Supply Chain Management Special technology report
industry average of 70 per cent of deployments taking greater than 9 months.” For Campbell, the biggest
Dan Turner, chief technology officer
developments related to integration are in web visibility to demand and stock situations, as well as real-time information
related to transport; for example, where vehicles are located.
Gaurav’s view is that integration between SCM solutions and other software has notably improved. “Previously, bringing together various IT systems was a major challenge,” he said. “For example, perhaps certain parts of a manufacturer’s mobile computing solution were incompatible with its inventory management software. However, as the need to bring all areas of the supply chain together became increasingly important in the recession, vendors worked to improve this situation. Now, for example, manufacturers can integrate their ERP system with planning, analysis and execution software for an extremely responsive supply chain that adapts to consumer demand. This helps drive more precise forecasting and lowers inventory costs, positively impacting to the company’s bottom line. Although integration of supply chain management solutions is not yet perfect and there may still be issues, we are in a far better position to fix any problems that do occur.”
Speed
Phillips considers that as speed has become the dominant facet of business and survival of the fastest has become a reality, software integration has been a real focus over the past two years. “SCM has traditionally relied on point-to-point integration leading to a lot of rigid and restrictive systems that cannot be easily upgraded or improved,” he said. “Because the application communicates with other applications in its own proprietary ‘language’, the custom-written integration
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code that translates from one application to the next breaks with each modification or upgrade. On top of this, the development of the integration itself can be a huge project as it distracts from core business activity.”
To get around these problems, Phillips points out that one approach is the ‘loose coupling’ as found in Infor ION. “This is lightweight, unbreakable middleware built on open standards,” he explained. “Building on just the connectivity, ION enables reporting & analysis, workflow and business monitoring. Adding in event- driven architecture (EDA), the integration can pro-actively push data, work activities, and exception notifications to users. This is not just a matter of improving the links between
“
SCM and ERP or WMS, but a wholesale re- imagining of how software can talk to other pieces of software to accelerate business processes.”
We love to engage in blue- sky thinking and rapid R&D prototyping but we’ll only do any of this in conjunction with customers as they’re clearly the ones who best know where value can be added.”
– Dan Turner, ByBox.
And how can companies tailor their Warehouse Management System (WMS) to specifically integrate multi-channel requirements? Sears- Black comments that to deal with the challenges posed by multichannel supply chain strategies, companies and, in particular, retailers will
require a solution that sits outside traditional supply chain systems, one that aggregates data and integrates with the full distribution network – including all the warehouses, stores, in-transit inventory and vendors – to provide a consolidated and centralised view
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