Design your value chain for omni-channel

Today, customers expect to shop, compare, purchase, and consume on their own terms—on their own schedule, through a variety of channels, and on a variety of devices. For fashion companies, that means operating in a customer-driven economy. Not only should your marketing campaigns drive customers to the omni-channel outlets that you monitor, but your value chain should be ready to support these efforts. The omni-channel experience must be seamless and consistent, inspiring your customers to make purchases whether they’re in a physical store or online.

For your omni-channel management efforts and value chain to be in sync, you must move toward new business models that are far more collaborative, consumer driven, responsive, and quick. But how do you design a value chain so you can get closer to your customers and quickly deliver on their needs? And how do you get your value chain partners aligned to get the right products to where consumers want them—as quickly and efficiently as possible? This eBook will answer these questions and more.

Food and beverage companies face another pivotal year as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing businesses to reevaluate their supply chain and operations strategy. To combat the challenges of supply chain disruption, shifting consumer demand, and market uncertainty, many organizations have turned to technology to promote resiliency and galvanize their business processes for the year ahead.

Below are five technology trends that experts anticipate will gain popularity in the years ahead as manufacturers prioritize agility and resilience over reactivity.

The existence of Conflicting objectives means we should look at aligning the processes and systems to enable us the make the appropriate decision and tradeoffs. But Siloed thinking and the Legacy systems deficit are making this more difficult to achieve.

There is no question that the solution is to first and foremost focus on people and process as we did in the second blog, Redefining the Processes, but technology can make a real difference to enable these processes and make the people able to focus on the important issues rather than the mundane task of data gathering and analysis.

The last 30 years have seen a huge expansion of global trade. Many of the goods we consume today are made in a different continents. The chase for the cheapest production location has resulted in complex, long lead time supply chains which have significantly increased the risk of disruptions, reduced supply chain efficiencies and increased our environment impact.

Future proof your supply chain with resilient and sustainable elements

Strengthening the supply chains in preparation for inevitable future uncertainties, and the need to be more sustainable whiles continuing to be efficient requires the development of processes, systems, and structures that enable rapid adaptation and resilience in the face of disruptions.

In this blog we’re going to look at the steps organizations can take to future-proof their supply chains, and at how they can build in resilience and sustainability elements.

A recent study, considered exactly this point. The study identified several key characteristics in this regard.

For supply chain professionals in your organization to receive the flexibility and agility they need to increase speed, drive down costs, and satisfy customers, there are four critical components your company must possess. These include real-time visibility, predictive insights, prescriptive decision support, and real-time collaborative execution, all of which can be achieved through the implementation of supply chain control tower.

Deploying a network model to achieve real-time, end-to-end visibility

Visibility is the foundation of every control tower capability, with all advanced decision making and responses within the execution window relying upon the quality and timeliness of visibility. Keeping order, shipment, and inventory status updated for all parties to see in real time is critical to success., but this often proves a core challenge for control towers, since highly dynamic supply chains can change at a rate of over 50 changes per second.

Throughout the pandemic, food and beverage companies have weathered surges in demand, rapid fluctuations in consumer buying habits, and the complexities of the global supply chain. Without complete enterprise-wide visibility or collaboration, shifting gears and adapting to trends in the market can seem insurmountable.

How can you modernize to keep pace with the speed of consumer needs in today’s competitive market? We recently did a webinar with Mark Winter, CFO of My Food Bag, to hear how his company, a leading online meal kit provider in New Zealand, managed to improve business productivity, efficiently manage the growth of its business and navigate the pressures of the pandemic.

Here are some valuable takeaways from the webinar. Watch the on-demand recording if you want to hear more about how My Food Bag deals with special requests from customers for particular food products, or ingredients, how the company manages last-mile delivery, and what they do to get the right balance between supply chain efficiency and sustainability.

Are you reducing idle cash while reducing risks?

Today, financial services organizations are more focused on what’s necessary to safeguard business continuity and solvency. Much of this begins with greater visibility and reliability of key data to help drive your critical business decisions, especially during critical market changes.

Our current blog series is reviewing cash and treasury best practices you can follow to prepare for instant payment changes and build true cash visibility. Last week we looked at understanding the impact of instant payments. In part two this week, we focus on generating cash positioning.

Consideration #2: Generate cash positioning

To satisfy both operational and regulatory requirements, financial services organizations need operating models for cash and liquidity management. To achieve and maintain this capability successfully, organizations need to focus on gaining greater visibility into their cash and liquidity.

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Cash and treasury: Prepare for instant payments and build true cash visibility

Today, financial services organizations are more focused on what’s necessary to safeguard business continuity and solvency. Much of this begins with greater visibility and reliability of key data to help drive your critical business decisions, especially during critical market changes.

Whether you call it faster payments, immediate payments, instant payments, or fast money, real-time payments technology has gained a solid foothold in the payment processing world.

Additionally, to satisfy both operational and regulatory requirements, you need operating models for cash and liquidity management. To successfully achieve and maintain this capability organizations need to focus on gaining greater visibility into their cash and liquidity.

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Cash and treasury: Prepare for instant payments and build true cash visibility

We have compiled a blog series that will focus on cash and treasury best practices you can follow to prepare for significant changes with instant payments and build true cash visibility. This week, we focus on the first consideration: understanding the impact of instant payments.

State governments want their software to be secure, compliant and designed for the 21^st century. As such, many state governments are evaluating their current ERP platforms to determine how to modernize financials, procurement, human capital management, and payroll applications.

While some have pursued modernization by embarking on multi-tenant cloud journeys, most organizations are still in the planning phase.

They are moving in the right direction, though, as multi-tenant cloud SaaS software ensures applications are continually enhanced without the need for a multi-million-dollar, multi-year project. Multi-tenant cloud software also protects limited resources from overwhelming or menial tasks such as:

• Babysitting servers
• Applying and testing an endless number of patches
• Performing backups
• Managing disaster recovery

Are you able to monitor all intraday activity for true cash visibility?

Today, financial services organizations are more focused on what’s necessary to safeguard business continuity and solvency. Much of this begins with greater visibility and reliability of key data to help drive your critical business decisions, especially during critical market changes.

Our current blog series is reviewing cash and treasury best practices you can follow to prepare for instant payments and build true cash visibility. In the previous post, we reviewed best practices for enhancing cash and liquidity forecasting. This week, we focus on ways to establish intraday liquidity monitoring capabilities.

Consideration #4: Establish intraday liquidity monitoring capabilities

Banks and financial services organizations bound by intraday liquidity regulations have an opportunity to build a stronger competitive position.

According to consulting firm Oliver Wyman: “Analysis indicates that a 25–50% reduction in intraday liquidity costs is well within reach. Further, banks will also stand to benefit from optimal efficiency, improved risk management, and timely decision-making around this scarce resource.” There are numerous financial and non-financial benefits, as well as new technological tools that simplify these complex treasury functions.

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Cash and treasury: Prepare for instant payments and build true cash visibility