Digital World

The growing vulnerabilities within supply chain management have underscored the need for supply chain data analytics . Supply chain data analytics plays a pivotal role in shaping the success journeys of organizations. Supply chain management involves myriad challenges, which only accentuates the importance of supply chain data analytics . Let us dig deep into how supply chain data analytics can benefit organizations. Mitigate Inventory Costs through Demand Sensing Supply chain data analytics can help organizations add value by gaining a clearer picture of their day-to-day operations. This is where predictive analytics comes into play for forecasting future demand. For a long time, organizations had to bank on past orders for estimating future demand, which means the decision-making of organizations was not aligned with future demand trends. Today, organizations can combine all their previous order data with real-time market analyses to create dynamic demand forecasts that pro...

There is always a line of thought that it is only technology that is the enabler for driving excellence across organizations, especially in a digital era. This is far from the truth as organizations thrive in this digital age not just because of effective deployment of technology but owing to robust technology-driven business models . Take the case of ride-hailing company Uber or even the Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix, Disney Hotstar, and Amazon to name a few – all these brands came to the market with solid technology-driven business models and went on to become highly sustainable, wherein technology was not the only factor for their business success. Disruptions are the order of the day across industries, which means that business models that appeared sustainable two-three decades back are off the radar with the onset of new business models disrupting the market. For centuries, agricultural and colonial business models dominated the world and soon gave way to the pro...

The biggest misconception around IoT is that its benefits can only be unlocked with big investments – usually by large organizations with deep pockets and a long-term vision. This is a myth that we burst here, in this article! The worldwide number of IoT-connected devices is projected to increase to 43 billion by 2023, and a maturing ecosystem with easy implementation is making IoT accessible for small business es as well. Custom-built solutions might be out of the reach of SMEs, but off-the-shelf IoT tools provide unprecedented opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises across industries. Here is a look at some of the ways in which IoT can bring about positive outcomes regardless of the size of the organization: 1. Optimizing logistics and transportation Sensor-based IoT tracking provides a range of excellent solutions to bring real-time monitoring and management to the industry. Vehicle sensors can give insights such as location, productivity, and technical conditio...

Organizations are increasingly focusing on devising an effective digital marketing strategy to propel their business growth. The realization has dawned on organizations about the significance of putting in place a well-oiled digital marketing strategy . An effective digital marketing strategy enables organizations to accelerate their efforts to the digital environment to pitch new clients as well as maintain relations with existing clients. Digital Marketing serves as an exciting medium for organizations to ramp up their online presence. The importance of Digital Marketing has been accelerated by the power of the internet, which has served as an enabler for organizations to leverage videos, podcasts, and email campaigns that help them reach out to people. Today, no organization can afford not to have an online presence because it can have disastrous consequences. This effectively means that organizations can lose a host of opportunities that are available in an online world. Ther...

Supply Chains are often at the heart of some of the biggest challenges organizations face. From commitments around customer experiences to balancing cost and revenues to top-tier decision making, supply chain problems impact almost all parts of an organization’s processes. At the core, the main issue is an imperfect demand-supply matching process. This was brought to the limelight by the Covid-19 supply chain collapse that showed us how disruptions can affect the entire chain from suppliers/manufacturers to customer-facing retailers. The Covid-19 crisis was an extreme case, but even during more manageable times lack of real-time and transparent visibility across the supply chain can make demand matching a big challenge. How Blockchain Can Optimize Supply Chains While Keeping Them More Agile? Better Freight Tracking With more reliable data feeding the tracking systems, Blockchain can make existing tracking tools more accurate and make it easier for organizations to stick to t...

Customer experience has emerged as the new battlefield on which the fight for dominance and market leadership will take place. And this new reality holds true for B2B organizations as well. It is now no longer enough for manufacturing and B2B concerns to just have a customer-facing website as their only calling card on the World Wide Web; a robust web presence to wow the well-informed, digital-savvy customers is critical for success in non-retail sales journeys as well. One way to bring about enhanced CX is to use uber-personalization across channels and touch points to bring about experience optimization. In this article, we will examine how Adobe’s A4T (Abode Analytics+Adobe Target) can use data to achieve better CX for organizations: Better RoI One of the critical issues plaguing personalization efforts is the lack of RoI. This was largely due to an over 30% variance in data coming from the personalization platform into the analytics platform, which led to time-consuming d...

There is an increasing focus among organizations to ensure there is a higher level of efficiency across their field service operations . No wonder, organizations are putting a lot of emphasis on ensuring effective field service management . But as is widely documented in the public domain field service organizations are struggling to keep a tight rein on high operating costs. This cost factor is getting increasingly frustrating for organizations and this explains why they are according high priority to effective field service management . Benefits of Leveraging Field Service Management Software Proper scheduling One of the key challenges to effective field service management is the absence of workflow and dispatching problems that can cause scheduling overlaps. Organizations can now leverage field service management software solutions, wherein they can use GPS to assign duties to specialists/technicians near a customer’s location, which can substantially save time and enhance or...

There is an increasing focus among field service organizations to optimize their service order truck rolls (a situation wherein a technician is required to be dispatched in a truck to a customer’s location for service, such as to install, move, or reconfigure an item of equipment or perform some other form of technical service). It is imp ortant to understand here that organizations incur significant expenses every time a technician is dispatched to a customer location. According to a report released by the Technology Service Industry Association, the cost of a service order truck roll exercise is upwards of $1,000 – this clearly indicates that service order truck rolls are an expensive proposition because it involves technician wages, unbillable travel time, administrative cost, vehicle fuel, vehicle maintenance as well as challenges such as technician unavailability for revenue-producing activities. Clearly, there is a pressing need for efficient field services management . Efficie...

Supply chains play a key role in how the success journey of organizations is shaped. Effective management of supply chains is a must-have for organizations given the fact that supply chains have to grapple with disruptions, demand-supply imbalances, and changing customer expectations. Organizations are looking to raise the efficiency bar across their supply chains. And to address the various supply chain challenges across the globe, one area that has grabbed eyeballs is supply chain data analytics . Supply chain data analytics can play a massive role in driving enhanced efficiency across organizations. Supply chain data analytics can do a world of good to organizations in ensuring access to end-to-end touch point visibility, which always has been a big pain point for organizations. Supply chain data analytics can be an enabler for organizations to deliver an elevated customer experience, reduce operating costs and augment profitability. Given the connected ecosystem of present ...

The boom and expansion of e-commerce come with its own set of challenges and one of the biggest issues is RETURNS. Offering consumers a no-question-asked and easy return policy is the gold standard for attracting and retaining customers in a cut-throat market landscape, but it can pose also huge challenges, in terms of Reverse Logistics and the associated costs. While deeper customer engagement, personalization, and better visual representation can lower dissatisfied clients to an extent, the real Reverse Logistics challenge stems from the dark world of counterfeiting.  Counterfeiting (in retail and B2B sectors) hurts profitability and damages the reputation of organizations. According to a report released by the OECD and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office, counterfeit goods represent 3.3% of world trade, and much of this occurs somewhere in the supply chain. Blockchain technology has emerged as a useful tool to counter the various Reverse Logistics Challenges . With its distr...

The realization has dawned among organizations about the importance of leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive Digital Transformation across their operations. Small and medium enterprises are evincing a lot of interest toward hopping on to the IoT bandwagon. There is no doubt that IoT is making huge strides to enhance Digital Transformation . Data has emerged as a present-day fuel for organizations and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made this possible by making data actionable. Artificial Intelligence supports enhanced digital IoT applications to enable predictive, perspective, and adequate analytics. According to various industry experts, the number of internet-connected devices will grow to over 80 million by 2025 – this effectively means that IoT adoption will witness massive adoption in coming times. This brings into focus the proliferation of cloud computing, where IoT will play a big role. IoT has accelerated the growth of cloud computing by extending cloud capabil...

Global supply chains had to endure a lot during the outbreak of Covid-19. Even before the arrival of the pandemic global supply chains was bogged down by long-standing challenges, and it will not be a sweeping statement to make if one says Covid-19 broke the back of even the most well-established supply chains. One thing that stood out amid Covid-19 challenging times is the importance of supply chain visibility. Supply chain visibility has become a matter of increasing importance for organizations across the globe. Organizations are cognizant about the fact that supply chain visibility holds the key toward delivering enhanced profitability, accelerated customer experience, and lower operating costs.One has to understand that exceptional, unforeseen events can challenge even the best of supply chains. To put it straight – no supply chain can claim that they have all the answers to such unforeseen events that crop up from time to time. Never before, access to real-time data has got s...

Along with the digital disruption, the last decade witnessed business model disruptions of unexpected proportions. Veteran manufacturing and direct service giants witnessed technology-driven business models take over the economy and create value out of thin air. So much so that today we can’t imagine a world without Uber, Netflix, or Airbnb; but just a few years ago these were just nuggets of ideas testing the digital ocean. So it is crystal clear that Technology-Driven Business Models will be the order of the day. And there are many reasons why Technology-Driven Business Models will acquire more prominence. Let us understand how the New Wave of Business Models would look like? Personalization will get even more – personal! With AI and data analytics getting integrated into the digital economy, the trend of mass customization will become even more pronounced. From manufacturing to online services to advertising and last-mile engagement; business models championing customization...

Digital Marketing has steadily eaten into marketing budgets over the last few years and claimed the lion share of corporate advertising spends – making evident the desire of brands to excel in online advertising and sales. Organizations understand that more and more consumers are now spending some (if not all) of their sales j ourneys online and connecting with them in the virtual world is crucial for a brand’s success. However, the desire to achieve an outcome doesn’t equate to actually succeeding at it. Many organizations jumping feet first into a new digital marketing strategy soon realize that one needs to go beyond buying Google Ad inventory to connect to the digital-native generation. Digital must become a part of your enterprise DNA; digital must rebuild and redefine organizational technology, processes, infrastructures, and culture. The new battlefield for a digital marketing strategy is the digital transformation of the whole organization. DX goes beyond marketing; it c...