The Ledger

Effective Planning Requires More Than Just Your ERP

We live in an age driven by data and, for businesses, the ability to quickly and accurately process large data sets has changed from “nice to have” to “essential” in a relatively short time. It’s crucial for businesses to be able to process data from a variety of different sources from across their operations, regardless of the form that data comes in. Unfortunately for many companies, their ERP alone is not equipped for the task. It is important to find a tool that gives access to data from anywhere inside or outside the business that applies advanced analytics on top of the data. That way, even unstructured data such as text, predictive, spatial, time series, and event streams no longer pose a challenge. Instead, it can be easily harnessed to inform business decisions.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Retailers Must Prepare for the Next-Generation of Customers

“The changing landscape across today’s retail and consumer industries has resulted in a rapid rise of emerging technologies, especially when it comes to automation and artificial intelligence. Retail is one of the sectors to already implement and invest in cognitive and AI technologies, resulting in new and unexpected offerings for consumers and shoppers around the world.”

As the next generation of customers expects brands to provide unmatched experiential design and functionality across multiple interfaces, retaining customer loyalty requires retailers and manufacturers to implement cognitive, automated services while still remaining transparent and secure.

Read More at MH&L >

Large Businesses Still Need to Scout New Technologies

While scouting out new technologies is important, it often takes up so much time for business leaders that they end up going back to their current systems. If a company is serious about responding quickly to the ways customer behaviors are changing, the startups that are gaining momentum in its industry, and the new technologies that ought to be integrated into its offerings, there are probably dozens or hundreds of people throughout the organization who should be tuned in to those signals. Businesses that are trying to invest in understanding how the world around them is changing and how it will affect them, they must also invest in the relationships and systems that allow them to take quick action on what you find.

Read More at The Harvard Business Review >

New Business Models Promote an Evolving Supply Chain

Advanced technology solutions are not only reducing costs in the supply chain but can also increase revenue. Cost, efficiency, effectiveness, productivity are critically important for any company building and managing their digital supply chain, but business leaders are trying to leverage supply chain excellence as a differentiator that generates new revenue. The idea of mastering the supply chain- from source to production to the customer and back again, enables businesses to do new things that set themselves apart from the competition.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >