The Executive Spotlight series will feature several of Amber Road’s key thought leaders as they discuss what they see as the biggest challenges and trends in the GTM space.
What do you believe to be the key challenges facing your customers and their supply chains in the year ahead?
Despite the abundance of enterprise supply chain applications, a key challenge faced by customers is the time and expense of implementing these systems. The unique requirements for handling complex supply chain processes needed by different business units and geographies have contributed to this long implementation cycle.
ERP supply chain vendors have typically responded to these needs by designing customizations to application code. Unfortunately, in addition to lengthening implementation time, a customization today means a serious impediment to upgrading tomorrow. Supply chain organizations that have customized their on-premise business applications have found that it is impossible to upgrade to the next version of the software without losing those customizations.
Customization also runs counter to the inherent simplicity and ease of upgrade promised by cloud-based applications. Supply chain applications that are delivered via the cloud make it possible for vendors to support and enhance their products without jeopardizing the customer’s ability to easily upgrade to new versions. They are doing this by providing the ability to easily configure the application using settings rather than code changes.
Amber Road is meeting its supply chain customer’s needs through the use of property sheets that contain configuration options covering every bit of functionality in the application. This array of choices makes it possible to approximate the results that would have come from core code customizations. Except now, the core code is never touched and all configurations are stored separately.
This is a welcome change for supply chain system customers. The ability to adapt an application to key business processes without sacrificing future functionality will ensure a higher return on investment overall.
How can supply chain, as a function, better align with a company’s broader strategy?
Implementing configurable supply chain technology can have a broad impact on corporate strategy, especially when it comes to supply chain resilience. A supply chain system must be able to respond quickly to changing conditions in the market, natural disasters and other disruptions, such as labor strikes at the ports.
A cloud-base supply chain application has a higher likelihood of remaining functional during a natural disaster or prolonged power outage such as seen recently on the east coast. Because it can be accessed from anywhere using a web browser, companies can continue to monitor or alter crucial supply chain operations even when other facilities may not be functioning.
Continuous operation during a disaster or supply chain disruption can spell the difference between profit and loss. Ensuring that supply chain functions are disaster-ready can have a measurable effect on company strategy.
Jim founded Amber Road (formerly management Dynamics) in 1989 and through his visionary leadership has helped define the Global Trade Management (GTM) market. As CEO of Amber Road, Jim oversees strategic development and is responsible for opening new markets and expanding the company’s portfolio of solutions through strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
Jim Preuninger is the Chief Executive Officer of Amber Road and serves on the Board of Directors. With over 25 years of software industry experience, Jim has been a part of the evolution of the supply chain management market from a domestic focus to one that now encompasses global operations and spans logistics, compliance and trade finance.
