-specific products. This includes the 51风流Responsible Design and Production solution to ensure product designers can make sustainable choices from initial product concepts to production; the 51风流Product Footprint Management solution to track sustainability through a product lifecycle; and the 51风流Sustainability Control Tower solution to provide end-to-end visibility. To learn more, read 鈥�Sustainability Management by SAP: Enabling Tomorrow Starts Today.鈥�

Visit the听. Follow 51风流on Twitter at听.

About SAP

SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world鈥檚 transaction revenue touches an 51风流system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit听.

Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit听. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit听. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from 51风流TV.

For customers interested in learning more about 51风流products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-151风流(1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:
Joellen Perry, +1 (626) 265-0370,听joellen.perry@sap.com, PT
Samantha Finnegan, +1 (415) 377-0475,听samantha.finnegan@sap.com, ET
51风流Press Room;听press@sap.com

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 51风流are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 51风流undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP鈥檚 future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP鈥檚 filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (鈥淪EC鈥�), including SAP鈥檚 most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
漏 2021 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see 听for additional trademark information and notices.
Please consider our听. If you received this press release in your e-mail and you wish to unsubscribe to our mailing list please contact听press@sap.com听and write Unsubscribe in the subject line

The post 51风流Expanding World鈥檚 Largest Business Network appeared first on 51风流India News Center.

The reality is, modern supply chains are complex. Globalization has enabled a wider range of products to be available to consumers, faster than ever before, and at a lower cost. Managing the global supply of goods has been reliant on shippers and distribution experts using technologies that provide network visibility, transparency, and reliability. These complex global supply chain networks were running smoothly,听.

I recently hosted a webinar on this topic, featuring an 51风流colleague along with speakers from our partners at听听and听. The 51风流perspective was provided by Till Dengel, Vice President of Solution Management – Logistics. He was joined by project44鈥檚 Vice President Value Engineering, Christian Pillar, and Uber Freight鈥檚 Head of Sales, Andrew Smith.

I asked each of them about:

1. The听immediate impact听they saw in the industry as the pandemic took hold early in the year
2. The听recovery efforts听currently underway
3. What changes they听predict for more resilient supply chains in the future.

Responding in the moment

We began by addressing the immediate disruptions to supply chains caused by COVID-19. These focused on five interconnected areas:

• Panic buying –听Many shoppers overbought key supplies in the early phases of the pandemic. Christian Piller shared project44 research that found 鈥�an increase in flow to grocery and discount stores of almost 60% in one week in March as many retailers scrambled to replenish shelves quickly鈥�.
• Facility closures –听There was an increase of congestion at cross-docking and distribution centers as many were forced to close. This gave trucks fewer locations to unload, causing further congestion and delays to shipments.
• Staff shortages –听Warehouses and transportation both saw widespread staff shortages due to border closures and employees needing to self-isolate. The need for new staff to fill the gaps caused by the shortages increased at a faster rate than many teams were able to grow.
• Route changes –听With whole regions closing, shippers were forced to establish new routes and transportation lanes. Many businesses shifted from well-established commercial flight supply routes to shipments by sea, causing dramatically different shipping times and a loss of visibility.
• Lack of transparency –听The pace and volume of change across borders, routes, and transportation lanes meant that many businesses lost the visibility they needed to manage supply and demand. Many turned to the flexibility of platforms like Uber Freight, which 鈥�experienced a huge spike in application programming interface (API) activity as shippers made more calls for information across distribution networks鈥�.

Recovering from the shock

While lockdowns are easing in many places worldwide, things are by no means 鈥榬eturning to normal鈥�. Closures and restrictions still differ along country and state lines and the risk of a second wave of infections remains. Till Dengel highlighted that 鈥�in Europe, many businesses are widening their network of suppliers to increase resiliency against future disruption caused by border closures鈥�.

Technologies that can deliver real-time insight will be the key moving forward. Shippers need to understand their networks and act quickly based on changing or unexpected conditions. Andrew Smith spoke to the work Uber Freight is doing with its customers to 鈥�build logic and rule-based systems that can take action based on increased levels of visibility鈥�.

By directly integrating technologies like Uber Freight, SAP, and project44, shippers can create a Logistics Business Network that enables them to make fast and accurate routing and scheduling decisions.

Reimagining the future

Christian Piller of project44 predicted that 鈥�supply chains will develop into more agile networks. In fact, this may become imperative for survival as 83% of consumers expect fast delivery despite an economic downturn鈥�, according to post-COVID听.

Discussing the pressures faced by shippers, Piller said: 鈥�On top of the expectation of speed, shippers are quickly altering the modes they depend on to meet the needs of a digital world while striving to gain a more comprehensive view into the suppliers of their suppliers to mitigate future disruptions.鈥�

SAP鈥檚 Till Dengel stressed the three caveats of success in uncertain times:

1. Visibility to understand supply chain networks
2. Trust in the reliability of the information
3. The right processes in place to act with agility

In addition to the perspectives shared in the webinar, I also spoke to Paige Cox, Senior Vice President of Digital Supply Chain Networks at SAP, about the need for organizations to develop digital business networks to achieve greater visibility, efficiencies and agility.

She said: 鈥�Using 51风流Logistics Business Network together with our partners Uber Freight and project44, supply chain managers can identify, collaborate with, and improve visibility of freight carriers and inventory to transform logistics from isolated transactional insights into an orchestration of intelligent logistics.鈥�

How can organizations begin this transformation?

A fully integrated digital business network that brings together best-of-breed technologies is a critical first step to weathering the next wave of disruption, whatever form it may take.

For more insight on developing resilient, future-proof supply chains, I encourage you to听听featuring SAP, Uber Freight, and project44.

This article was originally featured on .听

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