E2OPEN INC We've barely been back for a week from Gartner, and my mind is still buzzing with all of the great insights from this whirlwind annual event, where we both participate and present. This year's conference was certainly one for the record books, as it was one of the largest supply chain events that I've ever been to, with more than 1500 attendees, and broader industry representation than I've seen in the past.
We spoke with companies at every stage of the demand-driven value network maturity model, but in spite of these differences, one common theme united all of these companies: the overall need to achieve better visibility - at every stage. Although many vendors discussed "visibility" as a concept, the scope of the definition seemed to vary greatly, and the conversations ranged from the manufacturing level to product innovation platforms, S&OP and S&OE, planning and logistics, all the way through to sell-side functions. What is particularly gratifying to see is that the goal of end-to-end visibility is a top-of-mind issue for many of the individuals we spoke with. The E2open breakout session with Dell showcased the multi-tier visibility that has been at the heart of the company's virtual control tower for several years, allowing the business to respond efficiently and effectively based on a segment-specific approach, and track the commits across the supply network. Dell pointed out that visibility and visualization were not the same thing, requiring that latency and context be taken into account for true visibility.
Digital supply chains were also a hot topic from the Gartner perspective. Based on the idea that the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Everything (IoE) will create a nonstop connection for data at every point in the supply chain, the future looks to become even more data-centric. It's interesting to consider that if Big Data is the result of this shift, and that would be new to most supply industries beyond consumer goods, the need for focusing on addressing the right issue at the right moment will be even more critical. This was a great "aha moment" when we think about business networks - where the information is normalized, transformed, put into context for visibility, and shared in an actionable format.
The last topic that really stuck with me is the idea that you can create good karma within the world of the supply chain. Walgreens did such an amazing job illustrating the contributions of their employees with disabilities in one of their distribution centers. It demonstrated how everyone can make a difference, and on the flip side, be the difference in each other's lives.
And of course, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate the almost half of the list of Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 winners that are E2open customers. We could not be prouder of your achievements, and value the privilege of working with your teams every day.
With that, let me know if you were at the event. What were your big takeaways from this year's conference?
|
distributed by
|
