Businesses succeed, and sometimes fail, on the strength of their international supply chain management. This became blisteringly apparent when extreme pressures brought on by the pandemic saw supply chains buckle, leaving shelves empty and consumers empty-handed. These unusual times may not have caused the complete downfall of businesses, but with research indicating that 40% of companies saying their supply chains failed them at the height of the pandemic, it does prove that supply chains have become a source of vulnerability that need to be re-evaluated.
In fact, accelerating their digital supply chain strategies is a priority for 80% of business. Because in today’s global market it is only with fast, flexible access to goods that a business can compete effectively against their rivals. Of course, medium to large enterprises can tolerate some missed orders, slowed cash-flow or supply shortages during peak periods but to really succeed they will need to embed agility, cost-effective practices, and resiliency into their supply chains.
Beyond the interruptions of the pandemic, there are many challenges associated with effective supply chain management – particularly at an international level. There are the traditional hurdles such as different time zones, currencies, cross-country compliance, and legalities. And more widely, organisations must grapple with everything from fluctuating exchange rates and the growth of omnichannel commerce to a lack of visibility due to siloed systems and the need to build global teams.
Fortunately, technology presents many opportunities for future-proofed International supply chain management. NetSuite, a leading cloud-based ERP solution, gives a business complete, real-time visibility over its operations including its supply chain – from beginning to end. With NetSuite, businesses have everything to build an efficient, competitive supply chain.
1. Automate basic supply chain processes
A supply chain is formed through a network of people and organisations with the goal to move a product from a supplier to the end customer. This process involves purchasing, inventory logistics and storage, fulfilment, and finance tracking – when done manually it takes considerable time and draws resources away from more strategic priorities. Manual processes also tend to generate inconsistencies and inaccuracies that cause headaches at best—and entire supply chain breakdowns at worst.
By automating these international supply chain processes with NetSuite, the workload of supply chain management can be substantially reduced without compromising on quality. Employees can update and view supply chain elements like inventory, fulfilment, and finance on a single centralised platform no matter where they are, without creating inconsistencies in data or causing conflicting automated responses to inputs from their colleagues.
2. Integrate supply chains with other systems
Automating these processes can only take small businesses so far. To improve supply chain speed and consistency without being forced to increase costs or headcount, all elements of the supply chain should be connected and integrated. Supply chains that do this are much more resilient in the face of unexpected circumstances, and more efficient in responding to them.
Again, by adopting a cloud-based ERP application like NetSuite, you are able to encompass all current and future aspects of supply chains such as inventory, warehousing, eCommerce, and point-of-sale solutions. Linking all areas of the supply chain doesn’t just provide a single source of truth across your entire business ecosystem, it will also vastly improve customer service. When a customer makes an ecommerce purchase, for example, the order automatically updates inventory levels and triggers fulfilment processes, translating into faster and more reliable delivery. But that customer may also want to check the business’ existing inventory levels to see what’s ‘in stock’, track the status of their delivery, or ask some questions about their product once they receive it. Coordinating these various requests – a time-consuming task if done manually – becomes incredibly simple once all aspects of the supply chain seamlessly share order, customer, and inventory data with one another.
NetSuite, when deployed to operate across the entire supply chain, has the added advantage of offering a single real-time view of finances, resources, and performance whenever required, without demanding the daunting manual consolidation of records or reconciliation of accounts.
3. Optimise operations to heighten efficiency and customer service
A coordinated supply chain will inevitably be more efficient than fragmented and manual operations. It also opens the door to a second, even more valuable level of efficiency – optimising the supply chain to offer a range of services that were previously unimaginable. With a supply chain operating in the cloud, data can be leveraged to gain a far more complete picture of how customers behave and the potential points of weakness in operations. Certain products may prove unexpectedly popular in demographics or areas. Some suppliers might turn out to be less effective, due to inefficiencies or substandard performance. Only once the supply chain is fully integrated can these sorts of insights be brought to light.
We touched on the customer experience already, but improving customer service also has a flow-on effect for international supply chain management. By more efficiently catering to customer needs, inventory levels can be reduced, contracts with distributors or suppliers can be streamlined, and many capital requirements can be trimmed. The organisation can start to experiment with new fulfilment models that tie up far less capital such as drop-shipping. When done correctly, these optimisations will make for a more agile organisation placed in a prime position for further growth.
4. Stretch the supply chain around unpredictable demands and new models
A NetSuite-supported supply chain gives businesses far more elasticity to scale. If all supply chain elements are integrated on the one platform, inventories and fulfilment in new markets can also be quickly added, reducing the costs and risks of expanding into a new market. High levels of automation can respond far faster to sudden peaks in demand without any communications breakdown along the supply chain, while allowing customers to see available inventory can reduce the likelihood of these unmanageable peaks. With full visibility into orders, fulfilment efficiency, and financial performance, an organisation can assess their expansion efforts and address any struggling areas of operation.
With NetSuite, organisations can bring much-needed order to their international supply chain management and broader operations all within the constraints of their existing time, talent, and capital even as they concentrate on delivering service to customers and becoming formidable challengers to competitors.
More than just NetSuite experts
At Annexa, we provide industry-leading solutions customised to the NetSuite platform, including supply chain management. With our in-house integrations, extensions, partnerships, and full-service capabilities, we deliver end-to-end solutions for our customers to help them grow and expand their business potential. Contact us today to speak to an expert to learn whether we are the right NetSuite implementation partner for you.
Annexa is a leading NetSuite partner with extensive experience designing and implementing comprehensive and customised business systems, including payroll solutions, financial management, warehouse management, and ecommerce solutions.