Supply chain management can benefit in five ways from cloud technology, according to an article by application migration specialist BitTitan.
“Using the cloud allows every player to access information from anywhere in the world, removing geographic constraints so businesses can access more suppliers and expand into new markets,” writes BitTitan’s Holly Cary in a blog post.
Cloud offerings by their nature can make it easier for global partners and customers to understand what’s happening, and therefore react to it in a timely manner. Not to do so means risking bottlenecks and delays across the web of business interconnections and relationships.
“The interconnected nature of the global supply chain requires secure communications and data sharing among many types of businesses,” Cary says.
That comes with a need to strike a balance between information flow and the need to protect sensitive information, with enterprise-grade security and tighter security protocols needed for data and applications in the cloud.
“You need to be able to adjust output and procedures as demand fluctuates, but without compromising on quality,” Cary says.
“Using the cloud allows for quick adjustments because data and information are available immediately across the business. Cloud services also improve forecasting with data accessible on demand for analysis.”
Also, cloud environments with flexible scalability can help companies build resilience into their supply chains, enabling a response to market or sales contractions as well as growth.
Migration tools, such as BitTitan’s MigrationWiz, are aimed at helping organisations more easily migrate data and applications to improve inter- and intra- team collaboration, including with customers and vendors wherever they are, Cary says.
This includes further digitising critical processes and using cloud technology for better collaboration and access to data, including the delivery of more opportunities to implement automated processes and integrated applications.
“A major pain point for many companies in our current supply chain situation is the inability to keep up with demand,” Cary writes.
