The Ledger

Data Insights in the Real World

“A California CIO uses data to help citizens survive earthquakes, landslides, floods, and volcanos; a Dutch executive uses it to visualize solutions to rising sea levels; a Chinese CIO sells the cloud to his culturally risk-averse boss. Data, often hundreds of years old, is the untapped resource for many executives tasked with digitally transforming their organizations. We spoke to five CIOs who are on multiyear journeys revamping their companies’ systems for the cloud. They share their thoughts on data gravity, data sovereignty, data access, and other human factors related to data. Indeed, the one goal they all had in common was to gain the ability to obtain real-time insights from vast stores of data.”

Read More at Forbes Magazine >

The Right Technology Can Save Your Supply Chain

There are five trends causing the most stress in today’s supply chain industry – individualization, globalization, connectivity, mobility, and sustainability. Most of these challenges can be solved by technology, so it is important for specialists to understand how their organization can excel with innovative solutions. These solutions include an integrated business planning tool and an integrated e-commerce, warehousing, and transportation system allows you to streamline your order fulfillment processes for quick, efficient, and flexible customer delivery. Once supply chain specialists can get a handle on their technology, they will gain the agility and responsiveness to be successful.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Finance Function Cost vs. Strategic Value

“CFOs should decide how to balance their focus on the cost of the finance function versus its strategic value.”

CFOs are increasingly expected to accomplish more with fewer resources, so it’s important that they track how much it costs to run the finance function. This can be done by considering the total cost of the finance function as a percentage of revenue. Total cost includes personnel, systems, overhead, and any other costs necessary for day-to-day operation of the finance organization. CFOs should decide how to balance their focus on the cost of the function versus the strategic value they are trying to add. They need to look for opportunities to improve transactional efficiency and reinvest those savings into activities promoting strategic growth.

Read More at CFO Magazine >

AI Is Transforming the Wholesale Industry

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming the new normal across all industries. Machines, computer software, and algorithms can now understand written and spoken words at a deep level. Analytics and data intelligence are enhancing business processes and facilitating more intuitive customer service practices. Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies will facilitate a range of innovations for the wholesale industry. Better process automation, improved customer engagement, more effective assets and even new revenue models are now possible. Real-time data will be taken to new levels with the ability of these technologies to anticipate customer needs and extrapolate futures.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >