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Leveraging Data Analytics and Automation to Create Durable, Agile Supply Chains

insightsoftware -
May 12, 2023

insightsoftware is a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions, empowering organizations to unlock business data and transform the way finance and data teams operate.

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Managing the supply chain for a multinational corporation presents new challenges each week as our world continues to evolve and become more interconnected through technological advancements. These challenges have spurred a wave of digital transformation initiatives across industries.

And that’s where data, analytics, and automation tools come in. These powerful tools help businesses build resilient and agile supply chains that can withstand even the most unpredictable operating environments.

Survey Highlights Supply Chain Challenges

SAPinsider recently surveyed businesses on their supply chain practices to learn how organizations are keeping the wheels turning despite these challenges. Responses highlighted that supply chain professionals are turning to analytics and automation to optimize their inventory management and build more robust supply chains.

The findings confirm an exciting trend in supply chain management: a rising adoption of automation and a growing focus on customer-centric processes.

“The result was the development of supply chains that took pride in balancing speed and efficiency,” SAPinsider stated, “This capability was an initial form of supply chain agility. However, the need for resiliency became prominent as supply chains became more prone to risks and disruptions. While the two terms resiliency and agility are frequently used in tandem, the fact is that these two capabilities may conflict with each other.”

Respondents were focused on developing an integrated planning and analytics system, on a centralized data foundation that supports all types of analytics. Why is this such a crucial capability? Well, it turns out that many of those surveyed are struggling with their current portfolio of tools and technologies, which often lack integration with other systems. This not only creates obstacles for planning and analytics, but also leads to a fragmentation of data sources, which is another major challenge.

The survey shows that organizations are struggling to balance agility and resiliency in their supply chain strategy. For example, responses indicated a departure from a Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory strategy, which helps develop agile materials flow with minimal inventory burden. As the pandemic highlighted, JIT did not align well with resiliency aspects, and organizations now are looking to balance JIT with just-in-case inventory positions in their networks.

SAPinsider has an idea for striking the perfect balance between agility and resiliency in supply chain management, and it involves a trio of powerhouse tools: data, analytics, and automation. By visualizing, planning, and executing in real-time, they believe companies can create supply chains that are both flexible and robust. The key is leveraging data and analytics to build this capability, with automation serving as a solid foundation.

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Get Connected, Automated Supply Chain Visibility With Angles Enterprise for SAP

When your data is housed on a complex ERP like SAP, it can be a struggle to deliver clear visibility for reporting. Reporting solutions, like Wands for SAP from insightsoftware, address FICO reporting needs, but Finance must have awareness and understanding of all activities that impact the GL. Without the ability to identify and examine the root causes behind financial reporting issues (e.g., low revenue), finance doesn’t have the required information to affect change.

Angles Enterprise for SAP applies a context-rich data model to your SAP data (both ECC and S/4HANA) to collect and prepare data so it is presented in a user-friendly manner and suitable for reporting. With Angles, your supply chain future is in safe hands.

Take Control of Supply Chain With Real-time Analytics

Angles Enterprise for SAP provides a single source of truth for your SAP data, while giving access to that data to business users who need it in a simple and secure interface. Angles is the content and context layer between your SAP ERP and your BI architecture, covering all supply chain processes and with built-in supply chain analytics.

Bridge the Gap Between Operations and Finance

With Angles Enterprise for SAP, bridge the gap between finance teams and operational teams working with SAP data. Angles provides context to business operations while unlocking key insights from the finance module in SAP. Finance teams can gain more insight into supply chain processes and quickly show the financial impact to operations teams.

Get a Grip on Supplier Performance with Master Data

Understanding historical supply performance can help eliminate supplier blame and proactively improve future performance. With Angles Enterprise for SAP, your team can utilize master data to unlock critical insights and understand what parts of your supply issues are internal vs. external.

Click here to arrange a demo and see if Angles Enterprise for SAP is right for your business.

How to Get the SAPInsider Report

Download the benchmark report from SAPinsider to read the full data analysis from 129 members of the SAPinsider community and receive recommendations for your plans.