Extend visibility with a control tower

With cloud-based SCM platforms, you can see your entire supply ecosystem in real-time.

Visibility into a single supplier is no longer enough. Companies committed to building stronger, more resilient supply chains are extending visibility to customers, suppliers, and distributors. You want to see not only what’s happening with your supplier, but also what’s happening with your supplier’s supplier. The same goes for alternative vendors and distributors all over the globe.

One of the best ways to achieve this 360-view is by leveraging SCM technologies to create a supply chain control tower for your supply chain operations. Not long ago, getting to the bottom of disruptions took a flurry of phone calls and days of waiting for suppliers to respond. Now, with cloud-based SCM platforms, you can see your entire supply ecosystem in real time.

In this new era, SCM control towers enable companies to:

Automatically collect data, instead of relying on traditional spreadsheets.

Establish a single source of SCM truth across all teams and departments.

Monitor all levels and branches of a global supply chain and identify problems early.

Respond to disruptions quickly by adjusting routes or changing or augmenting suppliers.

Communicate via one platform to check on order statuses and make changes.

The competitive benefits of improved visibility

A two-way street

0%

of companies give critical suppliers visibility into their future demand, but 76% of industry leaders do

View source

There are numerous advantages to having greater supply chain visibility, including:  

Costs savings from re-engineering to favor low-cost suppliers and faster, more efficient delivery routes.
Fewer “fake orders” because customer service no longer needs to lock in supplies to ensure they are available down the road.
Improved lead time because buyers can look across multiple suppliers to understand availability.
Increased supplier flexibility so that companies can source from many suppliers instead of one.
Better communication regarding delays and disruptions, enabling action to lessen the impact.
The importance of streamlining the last mile.