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HOW A COGNITIVE, CONNECTED BUSINESS NETWORK POWERS SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSFORMATION
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced consumer goods manufacturers (CGs) to rapidly adjust to changes in demand and other supply risks. This means leveraging technology—including cognitive, connected business networks—to spark a transformation that involves reimagining business with a futuristic consumer in mind.
Discontinuing linear dependencies created by traditional value chains
Eliminating supply chain inefficiencies
Unlocking supply chain potential
Obstacles to Growth
Traditional value chains are territorial in nature and therefore, inherently rigid. This not only creates supply chain inefficiencies; it limits opportunities for growth. Unprecedented events like COVID further exacerbate the situation.
Traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have long connected companies with their direct customers or vendors. Consumer expectations today require enterprises to establish relationships that go beyond their direct partners.
Limited partner reach
Logistics considerations have historically made value chains rigid, resulting in less-than-optimal operations.
Territorial nature of business
Data silos across multiple systems—perpetuated by companies’ own ERPs or those of their partners—result in very poor supply chain planning and execution.
Information silos delay critical action
Demand fragmentation driven by online growth—with millions of products ordered from thousands of locations on a daily basis—has diminished the value of planning at conventional demand aggregation points, including, but not limited to stores and warehouses.
Shifting consumer behavior
60+% of global consumers have changed their shopping behavior since the pandemic—in many cases, to increase convenience and get more value from purchases.
Retail out-of-stock rates average 10%.
Global retail outlets now number 25+ million.
35% of U.S. online grocery shoppers who tried e-commerce for the first time during the pandemic will keep shopping online once it’s over.
E-commerce’s share of grocery categories will increase by 200% to 300% by 2022, far exceeding its pre-COVID-19 growth trajectory.
The volume of new products hitting the market has increased ten-fold in the past decade.
Business challenges aren’t the only factors that make it imperative for CGs to embrace a unified cognitive network. Changes in consumer behavior and other market forces also come into play.
Beyond the Roadblocks
Know yesterday’s sales today
Operate in an “order anywhere, fulfill from anywhere” mode while maximizing profits
Easily determine which stores to visit and which products to sell to each one
Track and trace products from shelf to source
Buy better and avoid supply shocks
Generating spend management analytics for a 360-degree view of procurement organization performance
Executing supplier performance analytics, creating an “opportunity framework” to minimize costs, ease risks, and drive improvement
A business network that connects all parties (customers and vendors alike) in a non-hierarchical manner eliminates information silos. Applying artificial intelligence to this shared data instantly enhances the network to become more cognitive and in turn, more responsive, enabling CGs to:
Transforming Your Value Chain Into a Network
Improved consumer and channel partner experience, bolstering profitability potential
Fewer “lost sales” within the supply chain network
Smoother path to propagating the brand
Efficiency and strength everywhere
On the “sell” side, the network supports an agile, sustainable, cost-efficient supply chain, and in turn:
Improved material forecasts
Reduced disposition
Highly productive supplier collaboration
Higher OTP and spend accuracy
Discover new partners and products with speed
Initiate non-linear market expansion
Transform complex data into meaningful demand signals in hours, rather than in days or weeks
Simulate future promotions for better ROI
Enable real-time inventory visibility
Orchestrate orders to maximize fulfillment
A cognitive, connected network also affords CGs advantages that give them a sharp edge over the competition. With this type of network in place, CGs can:
All over the map
Incorporate data at its heart, with flexible acquisition models to drive adoption
Include embedded intelligence, with AI and graphs to purposefully drive process execution
Work on a global scale—i.e., in SaaS mode on multiple clouds
Have a persona-based “experience layer” that offers tailored views of all data
The end-result is a network that supports a host of enhancements:
60% to 70% improvement in partner network visibility
12% to 15% reduction in out-of-stock scenarios
8% to 15% improvement in case-fill rates
3% to 5% in potential procurement savings opportunities
NETWORK DESIGN IS KEY
But a unified cognitive business network fulfills its promise only when it is purposefully designed. The network should:
EdgeVerve’s TradeEdge cognitive connected business network delivers significant value at every point in the global supply chain.
EdgeVerve serves a global customer base of:
DELIVERING SIGNIFICANT VALUE
20+ Fortune 500 global CGs
5,000+ channel partners
700+ retailers
5+ million retail outlets
5,000 distributors
…in 130+ countries and has harmonized 1.5 million SKUs
To learn more, click here or visit www.edgeverve.com/tradeedge today.
Getting an Edge Over the Competition
