With the Oracle Modern Business Experience event taking place next month in London, Oracle reports on how the cloud is making its mark on mainstream supply chain management.
The pace of business is so fast, many manufacturers struggle to keep up. Just consider how the electric car companies are revolutionising the 100-year old automotive giants in Detroit — many still reliant on fossil fuels to power their products. Or how film downloads are quickly making the DVD redundant. Or the way mobile phone functionality is eating into the market for traditional maps and alarm clocks. Change — either positive or negative — is ferocious and fast.
No department feels that more than manufacturing. Rules are changing: Buyer expectations are increasing; product lifecycles are shrinking; new regulations are coming in, and fluctuating consumer demand are all testing the limits of the traditional supply chain model.
Manufacturing executives are chewing on their pencils. How can they remain agile and innovative in this challenging climate, while maximising margins, revenue growth, and the quality of the customer experience?
The issues don’t end there. Most manufacturing executives lack visibility across the six core elements that make up their supply chain: from design, order and plan. to source, make and deliver. Without that complete, accurate real-time visibility, every aspect of the business can be impacted.
Visibility and insight for the intelligent supply chain
Step forward supply chain management in the cloud. This on-demand cloud model for supply chain management delivers the visibility, insight, and capabilities needed to create an intelligent supply chain. A single version of the truth, for example, aligns product design goals, so organisations can choose the strategy with the highest profit potential. Order management in the cloud enables firms to quickly respond to changes in demand and offer personalised service on a global scale. Moreover, accurate analysis enables teams to plan quickly, monitor performance, and adapt to changing needs on the fly. And simplified, collaborative procurement reduces risk and lowers costs.
In fact, 2016 was a watershed in cloud-based supply chain management, with industry starting to factor the cloud into its wider business strategy, instead of using it as a technology model to explore and trial. Some parts of the supply chain are also inherently more cloud-friendly than others; for example, those areas that are more used to sharing supply chain data with external organisations. In areas where businesses have traditionally outsourced operations, such as transportation, there is rapid and widespread cloud adoption.
Start 2017 by hearing from industry experts
The Oracle Modern Business Experience event is the place to learn more about these exciting changes in cloud-based supply chain management. Taking place in London on February 1-2, 2017, it’s a powerful opportunity to get the insights you need to respond quickly, control supply chain costs, and monitor operations to achieve your business goals.
During the event, you will discover how to make informed business decisions based on actionable data and business intelligence, build innovative products, and use responsive networks to improve order fulfillment. The event will also feature sessions on supply chain journey mapping, a human-centred design methodology that enables firms to view the supply chain from the all-important customer perspective, in order to drive increased retention and profitability.
The list of speakers is impressive too. It includes Safra A. Catz, Chief Executive Officer of Oracle, Professor Brian Cox (OBE), CERN Physicist and Broadcaster, Richard Noble (OBE), Challenger, Entrepreneur, and Record Breaker, and Ray Hammond, Futurist and Author. Oracle keynote presenters include Steve Daheb, Senior Vice President, Oracle Cloud, and Roddy Martin, Vice President, Applications Product Development and Product Management at Oracle.
