Enterprise resource planning systems, CRMs and other tech such as RFID, barcoding, customer and supplier portals, blockchain, IoT, and GPS tracking all support this goal.

Modern ERP systems are no longer just about transactional processes and standard business processes. They are now pivotal in meeting customer requirements, supporting automation, and integrating other essential technologies like AI, IoT, CRM and e-commerce.

Companies must stand out from the crowd with a superior customer experience to sustain profitable growth during these turbulent times; however, service alone will no longer suffice. Companies must contain cost and mitigate risk. ERP and related technologies are key to achieving these objectives.

During these turbulent times of supply chain disruptions, geopolitical risk, and stubborn inflation, companies must take bold action to mitigate risk, stabilize the supply chain, provide a customer service edge, and contain costs. As wars rage across the world, geopolitical risk has skyrocketed. If there is a disruption at one node in the end-to-end supply chain, the disruption can ripple throughout the entire chain. Executives realize that the risk is simply too high to count on the supply chain remaining stable without securing and gaining visibility to their full supply chain.

Similarly, as the world struggles with limited resources, high inflation and interest rates, there is an intense focus on cash flow and cost containment. Only those companies that automate, digitize, and utilize advanced technologies across their supply chains will be able to support customer requirements while maintaining and increasing profitability, productivity, and working capital. This will become even more critical as those companies that do not invest in their future will not be able to meet customers’ needs, leaving a vast opportunity for those ready to scale and meet customer requests.

Not enough to use your old ERP in new ways

Better utilizing an old ERP system will no longer suffice. To stand out from the crowd, you must go beyond these fundamentals and offer a differentiated or personalized customer experience.

For example, your ERP system must allow for progressive e-commerce capabilities that support not only B2C consumer expectations but also provides advantages for B2B customer ordering and status visibility with ease and effectiveness. Your ERP system should support customer personalization as well as product and service customization.

Similarly, a customer relationship management (CRM) system should be robust in tracking your pipeline, building relationships, and providing relevant insights and statistics of where to focus. Our most successful clients focus on analyzing CRM data, forecasting future customer needs, and utilizing these insights to build customer relationships.

The best clients combine CRM with a powerful business intelligence system to create predictive analytics and assess what if scenarios. The best companies connect directly with their customers’ data and provide proactive insights and differentiated value to their customers.

In addition to gaining sales, companies should utilize ERPs to take customer service to the next level with collaborative customer ordering programs and vendor managed inventory programs. By utilizing demand planning and sales forecasting including the use of AI and predictive analytics as well as replenishment planning and advanced planning functionality, clients can solidify their preferred partner status.

For example, a health care products manufacturer grew the business by outperforming their key customer’s resources in determining what to stock where. Not only did they increase their customer’s fill rate and shorten lead times, but they also reduced their customer’s inventory levels. The customer responded by expanding business and suggesting additional opportunities. In addition, the manufacturer reduced inventory levels and improved their production, warehousing, and transportation efficiencies. Profitability and cash flow increased.

Manufacturer technology that supports supply chain visibility

End-to-end supply chain visibility is essential to responding quickly to changing conditions and in providing Amazon-like status updates to your customers. Several technologies support this type of visibility, including RFID, barcoding, customer and supplier portals, blockchain, IoT, GPS tracking, and more. Smart companies are collaborating with supply chain partners to gain access to status information and to connect, plan, and optimize efficiencies across their supply chain.

For example, if you know the status of key materials, you can better plan production to minimize costs while meeting customer expectations. If you know the status of incoming goods, you can optimize truckloads and modes of transportation to mitigate costs while improving delivery performance.

The metaverse can bring together what customers ask for with what customers need. In essence it can accelerate your SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning) process. In a metaverse collaborative room, any set of customers, consumers, and suppliers can meet virtually to review sales forecasts, projected production plans, and possible supplier/capacity limitations that could affect manufacturing volume. They also can visualize an immersive supply chain network map, see where inventory is, identify issues, and model possible solutions. These types of proactive solutions will upgrade your ability to secure your supply chain, enhance margins, and provide end-to-end visibility.

The ever-increasing importance of automation

In addition to automating repetitive tasks, ERP systems and related technologies can keep facilities running at night without people. Since most clients have consciously prioritized which customers to serve due to limited resources, taking advantage of lights out capabilities is quite appealing.

For example, an aerospace manufacturer had a bottleneck in a critical area of the shop that required high-skilled resources to function which created significant past due and unhappy customers. This client purchased a robot and invested in high-skilled talent to modify the robot to work for their needs and connect it to their systems. They were able to program the robot during the day and run lights out on second and third shift, quickly resurrecting their customer service and supporting future growth.

As companies expand and upgrade the use of ERP and related technologies, they can create unique value for customers and in their supply chain. Taking it a step further, to thrive during these turbulent and inflationary times, it is important to automate, digitize, reduce repetitive labor requirements, increase efficiencies, and standardize so that more can be achieved with fewer resources. The best companies engage their people and connect with customers and suppliers to upgrade the end-to-end customer experience.

Originally published on Smartindustry.com on November 17, 2023.

The post Leveraging ERP and related technologies for a diverse customer experience appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Lisa Anderson was quoted in Food Logistics’ Top 10 Trends to Shape Cold Food Chain in 2024 recently. With the help of some supply chain visibility, sustainable measures, more focus on people and the ability to pivot at a moment’s notice, 2024 is anyone’s and everyone’s game to succeed.

Top trends to watch in 2024

Nearshoring, risk mitigation and building resiliency. The top supply chain trends to watch in 2024 include a keen focus on mitigating supply chain risk, reshoring and nearshoring to source reliable production closer to customers, finding backup sources of supply, creating resiliency in the end-to-end supply chain, digitizing the supply chain, and keeping an eye on cybersecurity threats, according to Lisa Anderson, president, LMA Consulting Group, Inc.

“Since there is heightened risk in the global supply chain due to geopolitics, conflicts over natural resources, ongoing concerns related to the Russia-Ukraine war, South China Seas, new threats in the Suez Canal related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Panama Canal issues related to drought, and concerns about natural disasters, labor negotiations/labor shortages, and cyber threats, smart executives are taking control,” she adds.

Sustainability. Despite all of the challenges and disruptions the supply chain industry faces, sustainability still remains a key trend for 2024, especially as companies race to deliver on their net-zero commitments by 2030.

“In many sectors, Scope 3 emissions can account for up to 80% of a company’s total emissions. Lowering Scope 3 presents one of the most significant opportunities for decarbonization, and the industry will look for opportunities to gain operational efficiencies,” Gerdeman says. “For example, our clients are using our analytics to optimize the mode, route, and equipment selection for temperature-sensitive goods, saving money by protecting products from freezing or spoilage, reducing refrigeration costs when cold blankets do the trick, reducing fuel costs, and lowering their carbon emissions.”

In fact, global food and beverage production accounts for roughly 34% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and according to the Food and Agricultural Organization, the food and beverage supply chain is on track to become the industry’s largest polluter. OXFAM found that the emissions of 10 of the largest food and beverage fleets equaled the total emissions of all Scandinavian countries combined.

State of transportation

The driver shortage still exists, diesel fuel costs are still on the rise and U.S. container imports continue to experience an uptick month-over-month.

The Yellow Freight bankruptcy also created a ripple effect on the industry, one that is still somewhat being felt.

“Customers had to scramble, opportunities arose for competitors, and the supply chain evolved,” Anderson says. “Similarly, the threat of a potential rail strike and West Coast port strike caused customers to transition to alternate modes of transportation and pursue alternate routes. The same is occurring with the UPS strike and the UAW strike as supply chains are moving to account for these types of issues.”

State of e-commerce

E-commerce in grocery didn’t really become a thing until COVID-19 forced several supermarkets and grocery retailers to create a B2C arm of their business almost overnight.

Fast forward to what will be 4 years later, and the rise of e-commerce in grocery is here to stay.

Similarly, B2B channels are also growing.

“For example, cold chain needs will explode as computer chip capacity comes online with the expansion of manufacturing with the CHIPS Act,” says Anderson. “Thus, cold chains are expanding at a rapid rate and will continue to thrive in 2024. Cold storage is limited, and even though there are inflationary pressures escalating the cost to build cold storage facilities, growth will be robust. Innovation will be essential to meeting these needs in a way that will provide customer value in a sustainable and profitable manner in 2024.”

What’s to come in 2024?

While 2023 may have been the Year of Bottlenecks, 2024 opens the door to longevity, peace and prosperity.

Yet to achieve those elements, companies must be more proactive, more agile and more forward-thinking.

“Instead of being reactive, forward-thinking executives are making the shift to being proactive. Thus, they are setting up a resilient supply chain with the ability to scale up/ down quickly, utilize backup sources of supply, alternate logistics and transportation providers and routes, and educating a cross-functional workforce. They are also rolling out proactive and predictive demand and supply planning programs such as SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning), forward positioning of inventory and capacity, and predictive analytics. As no client has enough high-skilled talent, the best organizations are automating, digitizing, and using robotics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, IoT and the metaverse (AR/VR) to best utilize limited resources while supplying customer needs,” says Anderson.

Read the full article here

The post Top 10 Trends to Shape Cold Food Chain in 2024 appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Originally published in Brushware, March-April, 2023

According to Insider Intelligence, the US B2B e-commerce sales will be over $2 trillion by 2024. Digital Commerce 360 said that manufacturers’ B2B e-commerce sales have been growing at an annual rate of 16% since 2016 which is almost 1.5 times faster than total manufacturing sales. The opportunity is vast to grow even faster than the averages as not all manufacturers are willing to jump into the mix. Those with value-added B2B e-commerce

As customers see the advantage in gaining the “and” of improved support and greater collaboration with lower costs of going direct to manufacturers, sales will continue to increase for manufacturers that invest in B2B e-commerce. It is not for the faint of heart in that you’ll have to upgrade your systems infrastructure to accept online orders, provide inventory visibility, and tie it with your ERP system. Additionally, manufacturers will have to proactively address changes to their ability to pick, pack and ship smaller orders on a more frequent basis. On the other hand, those that offer this capability will grow faster than the competition, and, more importantly, they will develop a closer relationship with their customers.

For example, a bike helmet manufacturer wanted to take advantage of potential e-commerce sales; however, their greater near-term opportunity was in B2B e-commerce. In order to provide greater capabilities for their B2B partners, they upgraded their B2B capabilities with system upgrades. Since their customers gained a superior customer interface with value-added reports and capabilities, the company was able to leverage this advantage in the marketplace.

Additionally, by virtue of having B2B e-commerce capabilities, their B2C e-commerce capabilities and related customer opportunities grew as well. In concert with these upgrades, they also upgraded their ERP system, warehousing process capabilities and warehouse automation so that they could increase their efficiency, accuracy, and responsiveness simultaneously to meet these increased demands without negatively impacting operations.

Similarly, a hand tools manufacturer saw a significant opportunity in e-commerce sales during the pandemic. From a sales perspective, they could take orders from B2B customers as well as consumers to support aggressive and rapid sales growth; however, there were challenges in meeting customers expectations from a distribution perspective. Since their strength was in support B2B customers and their ability to pivot in manufacturing to changing needs and incorporate product changes rapidly, they wanted to focus on how to best serve these priority customers.

Thus, they performed an internal analysis as well as a 3PL analysis to determine the requirements and costs to pick, kit as needed, package, pack, and ship pallets (typically required for B2B) as well as pieces (typically required for B2C) while supporting a quick delivery window for their customers. Although they could scale up internal operations, space was limited, and so they decided to focus the 3PL experts on the B2B e-commerce customers to drive improved performance for the customers while looking for opportunities for efficiency and cost improvements in warehousing and freight. They kept the rest internally while focusing efforts on the 3PL pilot for quick scalability and dedicated expertise.

E-commerce trends will continue to increase as customer personalization and customization differentiate from the competition. It is not one size fits all but taking steps forward will open up opportunities. The proactive companies will thrive whereas the stodgy will see their competition race by.

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To prepare for a segment on Bloomberg to talk about the state of logistics that will air with their interview of Deutsche Post DHL Group CFO Melanie Kreis (which will air on Chief Future Officer on Oct 5th), I did a deep dive on package shipping and related logistics systems. Thus, let’s start with a few statistics:

• Supply chain disruptions: Companies will lose 42% of one year of EBITDA every decade due to supply chain disruptions. Thus, smart companies are creating resilient supply chains.
• E-commerce surges: Although e-commerce surged during the pandemic as no one wanted to leave the house, it maintained its pace in 2021. E-commerce was 13% of retail sales in the US in 2021 and projected to increase to 25% by 2025.
• B2B matters: Similar to e-commerce, B2B drop shipments are surging. Who isn’t interested in flexibility and frequent service?
• The Rise of Omnichannel Fulfillment: Having a unified approach to manage inventory and order processing from a variety of sales channels is a requirement in today’s environment. According to 3PL Central’s Third-Party Logistics Warehouse Benchmark Report, B2B fulfillment was the largest fulfillment type at 72% for 3PL’s with e-commerce at 68% and B2C fulfillment at 56%.
• Infrastructure expansion: The air freight sector expanded significantly to keep up with changing conditions. Every package shipping company expanded air operations, added sortation centers, and spent considerable resources to expand capacity.
• Last mile: The last mile becomes critical in the world of increased e-commerce and keeping up has been quite the challenge. For example, UPS saw demand outstrip supply by as much as 5 million parcels per day.
• World trade growth: Interestingly, world trade growth continues to grow. It is 10% higher than pre-pandemic and expected to continue to grow.
• Labor shortages: Every industry including logistics has struggled to find the appropriate resources and skills. Automation has become a necessity.
• McKinsey study: McKinsey says delivery cost, speed, control and returns are key.
• Digitization: According to DHL, 82% of companies consider digitization to be a priority. 
• Robotics lead the way: In the industrial technology segment, robots are the first priority, followed by autonomous vehicles.
• Data analytics is #1: More companies are focused on information technology than on industrial technology with data analytics in the top position, followed by cloud technology.
• WMS surges: Not surprisingly, with the surge in e-commerce, your only hope of achieving customer success and efficiency is to utilize a warehouse management system (WMS). It is expected that WMS will surge in response. 

Where Is It Headed?

Supply chain disruptions will not improve anytime soon. If anything, they will be exacerbated by the continual evolution of the end-to-end supply chain and changing customer requirements. So, what are the common themes?

• E-commerce & B2B drop shipping will continue to rise and become the ‘norm’
• Supply chain resilience remains a top priority to create a superior customer experience with changing conditions
• Inventory management will increase in importance as interest rates increase and companies get back in the driver’s seat after the pandemic.
• Digitization is a requirement; not a nice-to-have
• Data analytics will give executives an edge
• Nearshoring/ reshoring/ friendly-shoring will only gain momentum, further changing the manufacturing and logistics footprint.
• Profitability and cost management increases in importance with potential recessions. 
• Sustainability is a priority 

The successful will have to stay on top of these trends, and most importantly, get ahead of these trends.

What Will the Best Do Differently?

What are the proactive doing to prepare for success?

• Increasing control: They are taking control of their end-to-end supply chain so that they can control their customer experience, costs, and innovations.
• Increasing flexibility: To create a resilient supply chain, the best are creating flexibility in their supply chain. They have options, backup options, increased capabilities, etc. 
• Increasing visibility: Visibility into the end-to-end supply chain is key to running your supply chain nimbly, gaining engagement, and providing peace of mind to customers. 
• Increasing speed: What is better than next day?  With changing conditions, rapid deliveries have become expectation. In many situations, multiple deliveries per day is common.
• Invest wisely: When the rest panic with volatility, the best invest wisely to pull ahead of the competition. Think about talent, technology, products, services, etc.
• Predict demand & align with supply: SIOP (Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning) can make or break success so that sales and operations align on the same page, driving growth, service, profitability, and working capital improvements.
• Innovate to thrive: Profitable growth can only be spurred by innovation. 

The post The State of Affairs in Package Shipping appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Manufacturers utilize less than 20% of the full functionality of their ERP systems. But the key question is, why does it matter? In today’s inflationary and supply chain disrupted business environment, manufacturers need to automate and digitize to ‘do more with less’ and thrive during these volatile times. One important way to achieve this goal is to further leverage your ERP system where it will make a difference.

No matter which ERP system you use or how archaic, there will be opportunities to use additional functionality. In 30 years of working with manufacturers, there hasn’t been one example of a client that couldn’t benefit by expanding the use of ERP. Beyond customer, profit, and cash flow benefits, ERP systems can help you automate the repetitive and mundane. The people benefit. Turning jobs from repetitive and injury-prone to exception-based with opportunities for learning and development can engage people’s interest. With the shortage of talent as the number one issue to top executives, it is worth investing in the expanded use of ERP.

Start by exploring and assessing which functionality would provide the most value to your organization. ERP systems support your order to delivery cycle, which is essential to successfully fulfilling your sales order demand, improving delivery performance, and reducing lead times. ERP functionality also supports the procure to pay cycle, which is key to purchasing the right materials to arrive at the right place at the right time to support manufacturing and most efficiently manage inventory levels. Almost every client can improve upon the plan to produce cycle, which can achieve three objectives simultaneously – improved customer service, increased efficiencies, and accelerated working capital.

Beyond base ERP, there are many technologies that support the customer such as customer relationship management (CRM), sales forecasting, and e-commerce. Additionally, there are software options to automate and digitize for increased efficiencies and improved quality standards such as the use of barcoding, RFID (radio frequency identification), robotics, autonomous vehicles, digital twins, and automated storage and retrieval systems. Critically important are software options to aid in analyzing and predicting data such as business intelligence (BI), artificial intelligence (AI), and predictive analytics.

As easy as it might be to get caught up in fads and trends, take a step back when assessing where to focus efforts. Understand your customer requirements and business requirements. Which functionality will provide the greatest benefit to your business? Which software functionality will best position you for growth?

For example, in a building products manufacturer, an assessment was completed of their use of their ERP system. Although they might benefit from advanced functionality such as available to promise (ATP) and advanced replenishment planning methods, they discovered they could benefit greatly by simply further leveraging their planning systems to increase OTIF (on-time-in-full) and add value to their service. By focusing on this simple objective, the sales team was able to grow the business during times of significant volatility and uncertainty.

As manufacturers focus on the expanded use of ERP and related technologies, they can create unique value for customers and in their supply chain. Taking it a step further, to thrive during these inflationary times, it is important to automate, digitize, reduce repetitive labor requirements, increase efficiencies, and standardize so that more can be achieved with less. Create value by better utilizing your already-existing ERP asset and engaging your people in solutions and progress.

As originally published in Brushware Magazine on September-October, 2022

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Supply chain issues have haunted businesses during the past several months. Given the status of the pandemic and other challenges, they probably won’t be resolved any time soon.

The best e-commerce businesses can do to mitigate these issues is to adjust their own practices, timelines, and needs to ensure that they can continue serving customers and being profitable.

The E-Commerce Times spoke with several experts to get their perspective on what’s going on with supply chains and how online sellers can adapt to the disruptions.

“There is an unprecedented volatility and disruption in the end-to-end supply chain,” said Lisa Anderson, president of LMA Consulting Group.

“Manufacturers cannot keep up with demand. Material shortages are common. Transportation issues and delays plague the system, and consumers’ expectations continue to rise. With volatility in both demand and supply, service and profitability suffer,” she explained.

There are a variety of causes for the disruptions in supply chains, and all together they’ve had a domino effect.

The supply chain disruptions are attributable primarily to the pandemic, but other challenges in the manufacturing, economic, and business landscape have contributed to the situation, as well.

Because supply chain challenges are currently par for the e-commerce course, businesses must adapt and be agile to stay afloat. One answer, according to experts, is to diversify.

Click here for the full story.

The post E-Commerce Times: Piecing Together the Supply Chain Puzzle appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Every successful client is experiencing rapid growth and changing customer requirements. To support this growth in a scalable, profitable manner, a modern ERP system is not preferred; it is a base requirement.

Why Has Modern ERP Become Essential

Pre-COVID, although preferred, it was less essential in supporting significant improvement and enabling customer loyalty. It is always achievable to better utilize an ERP system (even in the worst of situations), and although this fact remains true, it is no longer providing a BIG enough step up and the flexible customization required to scale fast and efficiently enough to meet changing customer needs while maximizing EBITDA.

According to KPMG, for the majority of U.S. CEOs, the pandemic has meant an acceleration of digital transformation by months or even years. During an Inland Empire Economic Partnership Board meeting recently, it was announced that research shows that technology has accelerated by 7 years. Although there are several technologies considered a priority, modernizing and upgrading ERP is a cornerstone launchpad for growth. Clients and colleagues are seeing the critical importance of not only having a central database for performing business transactions but also one that enables a superior customer experience.

What a Modern ERP System Do For You

ERP systems provide a solid infrastructure which will support scalable, profitable growth. Taking orders, deciding what to purchase, planning what to produce, tracking operational progress, storing inventory, shipping orders, invoicing the customer and tracking costs should be commonplace in ERP. These systems should also allow for the automation and integration of business processes that support business growth and profitability. Modern ERP systems typically support the vast majority of business processes and allow for reporting and analysis of these business processes and transactions whereas legacy ERP frequently stop short at supporting the full needs of businesses in today’s business environment. Turning data into insights has also become critical.

Expanding Capabilities with Related Technologies

For example, a mid-market manufacturer had to upgrade because their system didn’t support credit cards or inter facility transfers. Although upgrading was a significant undertaking, they gained not only these foundational requirements, but they also were able to better track and manage inventory, understand costs and analyze margins after upgrading their ERP system. After ironing out go-live issues, they had an upgraded base and could expand with CRM (customer relationship management) capabilities as well as B2B/ B2C and e-commerce functionality so that they could grow the business successfully.

In another manufacturer, they had a highly customized ERP system that supported their current needs expertly; however, it didn’t support scalable growth. It was also highly dependent on programmers with specialized knowledge. This risk became evident when their top programmer tragically died in an accident. Although they were able to make it beyond that situation, they knew they had to upgrade their infrastructure to support their aggressive growth goals. Since the executives wanted to minimize risk, they started with accounting to strengthen their base, expanded with reporting/ business intelligence to gain insights for growing the business and then upgraded the base. By taking this approach, they also gained insights into data issues to address upfront to ensure success down-the-line. After upgrading to a modern ERP base, they planned to accelerate success by further automating operations to gain efficiencies and customer responsiveness.

Advantage Beyond a Solid Infrastructure

Modern ERP offers advantages beyond providing a solid infrastructure for growth. These types of systems have advanced reporting and dashboard capabilities (business intelligence) built into the system. Some offer an artificial intelligence component with predictive analytics as well; however, simply having the ability to slice and dice data to make decisions can support profitable growth. These systems also have extensions for IoT applications such as predictive maintenance, customer portals and e-commerce, and automation and robotics. There is significant investment into future technologies so that the software stays ahead of the changing needs of the business.

Although it might be tempting to jump to the latest exciting technology and skip the ERP upgrade, don’t be tempted by shiny objects. It is akin to focusing on window dressings when the walls are not yet in place. The most successful executives have a scalable infrastructure that supports the execution of their strategy. Start by making sure you have a modern ERP system that will support your business objectives. 

Did you like this article? Continue reading on this topic:
Selecting and Implementing an ERP System

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To understand the state of the B2B eCommerce market, where it’s headed and what drives CPG wholesalers and distributors to adopt omnichannel commerce, we surveyed 200 Pepperi prospects during 2021.

Respondents included CPG wholesalers and distributors across 3 regions including the US (106 respondents), EMEA (62) and APAC (32).

To understand more about why these changes are taking place, and where omnichannel can support, we took a closer look at the forces behind B2B eCommerce growth.

Over half of those that plan to adopt an omnichannel commerce approach are doing so with an eye on increasing revenues (58%). It goes very much in line with the 2020 Global Benchmark Report revealing that on a global scale, distribution companies experience an annual revenue loss in the range of 7.25% – 28.47% due to sub-par sales practices, and an annual margin loss in the range of 2.89% – 15.70% due to sub-par pricing practices. 53% reported they want to be more competitive in the market (53%), 47% are driven by wanting to satisfy customers and around 18% to increase product discoverability.

Despite the pandemic and the accelerated growth of B2B eCommerce, the majority (55%) of respondents still haven’t implemented a self-service portal.

Out of three sales channels, telesales and field sales are still the most preferred and widely used channels among wholesalers and distributors across all regions.

Lisa Anderson, President, LMA Consulting Group, Inc. comments on the future of B2B eCommerce.

Click here for the full story.

The post Pepperi: 2021 FMCG B2B eCommerce Benchmarking Report appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

The post ASCM: E-commerce and Customer Personalization appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

In our eBook Emerging Above & Beyond: 21 Insights for 2021 from Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Technology Executives, two technology executives discuss the critical importance of personalization. With the dramatic rise in e-commerce during the pandemic and experts agreeing that it will only accelerate, hyper-personalization has emerged as a differentiator.

Kalon Stephen, Regional Vice-President at Salesforce, Inc. talked about the importance of investing in digital commerce technology and optimizing order management capabilities. He also discusses the importance of personalization with artificial intelligence. In fact, a progressive client completely aligns with this position and is investing in an ERP upgrade as well as a B2B/ B2C platform for growth because they believe it will drive growth and differentiation.

Tim Harris, Chief Strategy Officer at Arbela Technologies focused on the trend of hyper-personalization with the rise of e-commerce. He also said the right customer data platform to understand your prospective buyers and customers increased in importance with this trend of hyper-personalization. Innovation in this arena was the more robust in 2020 than in any other year.

Did you like this article? Continue reading on this topic:
Modern ERP Launchpad for Growth

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