ERP, Supply Chain, and Portals

There exist several sub-definitions of "portals"; therefore, a brief definition of what I’m focused on here:

Ideally, a supply chain portal could be used to connect all tiers of a Value Chain, regardless of an organization's size, location or IT environment.

Suppliers could view demand, inventory and performance metrics. Customers could view Available-to-Promise, Open Sales Orders and Order History, inquire on Open AR’s, and view Configurations, and enter Quotations. Engineers could communicate on projects, viewing the product structure for their own supplied parts, or the entire structure, based on access granted.

Portals can potentially provide a mechanism, not only to view information, but also to monitor supply chain performance. These metrics can then, in turn, be analyzed by business intelligence capabilities, either supplied along with the portal, or 3^rd party. Companies should seek better interaction with partners, to improve fulfillment performance across the chain.

The e-business revolution is having a major effect on the supply chain, and is changing how companies integrate business processes. E-marketplaces and XML provide tools for automating business processes amongst supply chain partners. Ideally, each partner’s having individual processes is no longer a barrier to communication; but this development introduces new issues of business process integration, and technical challenges. Moreover, achieving new efficiencies through automating some aspects of the supply chain will not completely eliminate the need for integrating supplier systems. At some level, people need to interact, where problems are encountered.

Most organizations currently lack collaborative and analytic capabilities, and few have the informational capability to really let managers make timely and optimal decisions. Problems exist because of organizational barriers that hamper business units (manufacturing, sales, marketing, accounting, logistics, distribution) from operating more closely, and integrating their internal processes and information, and "turf" issues continue to exist. ERP systems with modular design may not "collaborate" fully.

Having a common information foundation - as well as "visibility" into the supply chain with the optimal analytics and collaborative capabilities - are now critical for meeting performance and revenue targets. For example, the ability to perform demand planning, and increase production, or replace component parts, within shortened lead times, requires more visibility and collaboration. These capabilities, known as supply chain analytics, are the tools for improving velocity, and are the engine to insure efficiencies within any enterprise or supply chain.

Minimize organizational barriers - collaboration represents the ability to electronically share information about business activities, and to interact on a near real-time basis. This is, in part, a political problem, as well as technical. The company must be viewed as a functional "whole", and not just a set of departments.

Manage by performance metrics, rather than revenue and cost controls.

Broaden the range of people who can contribute. Portals allow more people to utilize the system, by insuring their access to information relative to their areas of responsibility.

Reduce decision lead times - the organization will need to make more decisions, based on more information, in a shorter time frame.

Improve decision-making, to add accountability and responsibility, and to provide a mechanism for improving future real-time performance.