The Ledger

The Spooky Truth – How Digital Supply Chains Prepare for Halloween

“Halloween 2018 is upon us, and here in the US – where Halloween is the world’s most commercial – supply chains have long ago swung into gear. Retailers’ anticipation of another strong year is sky-high.”

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Americans are spending more than 9 billion dollars to partake in Halloween festivities this year. While that is a lot of spending, it’s not a record. 2018 comes in slightly lower than 2017, which measured at $9.1 billion. Still, it’s very close – which is what supply chain managers like. Predictability is good. Close attention to industry trends year over year can help you prepare. Preparation, however, only goes so far. The reality is faster, more frequent shifts in demand and increasingly complex global supply chains that resist agility. Responsiveness has never been more important.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

The Right Technology Can Enable Agility in Your Organization

Data analytics and agility are the top two trends impacting CFO’s longer-term business strategy. Across the board, studies are showing that the role of finance leaders has evolved considerably over the past five years alone. Even as they are asked to do more with less, finance leaders must demonstrate great agility in finding new ways to manage their workload, while still offering data-driven insight that helps grow the business. In this landscape of increased responsibility and changing priorities, success is dependent on accurate, real-time data that is easily accessible, and business process excellence embedded in technology that enables leadership to change direction as quickly as possible.

Read More at CFO Magazine >

The Roadmap to a Culture of Analytics

With more businesses leveraging predictive analytics, finance must move from explaining what happened, where it happened, and why it happened to what might happen in the future and how to make it happen. However, many people can describe the end goal of something without necessarily paving the road ahead to get there. To have a strong analytics force in any organization, you must first have a strong analytics culture. There are four different elements of a company culture that must change in order for it to thrive in a culture conducive to strong analytics.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Achieving a Well-Rounded Approach to Digital Business Planning

Digital business planning should be seen as a comprehensive approach to supply chain planning that uses trusted data, process integration, automation, and collaboration to meet the demands of complexity in the digital economy. FP&A professionals should also consider the idea of integrating demand planning and demand sensing into the larger planning process in order to deliver what customers want most. While demand planning involves traditional time-series methods that are based on historical trends and seasonal patterns, demand sensing brings live or recent data into the mix. Together, these processes span the entire planning spectrum – from more strategic planning such as sales and operations planning to operational demand planning.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >