Value Chain Rivalry
If your value chain is competing instead of collaborating, it’s time for a modern visual analytics platform.
Bringing a product to market is a team sport, and in most cases, it requires a team of teams. This is true across many industries including food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications hardware. The system that supports the value chain for these industries can be simplified as manufacturers who make the product, wholesalers who distribute the product, and retailers who sell the product to the end consumer. In most cases companies are not vertically integrated, so inevitably there will be a team of teams employed by different companies working together toward the end goal of bringing a product to market. Sometimes there is great harmony across the value chain, but in most cases a team of rivals exists.
Why the rivalry?
Each party along the value chain is conceptually working toward the same end goal of bringing a product to market, but each party will be working toward their own short term goals which maximize their company’s margins. Typically, one company’s gain in margins along a value chain is another company’s loss in margins, which creates the rivalry. While the fight for margins is real, all companies within a value chain must harmonize more effectively than their competition or risk losing customers and lucrative contracts.
How do you create harmony?
Sharing data with key trading partners along the value chain streamlines operations, improves forecast accuracy, removes costs, and can increase revenues if operationalized effectively. To do this, a modern and flexible analytics platform is needed to connect relevant parties across the value chain. The modern analytics platform of choice must support the following key functionality:
- Disparate Data– Managing disparate data sets is mandatory for sharing data sets between companies. If a manufacturer shares sales and forecast information with a distributor, the distributor will inevitably want to blend that data with their own internal data for a complete view of their business.
- Syndicated Data – Retailers own point of sale data, wholesalers and manufacturers do not. Retailers send sales data back to wholesalers and manufacturers but so do data services like Nielsen, IRI, and NPD. Wholesalers and manufacturers will always want to combine actuals data from the retailers they sell through with their internal planning and forecasting data.
- Governance – Sharing data with key trading partners will streamline operations; sharing the wrong information with key trading partners will decimate your business. A robust governance model is a must.
- Embedded Analytics – Suppliers and customers will have existing systems set up to communicate and collaborate. A modern analytics platform must be able to seamlessly embed into any existing supplier portals or customer portals.
The good news is the Qlik Visual Analytics Platform was purpose built for collaboration with key suppliers and key customers. Some of Qlik’s largest customers use Qlik to communicate with their suppliers and their customers in a simple, secure, and elegant fashion. I invite you to find out for yourself, and take the Qlik Consumer Good Demo for a test drive!
Want to know more about how Qlik helps customers manage the complexities of their supply chain? You can hear it from Scott Jennings in person May 23-25 in Phoenix, AZ at the Gartner Supply Chain Management Executive Conference. You can also drop by Booth #603 to come pay us a visit!
