Cloud computing makes it possible to closely track a product throughout its life cycle. Although cloud technology has been around for almost 20 years and even though organizations across all industries are reaping the rewards of the cloud, there’s one industry that has not fully embraced the technology – supply chain management. Despite the supply chain management’s slower adoption rate, it doesn’t change the fact that the cloud makes perfect sense for this industry. It is because it enables supply chain professionals to easily track a product as it moves throughout its lifecycle, and it effectively communicates with others in the supply chain if there are issues or any sort of redirection needed.
Though it can be challenging to transition from the traditional management system, this doesn’t outweigh the benefits of cloud-based management, which includes:
Scalability
As a business grows, it needs an IT system that can grow along with it. Cloud-based services will provide your business with organizational flexibility to naturally reconfigure certain capabilities to sustain your needs. With everything living in the cloud, businesses will not need additional permanent infrastructure to manage temporary peaks in an organization. Rather, scaling upwards can become as simple as inputting new data into an existing cloud workforce.
Immediacy
Implementing a new software within existing IT systems takes too much time. The good news is you can reach one of the many cloud supply chain management software providers and expect a new and better service to be up and running within a couple of weeks. They can ramp up quickly, generally within 24 hours depending on the amount of data.
Cost Containment
Moving your supply chain management to the cloud eliminates expensive software setup and the ongoing cost of running and maintain data centers. Having resources on demand and immediately, scalability doesn’t come with the hefty price tag often that comes with IT system changes. With that, companies cut costs with the expanding capabilities and an ever-widening customer base. Other than that, cloud solution also disperses the expenses across all small or large corporations and expands the market capabilities to everyone regardless of size. Therefore, cloud-based management allows the reduction of costs associated with managing and maintaining IT systems.
Efficiency
By converting to a cloud service, you are able to automate repeatable tasks using configurable rules, routing guides, policy management, and custom workflows that exist in the cloud. That’s because cloud solutions leverage managed automation and data analysis, leading more intelligent systems of resupply processes. Automated workflows will make the cloud perform step-by-step to create an efficient analysis based on the input of your business. Cloud technology will empower your management team and make them more intelligent in making decisions without straining your current workforce’s budget and time.
Accessibility
Physical systems come with limitations. With the cloud, everyone from drivers to account managers can access all necessary information on any device. This makes it easier to conduct business in the event of an emergency from anywhere at any time.
Onboarding
Global growth and expansion mean companies will be taking on more third-party organizations to assist with the complexities of global supply chain management. The merging of data and analytics between newly acquired or partner groups can be a laborious, time-consuming process with a great deal to waste when it comes to resources. Cloud computing helps reduce the amount of lag time when merging large pools of data and reporting and helps the integration of partner companies run as smoothly as possible.
Flexibility
Cloud-based services keep the supply chain connected with everyone, enabling a more strategic approach to inventory deployment. Cloud computing offers Geoanalytics, which enables supply chain management professionals to monitor the delivery network, stop bottlenecks, and prioritize slower moving shipments.
Optimization
Cloud-based service optimizes your supply chain by going beyond just linking information systems. It will increase your business transparency and visibility so that your supply chain management fosters collaboration. If your business has limited IT integration within and between suppliers in fundamental areas like forecasting and demand management, your business is most likely to jump into cloud computing because both businesses need a greater level of integration. In fact, 46% of surveyed supply chain management professionals said greater collaboration can be solved twice as quickly.
