Beset by Risks, Buy­ers and Sup­pli­ers Seek to Become More Agile and Resilient

By Tony Harris

Geopo­lit­i­cal issues and eco­nom­ic uncer­tain­ty are wreak­ing hav­oc on glob­al sup­ply chains, cre­at­ing new and daunt­ing chal­lenges that threat­en to upend entire indus­tries. To over­come them, buy­ers and sup­pli­ers must cut to the core of how they oper­ate and change things up. 

To sur­vive and thrive in a world where the only sure thing is rapid and ongo­ing change, they must be smart, fast, agile, and resilient, work­ing togeth­er as they nev­er have before. Intel­li­gent Spend man­age­ment solu­tions will enable them to pull it off.

Sup­ply chain tech­nolo­gies have been around for decades, prov­ing their abil­i­ty to dri­ve game-chang­ing improve­ments in how things are bought and sold. But these tech­nolo­gies have got­ten smarter and more con­nect­ed; they are poised to deliv­er even more. 

Beyond just pow­er­ing com­merce, Intel­li­gent Spend man­age­ment solutions can fuel inno­va­tion and busi­ness growth. And in the year ahead, savvy orga­ni­za­tions will tap them to do just this. Here are four things you can expect:

Busi­ness Net­works Will Take Cen­ter Stage

Sup­ply chain tech­nol­o­gy has his­tor­i­cal­ly focused on mak­ing process­es more effi­cient inter­nal­ly. But to man­age the com­plex­i­ties of mod­ern sup­ply chains and the risks inher­ent in them, com­pa­nies must expand beyond their four walls and cre­ate an envi­ron­ment in which they can exchange infor­ma­tion and col­lab­o­rate with trad­ing part­ners around the world in a real-time, trans­par­ent way to make informed decisions. 

Busi­ness net­works are an ide­al plat­form for this, as they allow trad­ing part­ners to align with con­sis­tent and accu­rate infor­ma­tion across orders, inven­to­ry, capac­i­ty, logis­tics, and asset man­age­ment. Mil­lions of orga­ni­za­tions in 190 coun­tries use SAP Busi­ness Net­work for this rea­son. More will join them to get and stay con­nect­ed to trad­ing part­ners who can help them man­age the ongo­ing chal­lenges they face.

Col­lab­o­ra­tion Will Fuel Inno­va­tion and Growth

Net­works are a pow­er­ful tool for dri­ving com­merce. More than $4.9 tril­lion a year flows through SAP Busi­ness Net­work alone. But net­works are about more than just trans­act­ing; their real pow­er lies in the con­nec­tiv­i­ty, insights, and vis­i­bil­i­ty they pro­vide. Com­pa­nies will unleash this to break down the bar­ri­ers to sup­ply chain col­lab­o­ra­tion and fuel inno­va­tion and growth. In the face of scarce sup­ply, labor short­ages, and ris­ing prices, buy­ers and sup­pli­ers will come togeth­er on net­works to rethink how goods are pro­duced and deliv­er inno­va­tions that open the door to new prod­ucts and markets. 

The Buy­er-Sup­pli­er Dynam­ic Will Shift 

Net­works have tra­di­tion­al­ly been viewed as a buy­er-cen­tric tool to dri­ve cost sav­ings. And in their ear­ly days, they were. But net­works have evolved, and sup­pli­ers have seen real val­ue in using them. In addi­tion to expand­ing busi­ness with exist­ing cus­tomers, net­works open the door for sup­pli­ers to be dis­cov­ered by and win oppor­tu­ni­ties with new buy­ers. They dri­ve oper­at­ing effi­cien­cies by reduc­ing the time and costs asso­ci­at­ed with respond­ing to indi­vid­u­al­ized buy­er ques­tion­naires, as a stan­dard­ized for­mat is used across the net­work. Fur­ther, a net­work mod­el allows sup­pli­ers to onboard once and share and col­lab­o­rate with many, help­ing to avoid cost­ly peer-to-peer con­nec­tions while enabling flex­i­bil­i­ty and scal­a­bil­i­ty. And beyond sim­ply trans­act­ing, they enable sup­pli­ers to join forces with buy­ers to tack­le some of the biggest chal­lenges they face, be it sup­ply and labor short­ages or geopo­lit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic issues, and move for­ward in a mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial way.

Vis­i­bil­i­ty Will Dri­ve Agili­ty and Resilience

Cre­at­ing resilien­cy in the sup­ply chain is imper­a­tive. And it starts with hav­ing the right vis­i­bil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy. It used to be enough for orga­ni­za­tions to have a view into their tier-one part­ners. But as sup­ply chains have become more glob­al and com­plex, this no longer cuts it. Com­pa­nies need vis­i­bil­i­ty across the entire val­ue chain to accu­rate­ly assess and man­age risk. Intel­li­gent Spend man­age­ment solu­tions pro­vide the tech­nol­o­gy required to gain it down to the raw mate­ri­als lev­el. Buy­ers and sup­pli­ers will lever­age them to iden­ti­fy and respond to risks and keep busi­ness moving.

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Will Get a Boost

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is a top pri­or­i­ty for orga­ni­za­tions around the world. Many have set aggres­sive goals, and to achieve them, they must have vis­i­bil­i­ty into their emis­sions, car­bon foot­prints, and that of their trad­ing part­ners. With Intel­li­gent Spend solu­tions, they can gain this vis­i­bil­i­ty across what they’re sourc­ing, spend­ing, and build­ing. And they will use these insights to demon­strate in clear and mea­sur­able ways that they are respon­si­ble and oper­at­ing sus­tain­ably and humanely.

Talk of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion is noth­ing new. But talk is cheap — par­tic­u­lar­ly on the sup­ply chain front where the stakes of inac­tion are high. In 2023, orga­ni­za­tions will get seri­ous and deploy Intel­li­gent Spend man­age­ment tech­nol­o­gy, not just to fight fires and dri­ve oper­a­tional effi­cien­cies but to dri­ve trans­paren­cy, agili­ty, and strate­gic rela­tion­ships that cre­ate com­pet­i­tive advan­tage and accel­er­ate mean­ing­ful change. And part­ners who can help them will share in the rewards.

Tony Har­ris is Senior Vice Pres­i­dent and Chief Mar­ket­ing and Solu­tions Offi­cer, SAP Busi­ness Network