Before 2020, many supply chain companies were tip toeing around the idea of taking further steps into their digital transformation. However, the Covid-19 pandemic made them take the plunge and embrace workplace technology to, not just see them through, but to take their business forward.

During the midst of a global pandemic, the need had never been greater for automation and agility within the industry.

Speaking last year, Mary Long, Director of the Supply Chain Forum said: “Companies that have always taken the safe, always as-it-was approach are suddenly looking at anything that takes the touches out of the system.”

Top three ‘business drivers’ for digitising supply chain planning

A study in 2019 by ToolsGroup and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals showed that 54% of respondents were “reaping the benefits of digital transformation” and that they were “managing covid-related demand and supplier uncertainty very well” as a result.

The report also revealed the top three business drivers for the process of digitising supply chain planning. These were:

• Ability to keep up with evolving customer behaviours (44%)
• The need to increase automation to focus staff on higher-level activities (43%)
• An overall desire to improve business performance (42%)

Supply Chain Management Meets CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) may sound like a tool for sales and marketing, but in this day of customer-driven demand, a well-managed CRM is a supply chain manager’s key to success. We often think of the supply chain as focused on procurement, transport, logistics, inventory, production, packaging and distribution.

So, how can a Supply Chain Management CRM amalgamate all these functions?

An effective system in place provides supply chain managers with clear, quality data. They can then utilise this data for infinite reasons, including:

• Analyse patterns and consumer trends
• Forecast spending
• Review colleague performance
• Manage costs
• Generate business insights
• Identify known risks

They can use their findings to review their organisation, predict and prepare for likely outcomes and identify where they can improve as a business.

More than just customer relation

A typical CRM deals mostly with customer data, behaviour and the relationship between them and the business.

VISION CRM is a fully customisable CRM system and Management Information System that is adapted specifically for the supply chain management sector. It’s a data warehouse that brings together quality management, project management and financial management in real-time, in one place, on one screen.

First class solution for international client

PSP-IT developed an integrated CRM and data warehouse for an international company who design and manufacture high performance stainless steel exhausts and emission control systems for commercial vehicles.

Initially, the organisation had multiple legacy systems which stored data in different formats, meaning that when management needed to run reports, it was taking days to prepare into one understandable report.

PSP-IT designed a system that imported data from Access and Oracle databases on an hourly schedule to collate the data from all the different systems. They were then able to view a complete overview of their organisation from one real-time dashboard. Data could also be broken down by date, salesman, site and product as required.

The system also has an overnight automated import which processed data ready for the next morning.

For the last few years, since the completion of the project, the client has experienced the benefits of near real time data, saved days in reporting time, and benefitted from more accurate reporting.

What else can it do for Supply Chain Management?

Do you want to be able to:

• Generate reports in seconds?
• See real-time data/information of your whole organisation on ONE dashboard?
• Bring all your processes under one roof?
• Run large scale projects, raise invoices, send emails, manage stock and more from just one place?
• Claim back wasted hours spent on spreadsheets and presentations?
• Instantly generate charts that compare performance with KPIs?

VISION CRM is an easy to use and fully-customisable CRM that can be adapted to suit the needs of your business. The powerful reporting dashboard and data warehouse module allows you to easily set department targets, measure performance, generate management reports ‘on the fly’ and charts in real-time.

What are the benefits?

Using VISION means no more multiple spreadsheets and no more chasing information from multiple sources, for those dreaded monthly reports.

VISION’s automated workflows and task management minimises time spent on non-value-added tasks across all departments. This ensured that every employee is focused on adding value, thus maximising their contribution to your business.

To find out more about how PSP-IT can transform your supply chain management business, contact us.