If you needed to find the answer to a question online, but search engines didn’t exist, how could you ever hope to sort through all of that information to find exactly what you’re looking for? You would be lost without that ability to search millions upon millions of webpages.
It’s the same when it comes to the amount of data you have on hand for supply chain operations or other business analytics.
No big surprise that Computerworld recently reported that business analytics and applications are on the rise this year. As the market for analytics grows, what do we need to remember when swimming through all of this data? Well, for starters, let’s keep in mind that the value of information only becomes clear when we can successfully apply it.
For example, as we help companies become demand-driven in their supply chains, a great deal of sales and operations data is captured. The actions of customers, the status of suppliers, the flow of product, and many more details – spread out over different product categories and time periods – creates huge amounts of data. But with so much data, you can easily fall into the trap of misusing it and missing an all-important advantage.
This is why I believe it is so critical to teach companies how to use the data gained from their end-to-end supply chain visibility to become more demand-driven. They can then benefit by employing better and faster decision-making based on the data being collected, in real-time. This saves organizations money and dramatically increases customer satisfaction.
This is just one example of how to maximize use of data. Let me know how you are putting big data to good use for better supply chain and business operations. How do you ensure that your company is making the best use of today’s constant information gathering environment?
Jim
P.S. For more on becoming demand-driven, watch this short video: http://www.tompkinsinc.com/demand-driven/
