Supply chain management’s most common problem

No industry seems to be immune to today’s challenges. The unprecedented uncertainty and volatility in the market due to geo-political strife, climate disasters or global pandemics has shown time and again that traditional, linear supply chain management strategies simply don’t work anymore. It’s time to leave the enterprise-centric mentality in the rearview mirror and adopt a networked approach to supply chain management.

But that’s just the first step. Beyond addressing uncertainty, your business is pressured by a continued need to optimize all facets of supply chain costs. Understanding the costs associated with working capital and service level expectations has never been more critical regardless of your industry or sector.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) bring numerous challenges across all departments. But IT teams are often charged with providing the underlying infrastructure that will allow the organizations to operate successfully under a new configuration. This is a big ask and typically occurs with little warning, and regardless of how much ongoing work exists in the day job.

There are plenty of factors that can further complicate this scenario, including when the company is acquired or merged is in a different country with unique reporting and regulatory requirements. While part of an important growth strategy for the organization, these moves can put tremendous pressure on already taxed IT staff.

Even when you do everything right, the unexpected can happen. Natural disasters strike, equipment fails, and human errors occurs. While steps were taken to mitigate risk, when disaster strikes, it’s still up to you and your team to race to recover, to ensure actions to get back online are taken correctly, and time is never on your side.

If your organization previously reviewed and dismissed the value of the cloud, it’s time to reevaluate. Decisions that seemed to make sense last year or even last quarter, likely look very different through today’s lens. This week, we focus on critical system failure and how unexpected outages can bring a company’s mission-critical operations to its knees.

Losses can be initially staggering and ultimately far-reaching, impacting not only revenue and productivity but also long-term brand value. It’s been estimated that the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute, with $140,000 per hour on the low end and as much as $540,000 per hour at the higher end. Absorbing the activities to resolve the issue itself and then putting in place actions across the organization to recover from the critical failure and its consequences can derail an organization for an extended period of time.

For many organizations, the realization that your go-to people, those who truly understand all the nuances in your enterprise ecosystem, are no longer there comes too late. Whether this loss comes through resignation, retirement, health issues, or merger and acquisition, you will need to find replacements. How can your organization ensure the continuity of day-to-day operations with the potential loss of technical expertise?

One of the ways to mitigate this risk is to accelerate cloud migration.   

Many clients have shared with me that in today's challenging times, they need to focus on their core business and not worry about running IT systems. What would happen if your IT experts are no longer available? 

The year 2020 approaches with promise amidst a backdrop of innovation and transformation occurring at a speed never witnessed before. We’re experiencing a digital revolution that is changing the way we live, work and interact with one another. The power of information is just beginning to blossom as more of our decisions are based on data and use cases for artificial intelligence are delivering significant value. Meanwhile, global movements to protect the planet and operate responsibly continue to grow in importance. And an undercurrent of de-globalization continues to change the way countries and companies interact with each other.

Here’s a look at some of the emerging trends and themes you can expect to take shape in 2020. 

When CFOs adopt innovative technology, they help build organizations that are more agile, profitable, effective, and positioned for growth. Here are the five actions CFOs can take immediately to get started down the right path:

1. Develop one single source of the truth—Data is the currency of success. Effective data management translates to big opportunities for companies that are intent on growth. But the key to effective data management is creating one source of the truth—a central data repository. Everyone needs to work from the same set of information, if your organization is going to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. Companies can uncover key insights about their customers and business processes by breaking down data silos and building one single source of the truth. Whether that data comes from a single source, or more likely, multiple disparate sources, it needs to be visible from one place, so it can be trusted as reliable and acted upon by everyone who needs to make decisions.

By Guy Courtin - Vice President Industry & Solution Strategy, Retail and Fashion at Infor Retail

Abandon all hope, all ye who enter stores. Consumers are taking their shopping online, and there’s no turning back. Or is there?

For all the hype and horror-stories concerning retail’s physical demise, data shows that only about 10% of all U.S. transactions came through e-commerce in 2018. While it still accounts for just a small portion of all retail sales, e-commerce continues to grow at a steady rate of about 8% per quarter. Bottom line, physical stores still have a prominent role for retailers and will continue to do so for a long time.