Oracle and SCE Convergence

In our current global climate, there’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty for those in the logistics space. Is Trump’s “America first policy” merely rhetoric, or will protectionist policies be implemented in the near future? It wouldn’t be surprising, as the new administration has already pulled out of Trans-Pacific Partnership and will be renegotiating NAFTA as well. Concerns surround the ramification of Brexit, as EU negotiations are set to begin in mid June. All this while leaders are trying to focus on optimizing individual operations – transportation, manufacturing, warehouse management, etc. Without a doubt executives are being asked some real tough questions, and the uncertainty isn’t going away anytime soon, but there are ways to prepare by reassessing the underlying technology and systems that enable your organization to adapt to external changes.

The supply chain management (SCM) market is very mature, but Oracle continues to differentiate itself in adaptability, intelligence and our ability to enable even the most complex end-to-end logistics processes. Possibly the most important trend in logistics management is called supply chain execution (SCE) convergence. SCE convergence is the need for supply chain organizations to better orchestrate and synchronize execution processes across functional execution domains. According to Gartner’s 2016 SCM survey, more than 48% of users voiced frustrations with the inability to orchestrate and synchronize end-to-end business processes. SCE convergence is especially effective with vendors that have developed specific business applications on a common technical platform. The homogenous UI, data model and business logic allows businesses to enhance logistics performance.

Another important consideration for logistics leaders is the ability to standardize processes internationally. International demand increased most notably in the emerging geographies of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It’s vital that the vendor’s ability to execute a global product and logistics strategy is considered when evaluating a solution.

So why consider Oracle? With more than 420,000 customers – including 100 of the Fortune 100 – and with deployments across a wide variety of industries in more than 145 countries, Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications, platform services, and engineered systems. There are many reasons to consider Oracle’s offerings in the SCM space, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll limit them to the list below:

·            Savings – On average, customers that implement Oracle’s transportation management system save approximately 10% on freight under management, which translates into a fast, hard ROI.

·            Global Reach - Oracle has a strong global reach with 40% of our WMS offerings have been deployed outside of North America, which is greater than most independent WMS vendors. 40% of the global freight under management (FUM) is managed by Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) and Global Trade Management (GTM)

·            Broad Industry Penetration – From industrial manufacturing to aerospace, healthcare to public sector, Oracle offers broad solutions that are oftentimes neglected by best-of-class WMS providers.

·            Functionally Broad – Oracle has one of the broadest, deepest and most robust set of product offerings in the industry. Their WMS and TMS products continue to reside on the leader’s quadrant and continues to improve annually.

·            Oracle is aggressively committed to the cloud – With the recent acquisition of Logfire, which strengthens our cloud options, and Netsuite, there’s zero doubt that Oracle is all-in on cloud.

·            Thriving Partner Ecosystem – Oracle has by far the strongest, broadest, and most mature and experienced ecosystem of third-party service providers, spanning thousands of carriers, multiple modes of transportation and multiple geographic regions. The result is mitigated implementation cost, which is passed onto the client, and superior industry-specific expertise.

·            Strong SCE Convergence Capabilities – Oracle’s preassembled, integrated systems are architected, tested, and optimized to work together to cut complexity and cost. They offer true data transportation, which allows Oracle to accommodate the most complex end-to-end business processes, breaking down silos and enhancing collaboration.

Sources cited: 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for TMS, 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WMS