SCM IN THE CLOUD
In Association With:
The cloud-based
future of
supply
chain management
Dan Bloch, Vice President, Diversified Industries, Financial and Supply Chain Solutions for Oracle in Canada, explains his excitement at what the likes of AI and cloud have to offer the world of SCM
W
04
hen it comes to business computer technology, Oracle is ubiquitous. And when it comes to business applications, Oracle has a similarly strong presence with enterpriseclass products and platforms it has developed in-house, integrated with best of breed solutions it has acquired over the years. In areas such as supply chain planning, PLM, logistics, transportation, warehouse, and global trade management it has established itself as a provider of best-in-class, regardless of the backend ERP. Over the last several years the company has been on a journey to redevelop all of these capabilities for the Cloud – starting with CX, then HCM and ERP, and more recently SCM. Based in Canada, Dan Bloch is Oracle’s VP responsible for customers’ financial and supply chain needs, predominantly in Eastern Canada and the North Eastern USA, and across multiple industries. For him the cloud is not just the biggest opportunity facing Oracle, but a catalyst for change for almost every aspect of business
and consumer life. “We are finding increasingly that with the accelerating speed of change, and emergence of disruptive technologies such as IoT, companies need a platform that can rapidly adopt new capabilities without having to undergo periodic, massive transformations. That platform is the cloud” In the case of IoT, the terabytes of data that now floods in from a myriad of IP enabled devices, RFID, GPS and other sources must be collected, consolidated and thoroughly analysed. Bloch adds: “This data has the potential to help a supply chain assess what it can do because we get better insight into where materials are prior to manufacturing, for example, and where my post manufacturing products are relative to reaching their endpoint.” The challenge lies in making all that data usable, he says, and many companies still have some way to go. Gaining insight from that information, and translating that into positive business outcomes is where Oracle differentiates
“As soon as you start dealing with equipment, even if you’re not manufacturing that equipment, you create an entire supply chain situation” – Dan Bloch, Vice President, Diversified Industries,Financial and Supply Chain Solutions
itself. “We have identified the different industries and sub-verticals and are bringing out specific capabilities designed for each. This will always be a continuous journey, but the horizontal infrastructure that enables this is ready now.” For customers this is crucial. For example, a device on a forklift can detect that a piston is overheating, but without sophisticated predictive analytics that signal is meaningless.
And without the ability to translate that into action, such as creating a work order, complete with the right tools, material and besttimed dispatch, that signal by itself is just not useful. “Oracle is transforming that signal into real, actionable information and then integrating that into the right ERP and SCM processes,” Bloch says. “That’s what is unique.” w w w. o r a c l e . c o m /c a - e n
05
Oracle ribbon cutting ceremony for its new Design Tech (d.Tech) High School – a public charter school that works closely with the Oracle Education Foundation, a non-profit organization funded by the company
06
The power of 5G, IoT and AI Communication infrastructure operators justified the capital cost of building out the 4G network on the demand for video streaming. Now they are looking to IoT: the proliferation of devices will require mobile networks that can handle an exponential growth in data. That’s what going to drive the investment in new 5G networks and their 100x speed and capacity. In Canada he sees these forces converging: “Business needs the information these devices can provide, and the ability for those devices to communicate over mobile networks, and to be able to service
that information in a way that’s relevant to business goals.” Delivering these services in a cloud environment for supply chain is still relatively new. Oracle has been immensely successful with its traditional on-premise software. Major Canadian businesses are among the many that rely on Oracle supply chain solutions to produce and deliver products to their customers. The territory he looks after is geographically dispersed. Industries like mining and resources operate in remote locations, and for companies like one of the world’s largest
gold producers, 5G connectivity will be crucial. “We have some great customers,” says Bloch. “They certainly understood where we are headed in terms of enabling IoT information into business practice. We have large commitments to one another to further that agenda.” Customer-led prioritisation The communications service providers (CSPs) themselves stand to benefit. They deal with huge amounts of diverse equipment, from their towers and signal boosting equipment to cable boxes, handsets and modems – even the devices that give cars mobile
connectivity and their data centres. “As soon as you start dealing with equipment, even if you’re not manufacturing that equipment yourself, you create an entire supply chain situation,” Bloch says. “In the old days, if there’s a failure somewhere, you would learn about it from a customer, then locate and fix it. Today the fault can be detected automatically. The next step is to not just see a problem, but to predict it, locate it, and resolve it automatically without disruption. The preventative capacity that it creates is amazing and all of w w w. o r a c l e . c o m /c a - e n
07
Perspective matters The future asks more of business. A demand to look at the world from a whole new viewpoint. With a global network of over 2,000 supply chain consultants, Deloitte delivers supply chain management with new perspectives, from strategy through implementation. We serve clients around the world to help them improve their supply chain performance and increase shareholder value. A fresh view on addressing your most challenging decisions awaits at: HeartOfWhatMatters.Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member Firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member Firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member Firms. © 2016. For information, contact Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.
To make an Impact that Matters.
go-live. We understand Oracle
project costing and profitability,
That is Deloitte’s defined purpose
cloud is a catalyst, digital is the
improved order to delivery
and to act with courage and
mindset and transformation is
cycle times and improved order
conviction to make an impact
what’s next.
efficiencies. From a myriad
that matters every day—across
Our Supply Chain practice focuses
of complex systems our team
our businesses and around the
on delivering practical, strategy-
was able to leverage delivered
world. At Deloitte, we have been
driven value through advisory
processes and best practice
working closely with Oracle for
services that optimize, reinvent,
design to reduce the footprint to
the past 20 years to transform
digitize and improve the supply
a compact, efficient, cloud first
the way our clients do business.
chain from end to end — design,
platform.
Working hand in hand with Oracle,
plan, source, make, and deliver. We
With another client in the
we are defining the journey to
tackle organizations’ most complex
communications industry, we are
Cloud in Finance and Supply Chain
issues by drawing on global
helping them overhaul their supply
Transformations.
capabilities that span all areas of
chain platform. Leveraging our
For us, Cloud isn’t just another
business strategy and operations
proprietary Supply Chain Illuminate
technology platform, it’s the future
and industries including Consumer
Labs, we have helped them move
of technology. And Oracle’s suite
& Industrial Products; Energy &
in to the cloud with Oracle Supply
of Cloud applications are helping
Resources; Financial Services;
Chain and Inventory Management
Deloitte’s clients open the door
Technology, Media, & Telecom;
including working with Oracle on
to a world of new possibilities.
Healthcare & Life Sciences; and
innovating new ways to integrate
Over 22,000 Deloitte professionals
Public Sector.
the Digital Supply Network.
around the world are helping client
Recently our team has delivered
We are helping organizations adopt
organizations move at the speed
transformative results to a
the Digital Supply Network and we
of innovation and drive business
high-tech manufacturer in
know we can help you turn your
value with Oracle cloud solutions
Canada. Deloitte led this client in
supply chain into a competitive
that are built and tested in an
transforming the manufacturing,
differentiator. Contact us to find out
iterative and immersive way. Our
inventory, order management
more about how we are helping
team focuses on empowering
and procurement processes all
our clients navigate disruption
clients to be innovative and thrive
leveraging Oracle Cloud. The
and leverage the opportunities of
in the Oracle cloud long after initial
benefits resulted in improved
Oracle Cloud.
SCM BUSINESS DRIVERS INNOVATE
• Enable new operational thinking and support changing networks to free resources to perform more value-added activities.
CONNECT 10
• Link related business processes to create efficiencies and enable greater transparency.
SIMPLIFY
• Fewer integrations, less training, and consistent upgrades will empower workers.
this is enabled through the seamless integration of IoT, analytics and SCM.” The information might be embedded into existing work processes to enable action – or it can be made useful by applying artificial intelligence (AI) with no human intervention. Bloch says: “It’s the added insights that AI can provide in real-time that really makes the whole thing exciting, and that is why you are starting to see the lightbulb go off for leaders of supply chain. They see tremendous opportunities to take out cost, to improve service and to decrease cycle times. Budgets stay static at best, so their approaches have to be smarter and more cost effective. AI will enable many savings. I can react to a problem earlier with a less serious maintenance task and
not wait until it is more disruptive, costly or even catastrophic. I can reroute my production capacity based on a better understanding of the whereabouts of the problem, or dynamically solve my premanufacturing inventory issues.” Oracle is partnering with customers to drive innovation. “The specifics of a solution may differ but the benefits are not company or industry-specific,” Bloch continues. “These are people who see that the IoT investment and the software investment will drive value in their business. That is a vision we at Oracle share.” The majority of companies today have some sort of work order management
“Business needs the proliferation of devices in the areas where it makes sense to collect information, the ability for those devices to communicate over mobile networks, and to be able to service that information in a way that’s relevant to its goals” – Dan Bloch, Vice President, Diversified Industries,Financial and Supply Chain Solutions
w w w. o r a c l e . c o m /c a - e n
11
BENEFITS OF MOVING TO THE CLOUD COST REDUCTION
• Minimal upfront investment, subscription-based pricing
SCALABILITY
• Easy expansion with minimal risk
SIMPLICITY 12
• The cloud vendor handles maintenance, and upgrades
Founded in
1977
process, he says. They vary in the extent to which these processes are digitised, but whether they are running their enterprise on an Oracle backbone or another system, Oracle IoT and SCM solutions can be integrated without the need for a costly migration of their existing backbone. Of course, if that backbone were the Oracle Cloud, the capabilities would be part of the platform. Beneficial partnerships Oracle has an accreditation process for its implementation partners, with differentiation on the basis of their experience and the breadth, depth and value that they bring outside of
just IT implementation. In many cases a joint collaboration makes sense when approaching an SCM transformation in the context of broader corporate goals. Industry-specific know-how is of particular benefit. For example, it has a number of partners that are very active in Canada and North America. “One partner of ours is very experienced in implementing Oracle solutions across industries in Canada, and North America, so they can anticipate issues before they occur,” says Bloch. “For example, in the US there is a new accounting standard called ASC 606 which governs revenue w w w. o r a c l e . c o m /c a - e n
13
“I am so excited about the wealth and the breadth of the capabilities we are bringing to market” – Dan Bloch, Vice President, Diversified Industries, Financial and Supply Chain Solutions 14
recognition and deferred obligations in customer contracts, similar to the IFRS 15 requirement. Given this particular partner’s expertise in auditing, they can anticipate the needs to collect contract level information during an ERP or supply chain implementation and make the appropriate design considerations up front to satisfy this accounting requirement.” Again, this is something that differentiates cloud from on-premise solutions, he says. “On-Premise software brings with it a greater
burden, in resources and cost, of customisation and upgrading. To that extent its benefits are short term. In contrast, while the Oracle Cloud does permit extensive configuration and even the development of extensions, it does not allow the customer to customise. This is a good thing. While customers typically go through some change management to use the software the way it is designed, this ultimately that puts them in
15
a highly sustainable place and at a much lower cost. It allows them to standardise whatever they can and still to differentiate in the areas they need to – those areas that really create the identity and differentiation of their business. And most importantly, it allows then to continuously receive new capabilities and innovations without the need for complex and costly upgrades. “I am so excited about the wealth and the breadth of the capabilities we are bringing to market and the potential impact we can have on the Canadian
market. That we have Canadian data centres to provide these services will allay any concerns around data appropriation. We can service customers of every size and complexity. And we can help customers standardise and differentiate what makes their companies and products unique. I never want to suggest that we have all the answers. We are always in partnership with our customers, who are our best teachers. We love their feedback.� w w w. o r a c l e . c o m /c a - e n
www.oracle.com/ca-en