Digital Transformation In Supply Chain Management

Digital transformation is a term that is thrown around a lot, and people have different ways to interpret what it means. Essentially, digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business. ARC Advisory Group, where I work, publishes an analysis of the 25 manufacturers with the most mature digital transformations. The report identifies the leaders and highlights best practices. The report takes a holistic approach to what a digital transformation means. “Leading companies take a strategic approach, integrating digital technology throughout their value chains. Design and engineering, production operations, maintenance, logistics, supply chain, business systems, customers, products, and organizational structure are subject to innovative change as companies examine and update processes and deploy new tools and technologies.”

The majority of time when people are discussing digital transformation, they are not directly referring to the digital transformation of supply chains. APQC conducts research on supply chain and logistics to help organizations assess the performance of their own processes and functions compared to their peers. Most recently, the APQC has conducted best practice and benchmarking research on digital transformation. This survey-based research gathers quantitative data as well as information on practices or performance drivers. The final report focuses on the current state of key practices in digital transformation in supply chain management, spread across multiple industries and over 1,100 respondents.

There are many areas of digital transformation within the supply chain. This report provides a cross-industry perspective on digital transformation in logistics including digital maturity in inventory management, transportation, fleet maintenance, safety and compliance, and more.

APQC Digital Transformation in Logistics Results

On average, respondents report allocating 14 percent of their logistics and warehousing annual budget to technology. Of this technology budget, an average of 30 percent is typically allocated to digital transformation. Let’s take a deeper look at a few technology areas.

Inventory Management

Respondents report a wide variety of maturity levels for digital transformation initiatives in inventory management. From a maturity standpoint, the majority of respondents are digitizing data and processes. But, it varies on how the data and processes are being used form a technology standpoint. Ninety-one percent of respondents are digitizing data and processes collectively; but, only 31 percent are using predictive analytics and 26 percent are using artificial intelligence. This means that 29 percent of respondents are digitizing data and processes but not using advanced technology to make the data more actionable. A mere 6 percent of respondents are digitizing data and processes, using predictive analytics or artificial intelligence, and using automation to act on recommendations.

Transportation

For transportation, the numbers are roughly the same as far as maturity within the digital transformation journey. Eighty-eight percent of respondents are digitizing data and processes. Predictive analytics is used significantly more than artificial intelligence to optimize, as 35 percent are using predictive analytics compared to 17 percent for artificial intelligence. For these respondents, only 3 percent are digitizing data and processes, using predictive analytics or artificial intelligence, and using automation to act on recommendations. These numbers show a significant gap around the use of advanced technologies for optimization and decision-making.

Warehouse Equipment / Facility Management

Ninety-two percent of respondents are digitizing data and processes in warehouse equipment / facility management. These numbers are line with the aforementioned technology areas for digital supply chain transformation. Thirty-one percent of respondents are using predictive analytics and 24 percent are using artificial intelligence to optimize. For these respondents, 6 percent are digitizing data and processes, using predictive analytics or artificial intelligence, and using automation to act on recommendations.

Two other issues that come in digital transformation are compliance and safety. Within these areas, respondents are at the low end of the maturity model. For both compliance and safety, nearly one-third of respondents do not have any digital transformation initiatives in place. Additionally, about one-third of respondents have only digitized data and processes in these areas. Very few respondents use artificial intelligence to optimize their data compared to those that use predictive analytics to optimize their digitized data and processes.

Final Thought

The APQC survey gives an interesting look at digital transformation in logistics. Currently, respondents are at the mid-point of the maturity model when it comes to digital transformation initiatives in inventory management, transportation, and warehouse equipment / facility management. However, these respondents are showing that their organizations are on the low end when it comes to compliance and safety. Moving forward, I expect to see more interest, more investments, and more movement in digital transformation in logistics.

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Article resource: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2023/04/09/digital-transformation-in-supply-chain-management/?sh=5772b2083311

Transforming Cybersecurity Into A True Business Process

 Cybersecurity is an arms race of innovation. Cybercriminal gangs continually discover new and more inventive ways to breach their victims' defenses while the security industry toils to find ground-breaking ways to detect and block the attacks.

Yet despite investing in the most recent innovative technology and services, firms still fall victim to incoming threats.

In most cases, the issue is not about ideas or intentions but how security is executed and operationalized. Even when an enterprise has invested in all the right tech, it will not make much difference if the business has not invested in security effectiveness. This means ensuring the security stack is correctly integrated into the rest of the business and underpinned by the right processes and operating model.

Solving this issue requires a decentralized approach to security so that cyber risk is owned and understood by all stakeholders, executives and employees—not just the CISO and their security team.

The Critical Barriers To Cybersecurity Effectiveness

Many firms are still not measuring their security effectiveness, which means they cannot tell if their investments are having an impact. This stems from security's status as the "new kid on the block." While it has become an increasingly critical business priority and has earned a place at the boardroom table, security isn't always linked to broader business goals in the same way areas like finance and sales are.

This disconnect was less of an issue when cyber could more comfortably be considered a niche technical issue, a siloed department away from the rest of the enterprise. But today, security is a responsibility of the entire organization. The fact that the average cost of a breach now exceeds $4 million means few organizations can afford to ignore their cyber responsibilities.

Tackling this significant business risk demands a shift in mindset throughout the organization, particularly at the top. The highly complex nature of cybersecurity means non-technical executives and other stakeholders will be happy to assume that the CISO has things well in hand; however, this erroneous assumption can often lead to the rest of the organization avoiding accountability for security.

CISOs usually come from highly technical backgrounds and possess a breadth and depth of cyber knowledge—but they may not have the broader experience needed to relate this expertise to business operations. It's common to find highly knowledgeable CISOs who struggle to communicate cyber risk and put it into a business context.

Cybersecurity effectiveness hinges on understanding flowing both ways. Alongside non-technical stakeholders getting a clear picture of cyber risk, CISOs also need to recognize how security fits into the rest of the enterprise. They must be able to clearly communicate how security activity is enabling core business operations.

So how do they reach this point?

Developing Skills And Building Strategies

CISOs need to upskill and evolve. This means moving away from their traditional focus on technical enablement and toward a more simplified approach that non-technical stakeholders, company-wide, can better understand.

Making these changes requires self-reflection and honesty from CISOs about their skill sets and operating methods. They must recognize if their communication skills are bridging the gap between security and the wider business. Are they building a strategic plan that meshes with business priorities, or are they focusing on smaller, more easily solved tactical issues?

Developing a more strategic skill set will help CISOs operationalize security better. Cybersecurity is a journey that needs to map out outcomes, impact and the business' unique environment and operations.

Pursuing a tick-box approach is no longer enough. Simply putting measures in place to achieve regulatory compliance or cybersecurity certifications does not mean that these processes effectively keep the company secure.

Instead, cybersecurity effectiveness hinges on outcomes. Security must be a part of the business process, actively and measurably enabling business success. Once security is embedded in this way, all stakeholders will be able to understand security effectiveness and accountability just as quickly as they can for mainstays like sales and finance.

For example, have you considered what business functions will suffer from the biggest impact if they are affected by a breach? How does this view align with different stakeholders? If there are differing thoughts, how can they be unified and addressed?

What are your plans and preparations for an attack if you know your highest-risk assets? Do you have the processes, reporting, and communication to deal with a threat effectively and ensure long-term resilience?

A New Operating Model For Cybersecurity

Answering these questions requires an operating model that uses its technology platform to decentralize cybersecurity, turning complex data into something more digestible for stakeholders.

Because cyber risks threaten the entire business, improving security must be a company-wide responsibility. Everyone must be part of the cybersecurity process and aware of their role and responsibilities.

A top-down approach can help instill this sense of responsibility and bake security into the company culture without impacting the performance of core operations. Teams at the top, including the executive leadership team, can take accountability for each area, implementing and following the proper security measures.

Reinforcing this, the CISO must translate highly technical security issues into something the entire business can understand. This demands a robust set of KPIs for cybersecurity effectiveness, focusing on numbers that can be translated to the board and stakeholders to provide context. The right KPIs also make drawing a direct line between security targets and the wider organization’s business goals easier. This enables stakeholders to make more informed decisions about security investments.

Improving Cybersecurity Effectiveness Together

By fostering understanding and responsibility, security accountability becomes a shared concern across the company, enhancing cybersecurity effectiveness. With well-defined metrics, it's easier to evaluate processes and make necessary refinements. This enables businesses to fully utilize innovative technology, optimize their security stack, save costs and achieve optimal ROI, ultimately making cybersecurity a catalyst for success.

Looking to hire skilled software developers? Contact TP&P Technology - Leading Software Outsourcing Company in Vietnam Today

Article resource: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/04/11/transforming-cybersecurity-into-a-true-business-process/?sh=6af03b37454c

The Importance Of Considering Collaboration During Digital Transformation

The last few years have permanently changed how we live, operate businesses, and integrate technology into our everyday lives.

Most notably, we’ve shifted our mindsets from a hyper-individualistic culture to a more collaborative viewpoint. Many are emphasizing the greater good and how our actions impact the people around us. This paradigm shift in the fabric of our society is certainly not limited to how we connect and interact: It also heavily influences the way we do business and integrate new technologies.

Here’s why collaboration is the key to digital transformation and how our businesses operate as a whole.

Collaboration Boosts Employee Engagement

During the pandemic, collaboration became center stage as companies scrambled to communicate and get work done in a fully remote environment.

One study by Gartner indicates that after the first 18 months of the pandemic, 80% of workers reportedly used digital collaboration tools, up from 40% at the start of 2020. Additionally, the need for mixed meeting modalities in a remote work environment meant companies had to work together to implement the digital infrastructure necessary to support increased collaboration in the workplace. Mixed meeting modalities let employees collaborate regardless of location or time zone, ensuring everyone can participate.

Other new technologies included virtual whiteboards, in-video chat room features to foster one-on-one connections during video meetings, recording and transcription capabilities, and more. But in my experience, it wasn’t the precise technology that boosted employee engagement—it was the effort put into sincere collaboration. Without being able to just swing by someone’s office, employees needed to put more time and effort into connecting with co-workers, communicating about projects and maintaining collaborative workflows. As the Gartner study demonstrates, employees rose to the challenge, proving that new methods of work are here to stay and that collaboration is at the center of business success.

The Difference Between Communication And Collaboration—And Why It Matters

You might think your company has a firm grasp on the concept of collaboration, but it’s important to ensure you aren’t confusing collaboration with communication.

It can be tempting for companies to implement digital workplace tools and technologies for the sake of increased communication, but doing so without creating any real infrastructure to foster true collaboration isn’t effective. Sure, you might implement several different messaging apps, video conferencing tools, project management software and other applications with the goal of increased communication, but in the end, you may be multiplying the effort it takes for employees to complete their tasks. With conversations split between platforms, employees won’t be as encouraged to foster meaningful connections and collaborations with their colleagues.

The bottom line is that communication is centered around knowledge-sharing, while real collaboration puts this knowledge to good use. Streamlining communication, using effective technology and ensuring documents are in order are all essential first steps to true collaboration. And its benefits are immeasurable—it strengthens problem-solving, ensures the best ideas come to the table, creates a deeper bond among your employees and fosters a healthy sense of competition to encourage individual and collective success.

Business And Basketball: Why Team Players Win

In the past, there was a hyper-focus on individual employee performance. But in more physically isolated environments, such as hybrid or remote workplaces, the focus is less on the individual and more on the good of your entire team. Companies should focus less on the how and more on the who—who in your workplace will help you accomplish your goals? Who is on your team and willing to collaborate to bring forth the best ideas to serve your clients and company?

Take Michael Jordan as an example. Even though he is celebrated as one of the best basketball players of all time, he needed a team around him to sharpen his skills. Enter Scottie Pippin.

Pippin and Jordan were both members of the Chicago Bulls in the 1980s and 1990s and helped the team win six NBA championships during their time together on the team. Both were incredibly successful before they were on a team together, but their partnership (and sometimes their rivalry) made them even better. Pippin told the Guardian in 2020, “We grew up together, and we defended each other. That respect we had on the court, that competitiveness we took through to the top—it was special. That was the respect we had for each other because we had to be on the court to do what we did.”

You might argue that Pippin found success on the court during Jordan’s ’93 to ’94 absence, but when Jordan rejoined the team the following year, Pippin had the best season of his career thus far. There’s no way around it: Having a good team around you sharpens your skills and helps bring out your best performance.

The real beauty of true collaboration is that, at the end of the day, your teammates (or co-workers) are there to strengthen you, support you, and make sure your business as a whole wins. That’s why I believe that effectively executing this core tenet will be essential to businesses’ long-term success.

Looking to hire skilled software developers? Contact TP&P Technology - Leading Software Outsourcing Company in Vietnam Today

Article resource: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/02/10/the-importance-of-considering-collaboration-during-digital-transformation/?sh=2c79e5c3a127

It’s Time For Software Engineering To Grow Up

 The recent market correction has been a long time coming. For over a decade, low interest rates and easy access to capital fueled a period of unprincipled growth in Silicon Valley. “Cash-flow positive” had become a distant memory of a bygone era. But as Edward Abbey put it, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” He was referring to the erosion of wilderness at the hands of uncontrolled urban expansion in his beloved Arizona, but the analogy applies to companies as well.

Digital Transformation In The Software Industry: Changing The Game With Data And Analytics

Although digital natives, software development companies still benefit from digital transformation processes that enable them to integrate data-driven decision-making into all business areas. As the general landscape becomes more competitive and the need for agility increases, tech leaders need to know how to master data and analytics as critical elements of their organization’s digital transformation.

Data Is Essential To Digital Transformation

We live in a hyperconnected ecosystem, where every interaction results in massive datasets being generated. This consumption and usage of data has significantly changed over the years, helping shape new business models and driving a customer-centric approach to transformation.

How Digital Twin Technology Can Help Retail CIOs

 It’s fair to say that retailers have ridden out a decade of dramatic shifts, with more inevitably to come. Beyond the initial swing from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce, the pandemic has fueled the acceleration of consumers’ omnichannel expectations and exacerbated macroeconomic headwinds, including inflation, labor and inventory issues—underscoring the critical need for retail resilience.

What transformational leaders too often overlook

You can’t innovate without a strong foundation. That’s why it’s vital to think strategically about IT infrastructure — and to get your C-suite colleagues and board members too as well.

High-performing CIOs know that digital mastery depends on a strong foundation of rock-solid infrastructure, information security, enterprise data management, and sound IT governance. But for all the emphasis on cutting-edge technology for business transformation, IT infrastructure too often gets short shrift.

5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Software Development Team

These questions will help you choose the right software development firm for you and also ensure there are absolutely no negative surprises for you when the time comes for delivery. 

Whether a business has just started out or is soaring high into the sky, the software is a critical part of any business. And rest assured, if you want to run a successful business and compete with the data-driven digital world, you need software. If you have the required resources for software development, well and good. If not, you first have to choose a software development team with the sole aim of developing software that meets your business needs.

Why AI Is the Next Step In Digitization Of the Finance Sector

4 Truths Of Digital Transformation: Keeping CX At The Center Of Your Digital Strategy

 Everyone wants to be able to interact seamlessly and digitally with their favorite brands, and these days, we’re all programmed to expect it. New technologies have made it easier than ever for companies—big and small—to digitize nearly every facet of CX. But if you’ve ever found yourself on hold for customer service, then you already know there’s nothing quite like a human touch.

Growth: Why You Need A Minimum Viable Business (MVB) Before Adding New Offerings

Whether startup or established business, the most common growth strategy for entrepreneurs is to create new offerings. Most attempt to create minimum viable products (MVPs). However, no business can grow merely by creating new products or services. Even if the market clearly indicates a gap and need for a new product or service and the entrepreneur can easily make or provide it, a business that has not already built efficient sales processes will not grow. Even a business with a great product can perish without enough sales. What is required to take a product and make a viable business that can then grow and take on more?

Here are some truths we all know:

- Ideating new products or services is easy. One can even persuade oneself or others to finance production.

- "If you build it, they will come" is a myth. Selling products or services is not easy, even if they’ve won awards.

- If selling one or two products or services is difficult, then selling three or four at scale is much more so.

- Making a profit or having enough margin is a matter of reducing fixed and variable business costs while increasing sales volume. Breaking even takes time.

So, what is a good way to grow if adding new offerings could overwhelm the business? Most product or service people just hope for the best and fail to understand the business dynamics required. They focus on just production and might even implement MVPs. However, they cannot possibly grow until they establish a minimum viable business (MVB)

An MVB is a business that has a repeatable sales process and enough sales momentum with the existing product or service portfolio. Break-even or profit may yet be in the offing. Exponential growth might still require external financing. However, seasoned VCs and angels expect to see a picture of sales momentum and profitability before they will write checks. An MVB has steady growth because it has both a viable product or service and viable sales processes that bring in a reasonable margin or profit when you discount costs.

Investing additional attention, effort and financing on a new offering is only justifiable after establishing such an MVB.

For startups, it is paramount to take an MVP and start establishing viable sales processes. Even though popular startup lore lauds the idea of an MVP, creating efficient and profitably repeatable sales processes around the MVP is much more important. Expecting growth or even additional financing without sales processes is silly. The first step to growth after establishing an MVP is to put it in the market and create operations and sales processes that establish an MVB.

If you are not a startup, adding potential new offerings begins with asking how new offerings should be staffed, produced, financed, marketed and sold. The simplest answer is to allocate some fraction of existing capacity to the new offering. However, is there sufficient capacity for this additional task? If your current business is an MVB as defined above, you could justify this division of capacity. If not, diluting your efforts to accommodate a new idea risks dissolving your existing business momentum. Even if you had an MVB to begin with and found the extra capacity to start a new offering, it behooves you to go through the process of establishing an MVP and then an independent MVB for the new offering.

The crux of growth is establishing an MVB with efficient and profitably repeatable sales processes. Startup or otherwise, if your processes for sales are not clearly understood, cost too much or are too complicated to repeat, then you do not have a foundation to expand in any manner.

Without an MVB under your belt, your current business is incomplete and probably not very stable. Starting on new ideas is unlikely to manifest the business discipline needed to succeed, and you are unlikely to inspire the investment you might need from anyone.

So, the first step to growth or expansion is to ensure that your current sales processes for the existing products and services are profitably repeatable. This means that the entire chain of the sales process must all be clearly understood and practiced, and bring you margin:

- Marketing and lead generation: How does one create a sufficiently large funnel? Are the appropriate types of customers being convincingly messaged?

- Qualifying prospects: How is the lower end of the funnel made skinny and efficient by ensuring only leads with need, budget and urgency are given attention?

- Sales approach, negotiation and closing: Is the sales effort prepared with appropriate collateral, objection handling and alternative offers?

- Cost: Does the cost of all of the above in addition to production cost leave you a margin?

If you have all this to a point where you can guarantee sales and margin, then you can train new salespeople and produce enough revenue to finance some growth yourself. Is such margin only possible after production at scale? It might be true, but the food industry, in particular, is a great example of margin via production at scale still failing. There are few exceptions.

Being rigorously disciplined about the sales process gives you, your business and any expansion endeavors a much more key skill set than merely producing new products or services. It forms the most important part of viability even without a great product or MVP.

A profitably repeatable sales process and MVB leave you in the comfortable position of needing to just train and scale sales efforts (all other efforts in a business except research are much easier) to take your current business to ever-increasing heights. You then have a foundation for growth by making the choice to enhance existing offerings or build entirely new ones.

Looking to hire skilled software developers? Contact TP&P Technology - Leading Software Outsourcing Company in Vietnam Today

Article resource: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/04/22/growth-why-you-need-a-minimum-viable-business-mvb-before-adding-new-offerings/?sh=5891119b88cb 

Top 5 Best Internet of Things (IoT) Software in 2022

IoT software has emerged as one of the key inventions of the twenty-first century in recent years. There came a streamlined connection between different systems through the internet by linking items we see at home or work equipment professionals use through embedded devices. In this technology-driven environment, the physical world collaborates so effectively with the digital world that companies rely on the Internet of Things (IoT) to automate operations and save labor expenses. 

Above all, the best IoT software development reduces waste and optimizes service delivery. This leads to lowering the cost of manufacturing and delivering items while also providing transparency into consumer interactions.

The Future Of Social Media In The Metaverse

Social media is the archetypal web2 application – the enabler of the “user-generated web”. But that doesn’t mean it will die out with the onset of the metaverse and web3. In the metaverse, features and functionalities we’ve all become accustomed to – "liking," "sharing," and the “for you” page – are no longer confined to social applications. They are there when we are gaming, working, learning, or whatever other activities we are getting up to within connected, virtual worlds.

Why Digital Transformation Should Start with a Modernized Network

In the last few years, organizations have begun to focus more on digital transformation – moving workloads to the cloud, deploying the Internet of Things (IoT), experimenting with artificial intelligence and data analytics, and embracing a myriad of other technologies – all to become more efficient, deliver a better customer experience and, ultimately, drive more revenue.

The pandemic kicked this gradual transformation into high gear, forcing CIOs to re-examine their IT infrastructure. Smart CIOs looked at expensive on-premise and dated data centers, saw them as large, chunky pieces of real estate that don’t deliver enough value, and moved to cloud hyper-scalers to make their IT infrastructure more dynamic and to reduce costs.

Choosing The Right Digital Transformation Partner

In today’s ever-changing markets, business leaders understand the benefits of digital transformation. In fact, a PwC study found that 60% of executives worldwide believe enterprise digital transformation is a critical growth driver, whether that growth goal involves improving customer experience, productivity, products or services. However, a business transformation of any kind can be a strenuous lift for a company, especially when most businesses have little to no internal transformation capability.

It’s one of the many reasons organizations seek help from outside consulting partners. In fact, 88% of businesses use third-party providers for at least one component of their digital transformation. While leading businesses around the world have recognized for decades that consultants can be an incredibly effective way to remain competitive, I do not believe the adage "nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM" translates to digital transformation partnerships. The fact of the matter is that while the global consulting industry continues to grow (with an expected estimated value of $525.57 billion by 2027), the market for experienced digital transformation consultants is scarce. With countless consulting firms to choose from, it is critical for businesses to avoid a partnership with a vendor that lacks digital transformation expertise.

QA Myths: Debunking Three Common Misconceptions About Testing And Quality Assurance Metrics

I felt compelled to write the following article due to a division of opinion that has risen between several professionals within the quality assurance (QA) community and me on the importance of metrics in testing.

After 23 years in the QA industry, I concluded that measuring how efficient a team is in getting tasks done is crucial in driving cost calculations, team size allocations, future budget allocations and other important decisions. But many testing professionals see these factors as outgrowths of micromanagement rather than outcomes of output measurement. In fact, some voices in the testing community believe that putting productivity metrics around testing cases is useless altogether. In this piece, I’m going to dismantle this school of thought by debunking several myths aimed at discrediting the use of metrics in QA testing.

Digital Transformation Services Trends to Follow in 2022

Digital transformation integrates the business areas to deliver fundamental value to the customers. Digital transformation services open doors for developing business models for several products and creating deliverable value for clients to make profits. The ongoing transformation in technology during the 2020s had multiple facets for businesses.

Tired Of Failing At Digital Transformation?

As we all know, the last two years have brought about change on multiple fronts that will have both long-term positive and negative effects. One such change can be seen in the rapid pace at which companies have adopted digital transformation. This pace has had a significant impact on companies of all sizes. Having run a company for ten-plus years that focuses on delivering emerging technology solutions to companies, I’ve seen my share of early adopters, laggards and everything in between. The pandemic forced all of us to adopt new technologies, whether we were prepared or not.

The Ecosystem: Why Partners/Players Must Come Together To Achieve Digital Transformation

Humans have an intense need to control our environment. It’s evolutionary, central to survival even. But it is often the case that one of our greatest strengths can also prove to be one of our greatest weaknesses. It was true in ancient times, and it is no less true in the age of digital transformation, with too many companies and individuals reluctant to share data or transformational capabilities due to a lack of understanding and fear of losing control and position. I call this “digital territorialism.”