SCM Suffers From BI Gap
Most Business Intelligence setups and supply chain management (SCM) applications are known to short deliver, while capturing and modeling the relevant details of a global supply chain network. Thus it can be said that it is a bit difficult and challenging to gain broad intelligence given the fact that companies usually utilize the services of two or more SCM applications, one or more ERP systems and other cutting edge applications to link inventory replenishment and transportation management networks.
A growing trend among SCM application vendors is that they are adding Business Intelligence and performance management capabilities to their core applications offerings.
Thus, if you find dashboards, activity monitors and integrated event management tools for supply chain planning, manufacturing execution, warehouse management, transportation management or supplier relationship management incorporated in to the traditional SCM interface – don’t get surprised. This amalgamation, although at a nascent stage, is surely a step towards the next level in SCM development.
In a bit to attain the big picture, many leading companies have adopted business intelligence platforms that tap into enterprise data warehouses or operational data stores for capturing transaction data from the main ERP and SCM systems. However, this strategy often fails to support distributed decision making, master data management, visibility of trading partners and predictive performance management analytics that evaluate supply chain "what-if" planning scenarios.
In an effort to ace this challenge up, some of the business intelligence vendors have made progress, but none of them are known to support trading partner visibility and detailed supply-and-demand scenario planning. This might be a key challenge area, as it requires integrating trading partner data together with planning and transaction information. Although, there are a huge number of vendors who might offer such high end integration, the cost involved in my opinion makes the companies to rethink.
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