With the rise of technology and instant access to information, customer expectations have undeniably changed, putting pressure on organizations to provide faster and more transparent delivery. Effects of the Delivery Economy — the pervasive sentiment in which customers expect low-cost, fast and highly transparent delivery of goods — span across industries with 73% of the supply chain professionals saying they’re experiencing pressure to improve and expand their delivery capabilities as a result.
Even though these demands originated largely due to consumer-focused delivery innovations, the impact has stretched well beyond the retail industry with 85% of B2B companies feeling pressure to improve or expand upon delivery capabilities. To keep up with expectations, supply chains are searching for ways to increase efficiency and collaboration, process and deliver goods faster, and provide more visibility into shipments.
To enable supply chains to take on these challenges and prepare for the future, project44 and SAP have joined forces to deliver an unparalleled solution. Through the partnership, the industry-leading technology providers identified three challenges supply chains need to prioritize now and moving into the future, including:
- A lack of connection and collaboration
- Inadequate access to quality business intelligence
- A responsibility to improve sustainability
True Connectivity and Collaboration
With the increasing demands from customers for faster and more transparent delivery, it’s critical for supply chains to increase collaboration and communication. In order to deliver on this new customer experience, while also reducing costs, supply chains need the ability to increase operational efficiency and decision-making agility.
The problem many supply chains are facing today is that stakeholders don’t have access to the latest insight needed to make effective decisions. If some or all stakeholders are missing information, or have delayed access to this information, they can’t take action.
To gain access to data while it’s still valuable and handle problems before they occur, supply chains need real-time visibility into a vast network of carriers. Many times, outdated approaches to visibility don’t offer a complete view into a shipper’s carriers.
Because the carrier market is fragmented and complex, connecting to each carrier manually takes a lot of time, effort, and resources. With the largest global visibility network, project44 and SAP give you access to connect to thousands of carriers. With strong carrier compliance, you can realize ROI faster.
As shippers’ supply chains acquire this high-quality visibility data across their carriers, they can leverage analytics to investigate trends, identify patterns, and find areas for improvement in their operations. This type of optimization isn’t possible without truly connected systems, processes, and people.
To help supply chains improve collaboration, SAP and project44 are delivering an end-to-end real-time visibility solution that connects all key stakeholders in the supply chain, including shippers, logistics services providers, carriers, and customers.
Better Business Intelligence
While collaboration is critical, it won’t make a difference if stakeholders are making decisions based on bad data. Not all data is created equal. Infrequent and incomplete data won’t produce the insights or results supply chains need. A connected supply chain needs to be built on top of quality data. Otherwise, all the decisions you and your stakeholders are making will be based on questionable insight.
Legacy processes for tracking freight don’t provide information fast enough for it to be useful. As supply chains strive to deliver goods faster in order to remain competitive, it’s more important than ever to have instant access to accurate tracking data and ETAs.
Through direct API connections and integrations with ELD/telematics devices, project44 is able to access real-time data and instantly cleanse and normalize that information to deliver highly reliable insights. Using project44’s data to extend SAP’s Logistics Business Network means you can have access to high-quality data into truckload shipments. As the partnership grows, coverage will extend across modes.
This intelligent approach allows you to proactively take action with real-time insights, avoid disruptions with predictive and dynamic ETAs, and eliminate inefficiencies. Ultimately, you’ll be able to strengthen customer relationships and build a competitive advantage.
A Sustainability-Focused Approach
As organizations are faced with more pressure to make their entire business as environmentally sustainable as possible, many supply chains are evaluating their operations to find ways to reduce their footprint. While focusing on sustainability and meeting increasing customer demands at the same time is challenging, there are practices that can have an immense impact on both efforts.
Through increased connectivity and better intelligence, organizations are able to increase effectiveness. With real-time visibility, reliable ETAs and predictive alerts, you can manage operations in a more efficient manner.
Organizations can be proactive instead of reactive and make smart, real-time decisions rooted in high-fidelity data and predictive intelligence. With these abilities, you can build a better strategy to reduce your carbon footprint by linking environmental sustainability to the shipment or order.
For example, with more visibility into where a truck is and when it will arrive at its destination, dwell time can be reduced. Instead of idling for hours waiting to unload, trucks can show up, unload, and be on their way.
With more detailed and real-time information about inventory location, companies don’t need to stockpile inventory in an attempt to make sure products are available for purchase. With the ability to plan better, companies can reduce the amount of product that ends up in landfills.
Through seamless extension and integration of project44’s data across SAP’s intelligent suite of applications, you will be able to create efficiencies across your entire supply chain, supporting your efforts to improve sustainability.
A Connected, Intelligent, and Sustainable Solution
To deliver the tools supply chains need to not only overcome today’s biggest challenges but thrive in the future, SAP and project44 have partnered up to deliver a seamless solution.
SAP’s Logistics Business Network, extended by project44’s high-fidelity data, enables a connected supply chain based on real-time quality insights. Leveraging this native integration with SAP Logistics Business Network, customers can make smarter decisions, reduce costs, and increase efficiencies, all of which are critical to delivering a better customer experience. As supply chains become central to the customer experience, they have the potential to differentiate the company as a whole and have a key role in business growth.
Visit SAP’s website to learn more about how SAP and project44’s solution can enable your supply chain for the future.