eBook

4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data

Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Content
Introduction 3
Leverage a Metadata Layer to Serve as a Standard Template for Integrating Data from ALL your Diferent Systems 4
Method for Maintaining Clean and Accurate Source Data 5
Ability to Perform Advanced Functions with Your Data 6
Processes to Ensure Your Data Integration Stays Current 6
The Road to Integration and Beyond 7
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Introduction
Its no secret that your supply chain is only as good as the data that drives it.
Regardless of the level of integration youve implemented to date, it is a wise
practice to routinely review the access and accuracy of the data that drives
your decision-making. Recent technology and process changes in the supply
chain have created new obstacles to easily accessing the data you need to
make strategic decisions. Where once you may have relied on your ERP for
most of your data, and manual processes for the rest, that strategy is no longer
efective, nor will it help you stay agile and competitive in todays networked
economy.
With the rise of rapid fulfllment expectations, big data technology, and
business process changes that mandate seamless integration with all of your
trading partner systems, it is necessary to ensure your data integration strategy
is poised to meet the shifting requirements of the modern supply chain.
If you dont regularly evaluate your data integration tools or strategy, chances
are you are due for some technology and process upgrades. This eBook
provides a checklist of strategies for optimizing supply chain integration to
provide accurate data you can leverage for actionable business intelligence,
giving you increased resiliency and competitive advantage.
Outdated!!!
ERP
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Leverage a Metadata Layer to Serve as a Standard Template for
Integrating Data from ALL your Diferent Systems
Its a fact of modern business that companies often use multiple ERP
systems. While some companies operate the same platform across
facilities and geographies, it is more common to have diferent systems
and platforms. Mergers and acquisitions, as well as difering geographic
and operational needs, can often produce multiple ERP/back ofce
platforms within a single organization. It is also common to have
additional (non-ERP) systems for a variety of functions that could include:
procure-to-pay (P2P)
warehouse management (WMS)
order management (OMS)
transportation management (TMS)
business intelligence (BI) software for analytic reporting
Dont overlook systems at third parties/partners
In addition to multiple internal systems and platforms, it is also necessary
to integrate with external trading partners such as suppliers, CMOs, and
3PLs. Typically, each of these partners has their own system as well.
Depending on the vendors function, these systems might contain
information that is either not in your systems or is diferent from what
is in your systems. If the data is not integrated into a single console, and
reconciled for accuracy, diferent users will be working with diferent
versions of the truth. This can cause a host of miscommunications, as well
as inaccurate POs or invoices, fulfllment delays or errors, among other
potential headaches.
For example, imagine what could go wrong in your organization if
your systems are not integrated with your trading partners, and data
such as any of the following is changed in their systems, without your
organizations knowledge or notifcation:
item prices
delivery schedules
lead times
inventory quantity in stock
freight carriers
manufacturing times
contact information
These are just a few examples, but it becomes clear that your supply chain
cannot perform optimally until all connected users are working with the
same data. This is the frst step toward better, faster decision-making and
execution.
When planning to add new suppliers or contract with new transportation
or distribution vendors, remember to list all the relevant data felds for
each vendor and implement data mapping and synchronization as needed
using a metadata layer, as described in the next section.
Implementing a Metadata Layer
Fortunately, disparate systems and data do not automatically sentence you
to a lack of business intelligence or mandate a reliance on heavy manual
processes. Nor do they require a multi-year, costly implementation process
to transfer data onto a new, single system for all of your departments,
divisions, and partners. Diferent systems were developed and are used for
diferent purposes to support the priorities and data requirements of each
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Leverage a Metadata Layer to Serve as a Standard Template for
Integrating Data from ALL your Diferent Systems
particular user group.
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The challenge is to ensure that the data from all
systems is optimally integrated and accurate.
Data mapping using a metadata layer provides the technical means
to accomplish this, so that all systems can talk to one another. Simply
stated, metadata is data about data or information about information.
In practical terms, this translates to lowering your total cost of ownership
through centrally storing and managing all information about data
sources, content, business rules, and access authorizations in a single
metadata layer. This layer often uses XML and application programming
interfaces (APIs) to pull and transmit the data from diferent systems.
Chances are that many of your existing database structures can be used,
and most of the labor and costs associated will involve the process of
mapping felds from each system into the integration layer to eliminate
duplicates and provide the single version of the truth. Look for solutions
that employ a service-oriented architecture (SOA)strategy to minimize
costs and your integration projects complexity.
Creating and leveraging a metadata layer doesnt have to result in a
lengthy process for your internal IT staf. Supply chain management
software consoles, combined with coordinated data analysis and mapping
during implementation, provide a consolidated format for displaying,
analyzing, and transmitting your data to and from your various systems.
Vendors of this software can help you implement a metadata layer with
architecture that allows you to map felds accurately from each database,
as well as synchronize data that appears in multiple systems.
Metadata Layer
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Method for Maintaining Clean and Accurate Source Data
The competitive stakes in supply chain execution continue to reach new
heights: One need only look to the most recent developments at Amazon
to get a glimpse into whats to come. In the span of a few months, Amazon
announced both:
the launch of Amazon Fresh in Seattle and LA (the service that
allows consumers to order groceries and have them delivered to
their door the same day);
2
and
a contract with the US Postal Service to provide Sunday delivery
to Prime customers in LA and New York, with expansion to other
cities beginning in 2014.
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Notably, Wal-Mart, E-bay, and Google are shoring up their same-day
delivery capabilities for online orders as well. These examples of rapid
fulfllment times as standard operating procedure turn the pressure up
for other supply chain companies. In order to compete, many companies
are looking for the best tools to get the job done, something that often
cannot be accomplished with existing systems. Successfully meeting these
demanding fulfllment schedules requires seamlessly integrated systems
with near real-time, accurate data across the supply chain. Accurate data
is the linchpin for accelerating key areas of your supply chain to gain and
protect competitive advantage.
Tips for maintaining accurate source data
How do you make sure you are getting the most accurate source data?
In addition to implementing a metadata layer as discussed earlier, the
following basic steps will keep you moving in the right direction:
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1. Perform an inventory of all the high-impact data needed for
decision-making that is pulled from your ERP to your supply
chain systems. Check to make sure that these data felds are, in
fact, being populated with the correct ERP data.
2. Check that the timing and synchronization of data pulls from
your ERP to your other systems occur either in near real-time
(as data is entered or updated) or at intervals that allow you to
make strategic decisions using the latest data. With the current
accelerated pace of business as mentioned in the examples
earlier, batch processes are only useful if the timing is done in
increments of minutes, not hours, days, or weeks.
As companies increasingly turn to best-of-breed software providers for
solutions that integrate with their ERPs, here again, the tools are only as
good as the data and integration methods they are provided. To reap all
the benefts from these tools, invest in the resources required to analyze
all existing data for parts, customers, suppliers, vendors, accounting, and
freight/logistics. Make sure all the data you currently work with is clean
unduplicated as well as accurate, if you havent already done so. Going
forward, you will only have to perform this verifcation with new data and
for new systems.
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Ability to Perform Advanced Functions with Your Data
The next step is to ensure that all of your critical data is both visible and
actionable. This now goes far beyond standard transactions and reports
into advanced searches, real-time notifcations and alerts, business
analytics, and the ability to flter data using any desired criteria. This depth
of visibility and analytic capability equips you with the data needed to
avoid disruptions and make better strategic decisions. Ultimately, these
decisions propel your organization forward to achieve your goals of
increased performance, revenue, and customer satisfaction for greater
agility and competitive edge.
Consider the increased value of data to your supply chain when
integration provides the abilities to:
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Perform advanced searches and flter results to view details
for any data point, such as a document, shipment status,
package numbers, or a history of orders from a supplier. With all
of your data integrated and current, you need only visit one place
to locate information, minimizing time, labor, and errors.
Assess performance benchmarks (KPIs) of any part of your
chain using custom reports and graphical dashboards. For
example, quickly create, access, and view graphical
dashboards for each of your suppliers on-time delivery, quality,
or compliance performance. Even further: Do this from your
tablet anywhere, at any time.
Create custom alerts and notifcations that allow you to
manage by exception (MBE). Only spend time managing and
monitoring problems or discrepancies in your chain, such as
invoices that fail the matching process, purchase orders that
require approval based on your business rules, or shipment
delays.
These are just some examples of advanced functions that enhanced
integration provides. The bottom line is that these capabilities free you to
focus your valuable time and energy analyzing and responding faster to
disruptions in the chain and making strategic decisions to meet your goals.
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Search KPIs Alerts
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Processes to Ensure Your Data Integration Stays Current
Finally, make sure you build into your corporate processes a standard
review cycle interval to repeat the previous checklist items. Whether it is
quarterly, annually, or any time you add a new internal system, vendor,
supplier, or business process, ensure that:
Your integration layer connects in near real-time with all of
your systems so they can communicate as if they were one.
This single console provides a single version of the truth, greatly
reducing disruptions in efcient operations such as
miscommunications, inaccurate POs or invoices, or fulfllment
delays or errors.
Your source data is clean and accurate.
Accurate source data is the key to accelerating key areas of your
supply chain for lasting competitive advantage. To ensure your
data stays current and accurate, create standard processes for
adding new suppliers, vendors, or customers. For example,
make sure that the company, part, and accounting information
are entered correctly and can be seen and re-used by all of
your systems.
You can perform advanced functions with your data, such as
analytic dashboards or custom reports.
Advanced functions provide increased visibility deep into your
supply chain so you can make better strategic decisions, helping
you achieve increased performance, revenue, and customer
satisfaction. Going forward, make sure you analyze data
integration requirements for new processes. For example, you
may need to build new standard reports for new KPIs or to assess
a new suppliers performance.
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
The Road to Integration and Beyond
If you have gone through the checklist of criteria presented in this eBook
and you do not have these elements, your supply chain data integration is
likely outdated. Although it can be a painful process to streamline, analyze,
and integrate your data using a collaboration tool or other integration
layer, the sooner this happens, the better. Some basic steps to accomplish
this process include:
1. Begin by engaging your IT team or CIO to get an accurate
assessment of the current state of your companys skills,
resources, databases, and integration capabilities.
2. Then, form a Strategy Team for your integration project,
consisting of IT as well as key project stakeholders with deep
knowledge of your ERP and other systems.
3. List the resources (internal and external) needed to accomplish
the data integration project. This step may require a vendor
assessment to determine the best ft of external partners to
help implement your solution. Be sure to look for the right
combination of cost, expertise, implementation time, and ability
to deliver a scalable solution that can integrate with all of your
systems.
4. Budget and plan the schedule for the project, and engage
all internal and external resources in a kick-of process to
communicate deadlines and expectations. In order to ensure
that the integration project stays on track, and that your data
integration is assessed regularly after implementation, assign
primary responsibility for overseeing and managing the project
to a member of your Strategy Team.
In an era where the volume and variety of data increase exponentially
on a regular basis, the benefts from accurate, current data will be seen
immediately with results such as:
Reduction in PO and invoice discrepancies, made possible by
processes such as invoice matching and single versions of order
quantities and prices.
Increased shipment accuracy and on-time fulfllment, providing
capability for shorter lead times.
Sharp decrease in manual processes and time spent on tasks,
such as searching for information in multiple databases.
Faster time to respond to problems in the chain (increased
agility) due to enhanced visibility and traceability throughout the
product lifecycle.
Eventually, you will be able to take your data further by using predictive
analytics to enable even better, faster strategic decision-making upstream
and downstream, throughout product lifecycles.
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The closer you can get
to real-time, accurate data at-a-glance (the Holy Grail in supply chain), the
more resilient and successful your organization will be.
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4 Steps to Leveraging Supply Chain Data Integration for Actionable Business Intelligence
Endnotes
1
Chase, Peter. Scribe Software Corporation. A Success Model for CRM Integration, May 2013.
2
Rudarakanchana, Nat. AmazonFreshs Sneaky Business Strategy Compete with Premium Grocers, Build Out Distribution Model, Enter Mass Market with
Force. International Business Times, October 1, 2013.
http://www.ibtimes.com/amazonfreshs-amzn-sneaky-business-strategy-compete-premium-grocers-build-out-distribution-model
3
Hsu, Tifany. U.S. Postal Service to Deliver Amazon Packages on Sundays, L.A. Times. November 10, 2013.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f-amazon-usps-20131109,0,7390545.story#!
4
Walker, Matt. Three Steps to Getting the Most Intelligence Value, May 2, 2012.
http://www.manufacturing.net/articles/2012/05/three-steps-to-getting-the-most-intelligence-value
5
Syntelic, Data Integration Challenges for Supply Chain Software.
http://syntelic.com/blog-post/193-data-integration-challenges-for-supply-chain-software
6
SupplyChainBrain, Steps to Successful Supply Chain Data Integration, June 21, 2013.
http://www.supplychainbrain.com/content/technology-solutions/erp-enterprise-systems/single-article-page/article/steps-to-successful-supply-chain-data-
integration/
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