Imagine you're planning a potluck. Each friend is assigned to bring their specialty - a tasty homemade dish, the centerpiece honeybaked ham, their secret-recipe apple pie - and you, the host, need to coordinate it all. Thing is, one of your friends is in Vietnam. The other is on a cargo ship in the North Pacific. And the only tools you have at your disposal are a fax machine and an Excel spreadsheet that no one else can see. How is your potluck going to be a success?

Of course, that's not how anyone plans a party these days. Individuals can easily communicate and collaborate across borders to share plans and ideas instantly. But creating a digital model for your company's global supply chain is a lot more complex than simply downloading Venmo. You'll need to transform your entire ecosystem and technology stack - no simple task.

Who should be included in your new digital model of your supply chain, what will they contribute and how will that be shared and consumed? What are the benefits?

It's just like a potluck, only a lot bigger. And more complex. 

Join ARC Advisory Group and Amber Road for a webinar to discover how you can begin to build a truly digital supply chain.

Webinar: Building a Digital Supply Chain is Like Hosting a Potluck:  What You Need to Know

Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at 2PM EDT

The search for supply chain excellence is on in August. From keeping an eye on activities inside China’s borders to the quest for eternal supply chain knowledge, or how to face the challenges and opportunities of free trade and compliance. Amber Road’s subject matter experts provide solutions across the supply chain in a range of published articles from industry publications.

China has Another Trade War Going on Behind the Wall in Supply Chain Dive:

It certainly was hot in July – heat waves across the US and Europe, and everyone’s focus on global trade. Amber Road is all over the news talking about digital best practices and solutions including where to find the value and business benefits of going digital with your supply chain, real benefits of US reshoring for manufacturers, and the answers to ethical and social compliance across the supply chain.

Most business decisions are determined by money, whether its revenue generated or potential savings. Due to increasing globalization in today’s markets, coupled with an unstable regulatory environment, global supply chains are becoming more complex than ever before. This has increased the difficulty of simple day-to-day operations, let alone optimizing costs. The current influx of multiple transportation routes and carriers, updated government regulations, and several other factors will continue to bring hardship unless a strong value chain is obtained.

Global supply chain leaders from around the world will convene in London next month for the Leaders Forum, hosted by SCM World, a Gartner community. At this exclusive event, the world’s most influential business and operations executives will share their insights and experiences in a closed-door setting like no other.

This year's Leaders Forum will focus on The Power of the Profession, identifying strategies to grow through digital transformation, lead with purpose, and inspire teams. 

One of the supply chain leaders addresses this theme is Mark Baxa, President & CEO of Fernia Creek, and former Head of Global Procurement at Monsanto, who will present "World-Class Supply Chain Collaboration, Redefined."

Supply chains have become increasingly multifaceted in recent years with more inbound and outbound borders, an increase in transportation routes and carriers, and seemingly endless changes to government regulations. At the same time, supply chain executives are challenged with confronting the accompanying risk and uncertainty with suppliers, products, cross-border regulations, and brand reputation. Potential disruptions in these areas create vulnerabilities in your supply chain, making it imperative to implement the best risk management tools and strategies.

The Key to Frictionless Global Supply Chain Execution

Whether you subscribe to the notion that blockchain-enabled supply chain solutions will see meaningful adoption this year, this decade, or never, it is impossible to deny the tsunami of investments moving the industry from concepts to enterprise-wide deployments.

Join American Shipper and Amber Road on June 28 at 2pm EDT for an upcoming webinar, Blockchain-Enabled Purchase Orders: The Key to Frictionless Global Supply Chain Execution. The hour-long broadcast will explore how blockchain at its core is a tool for systems integration and how the humble purchase order may hold the key to frictionless global trade management and supply chain execution. 

You were invited to the digital supply chain party – but are you going? Considering the added value of collaboration, analytics, automation, and flexibility, it’s a hard invitation to pass up. However, many global companies struggle to justify the cost of a global trade management solution, which is your ticket into the party.

Amber Road is excited to sponsor the ARC Advisory Group report, The Digital Supply Chain: Don’t Get Left Out Of The Party. The report looks at the digital global supply chain as a pot-luck dinner party. As the goal of a pot-luck dinner is to gather a variety of food and good company, a successful pot-luck requires planning and coordination by the host.

Consumers want speed - fashion brands need to deliver or fall behind. The need for speed trickles all the way down to product design. To stay in the game, brands need to fully transform their supply chains in order to streamline operations without sacrificing quality. From raw material order processes to supply chain visibility, brands have turned to technology to ensure flexibility, agility and visibility from conception to delivery.

Amber Road is excited to attend the 2018 Product Innovation Apparel Workshop in New York City from June 19 to 20. PI Apparel serves as a platform for technology and software providers to share the solutions that are disrupting the fashion, apparel and footwear industry.

Amber Road will kick off Day 2 of the conference with a Think Tank session: ‘There’s Money in the Material: Reducing Material Spend.’ Amber Road’s Gary Barraco, Director of Global Product Marketing, and Cheryl Layne, Customer Success Champion, will lead the session alongside Deckers Brands’ Director of Materials, John Graebin. The Think Tank will take place June 20th at 8:30AM on the second floor of the library in room 3.

Global supply chains can no longer afford to operate in traditional ways. Fax, email and phone have become outpaced by today’s rapidly changing and complex world. Technological innovations have enabled companies to replace the disconnect of traditional methods with supply chain transparency.

Surveys show that only 45% of companies have started the digital transformation, but 56% of those who have were improving profitably. That means it’s time to digitize your global supply chain and the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference is a great place to start!