Cloud is enabler for supply chain to rise to Omni-channel challenge

Omni-channel is the new buzzword in retailing; however, it is the “seamless customer experience” that has every retailer struggling. As brands and organisations come to grips with the fact that consumers are shifting the way they shop, retailers need to change their business processes to accommodate that seamless customer experience. One important aspect is inventory visibility, and that does not just mean visibility into a retailer’s warehouse. As lead times shrink and global demand constantly shifts, supply chain visibility along the entire supply chain of a retailer becomes ever more important.

Without cloud technology true global inventory visibility is not possible. Thousands of parties are involved in the process of sourcing, producing and distributing a retailer’s products before they even touch the warehouse. In fact, in many cases these products do not need to touch a retailer’s warehouse anymore due to the fact that products are now being delivered to stores directly, or cross docked, saving handling and storage costs and even more importantly in most cases: time. By saving time when the goods arrive at their destination market, you have a little more to spare at origin. This in turn allows a retailer to make changes later in the process, such as defining packaging, labeling and shipping destination. The goal remains the same: increased inventory availability for a better consumer experience. 

It takes more than just the retailer to execute an optimised inventory strategy. All parties along the supply chain need to be on board and play their part. By having seamless, reliable information “posted” and instantly available to all these relevant parties, progress and exceptions can be monitored in real time and any issues that occur can be detected, escalated and resolved by the right parties immediately. In today’s world of global supply chains, no inventory issue can be solved by one party alone, it always takes a group of players to come to the best solution and immediate execution of a revised strategy – minimising economic damage and a negative impact on the consumer experience.

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The only way to achieve this kind of command over supply chain activity is though cloud based collaboration platforms. This technology allows organisations to rapidly exchange detailed, high quality data with their external partners as well as becoming control towers, that enable rapid sense and response activities across the broader business network. A collaborative supply chain solution should make communication seamless and traceable, eliminating email paper trails and replacing rigid EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) point to point communication. It will enable companies to upload all information and documents to a single point for each order and item. It can also integrate communications with in-house inventory management and order systems – connecting the sourcing team, the inventory team and even the finance team with the wider extended partner network.

More recently, cloud-based software is being complemented by improved tracking technology, like radio frequency identification. RFID could further eliminate the smallest inaccuracy in inventory accounting. While many retailers already use the technology in their distribution centres and stores, we are now seeing an increase in their use at the production facility level. Combining RFID and cloud-based supply chain technologies will streamline tracking into one single system, making the online and in-store inventory much more accurate than it is today.

The use of robust cloud-based supply chain and inventory management systems will make real time tracking of goods the industry standard. This in turn will reduce the handling and storage expenditures for manufacturers and retailers. Consumers will continue to demand seamless shopping experiences and the smartest of retailers will learn to deliver by implementing the technologies that will help them and their partners to build a successful, transparent and flexible business, tackling issues collectively and collaboratively – not individually.