Emerging technology and trends

¶ … Technology and Trends

Emerging Technology Trends in e-Business and Supply Chain Management

Transforming the accuracy, agility, profitability and speed of e-business and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems, emerging technologies are making it possible for enterprises to design highly supplier networks that are more responsive to customers than ever before. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how technology adoption in e-business and SCM are leading to enterprises becoming more customer- and demand-driven than ever before (Barrett, 2007). Both e-business and SCM technology innovations are combining to create real-time analytics, order capture, pricing, production and fulfillment systems. Today new business models exist because of the accumulated effect of these innovations. This paper evaluates their impact on e-business and SCM systems and strategies.

Emerging Technology Trends in e-Business and Supply Chain Management

Where once supply chains were massive, slow to react and often myopic and inward centered in their evaluation of performance metrics, today the opposite is increasingly the case due to the impact of technology and innovation. Taken together the cumulative effect of technologies continues to have a revolutionizing effect on e-business and SCM systems, platforms and strategies, making them centered on demand forecasts from the customer. This transformation away from being purely internally focused and often blinded to rapid shifts in external opportunities and threats has been possible with the Internet and its many Web-based applications that allow companies the ability to connect and understand customers more effectively than ever before. The cumulative effects of Internet-based innovation can also be seen in the drastic shifts in value creation as well. The value creation in electronic communities as shown in the text in Exhibit 17.5 (Turban, King, Viehland, & Lee, 2006) further underscores how the Internet and its associated technologies are creating entirely new customer trading and supply chain networks. The shift from purely being focused on efficiency for the sake of cost reduction to becoming more agile, and capable of responding to conflicting market requirements is possible with the collaboration and content management systems in use in supply chains today (Das, 2011).

How Process Innovation Is Changing e-Business and Supply Chain Management

The greatest gains in e-business and SCM performance and profitability are not purely from the en masse adoption of technology; rather it is from the selective automation of the most critical business processes in enterprises. In e-business the need for having a secure technology platform for attracting, selling and serving customers is crucial for any business to achieve critical mass and profitability (Turban, King, Viehland, & Lee, 2006). Where technologies are making a major impact on company's ability to grow profitably is in the area of build-to-order and make-to-order selling strategies (Sawik, 2011). This is the selling and fulfillment strategy Dell has had so much success with, in addition to hundreds of other companies. Being able to provide customers with the flexibility of configuring their products and services to their specific needs and requirements involves having a highly synchronized supply chain who can respond to variations in product demand quickly. The entire value chain of a build-to-order or make-to-order business is based on the technological innovations in product configuration systems and platforms, pricing integration, and support from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as well (Sawik, 2011). When all of these areas of a company are working in unison with each other, the ability to sense and respond very quickly to customer demand turns into a major competitive advantage (Barrett, 2007). The concept of a Demand Driven Supply Network (DDSN) is predicated on quoting and pricing systems working in real time with each other to define the best possible series of options and delivery dates for a given customers' product needs. Often companies who have highly configurable products or services, such as Dell or in the services businesses, insurance and healthcare companies, need to provide customers with the ability to customize products in real time to their needs. Product configurators today are being used in e-business systems in these industries to provide suppliers with advance visibility of customer demand while capturing orders accurately at the same time (Aurich, Wolf, Siener, Schweitzer, 2009). The quote-to-order process encompasses creating customized products and services while staying within the constraints of profitability for an enterprise (Sawik, 2011). Studies also indicate the greater the level of system integration in these process areas, the higher the level of Return on Investment (ROI) achieved by companies who commit to making their systems work with each other in real time (Das, 2011). The greater the accuracy and velocity of information in the build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order workflows of companies pursuing a mass customization strategy, the higher the level of customer satisfaction as well, as order errors are significantly reduced, which in turn reduced order re-work (Sawik, 2011). The build-to-order process workflow has proven to be one that can be accelerated and made more accurate through the use of technologies to streamline each step in the quoting, pricing, configuration, production, supply chain and fulfillment processes (Aurich, Wolf, Siener, Schweitzer, 2009).