The Use of Emerging Technology to Create Competitive Advantage Within the Business Environment

Procurement is a collaborative work between the supplier and the client of the products or services being supplied. This report will take some critical anlysis of article findings such as Razavi et al. (2016) argued that supply chain relationship is built on trust, communication, interdependence, and cooperation between the involved parties. The authors have used a model of Structural Equation Modelling to explain the relationship between the supplier and the customer. Amemba et al. (2013) sought to explore how public institutions and especially the government can be affected by the challenges inherent in their procurement practices. Among the challenges identified by the researchers include ICT adoption, complex procurement process, and ethics and supply relationship

Since Wal-Mart is a mass market retailer, its primary source of value that it adds to the company is derived from its supply chain. Wal-Mart has suppliers located all over the world and it purchases goods from a wide range of different types of vendors. Many of the company's primary vendors are directly connected to Wal-Mart's IT systems through what is referred to as an electronic data interchange (EDI). An EDI can instantaneous transmit data between Wal-Mart and their vendors. Such information can consist of order information, stock supplies, demand forecasting and many other key supply chain metrics. The advantages of such a system are clear as they can greatly assist creating efficiencies in the supply chain. However, not all suppliers have developed sufficient IT technologies to participate in an EDI program with Wal-Mart. Another option for greater coordination between parties in the supply chain is web-based supplier integration. Although the web-based systems are not quite as sophisticated as an EDI, they are more accessible for many of the smaller suppliers and they have shown to improve long-term coordination, cooperation, and commitment.

In order to achieve supplier collaboration, the company launched an online network platform named Tesco Supplier Network. With the help of this platform, the company was able to achieve effective collaboration with its partners. The company made use of this network for building on the success, as it is the online community where all the teams, producers, and suppliers of the company are available. With the help of this community, the company was able to improve communication with their suppliers, as individuals from all over the world are present on this platform. Tesco introduced this platform so that it becomes easy for the partners and suppliers to interact and share ideas so that process of collaboration becomes convenient. Moreover, they

Supply Chain Management (SCM) aims at integrating all corporate activities to improve relationships at all levels (internal operations, supplier networks, and distribution channel) to meet the competitive edge and satisfy the customer. In order to build an effective and complete business process that supports SCM, information among all business partners need to be shared. Information sharing through the Internet reduces the gap for business-to-business (B2B) commerce by enabling seamless integration with enterprise processes among partner corporations.

There is a lot of talk in the media about collaborative supply chain networks, but to get the most out of these networks, businesses need to understand which suppliers it makes sense to collaborate with. However, organizations still have significant issues of trust when it comes to their suppliers, despite the tremendous efficiency and productivity gains companies acquire from collaborating with trading partners. Supply chain collaboration is a shared benefit for buyers and sellers when done correctly and with a win-win attitude. Often though, executives believe that sharing cost information and other internal data with trading partners breeds risk. The solution is to certify suppliers to ensure these trading partners bring your business a return on investment that you

While researching on line I came across an article that described the affect that the Internet is having on supply chains today. “E-enabled supply chain management is fast emerging as a core strategy that organizations worldwide are adopting for sustainable business advantage”. (4)

Electronic business (e-business), the use of Internet-based computing and communications to execute both front-end and back-end business processes – has emerge as a key enabler to drive supply chain integration. As an overarching business concept, e-business has received increasing attention from academics and practitioners alike. E-business solutions in general are seeking to enhance supply chain effectiveness and efficiency through the automation of business processes. The adoption of e-business can result in benefits such as higher transparency, reduced transaction, manufacturing and other cost, reduced

1. Amarpreet, S. (2010). Assessing Effectiveness of Supply Chain Collaboration: An Empirical Study. Available at www.supplychain-forum.com

Procurement is one of supply management’s most challenging responsibilities (Burt, 2010). Therefore relationship management is the key to procurement success (Zhang, 2011). The purchasing of services has the potential to turn into relationships with suppliers that tend to focus on trust instead of the transaction (Burt, 2010). With that in mind, procurement should focus on long-term supply sustainability rather than short-term cost-saving (Zhang, 2011). To nurture an organization’s supply base into a fully committed and fully supported external entity requires time, effort and a highly collaborated working relationship (Zhang, 2011). Effective communication within the relationship is indispensable for any procurement outsourcing strategy to prosper (Simchi, Kaminski, Simchi, 2008). Failing to establish and manage good relationships could cause irreversible and catastrophic damage to a procurement outsourcing strategy. One of the most common outsourcing relationship problems is that organizations tend to sit at opposite sides of the work-group table instead of next to each other (Vitasek, 2010). The application is that the two organizations are working against one another instead of work with each other to solve an

The Management Team from LIU C.W Post Consulting Group Inc would like to Thank the Executive Staff from Nature by Design for this opportunity to evaluate your current business growth needs and present a Business Technology Solution that will meet all current expansion demands and pain points while also protecting your current investments and managing a non-disruptive transition to a more efficient future state of business. After many discovery sessions and discussions with business owners Keri Yamaguchi and Stan Fenton we understand that your main goals are to automate and centralize business processes and enable scalability of your backend management systems while driving efficiency into these processes for greater

Benavides, L., De Eskinazis, V., & Swan, D. (2012, June 22). Six Steps to successful supply chain collaboration. Supply Chain Quarterly. Retrieved August 30, 2016, from http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/topics/Strategy/20120622-six-steps-to-successful-supply-chain-collarboration

The following research paper is based on The Home Depot Company, one of the largest home improvement specialty retailers in the United States. In addition, the analysis also includes supporting feedback obtained through an interview session with the Home Depot’s Operations Manager, Jaime. Jaime has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and has been employed by the company for eleven years. He possesses the knowledge and skills that are necessary to administer the supply chain management process for the 605 W. Morrison Rd. location store. The Home Depot has utilized several IT technologies that have helped the company gain core competencies in supply chain management processes. They have adopted the Omni-Channel Supply

Supply chains must be managed to coordinate the inputs with the outputs in a firm to achieve the appropriate competitive priorities of the firm’s enterprise processes. The Internet offers firms an alternative to traditional methods for managing supply chains. A supply chain strategy is essential

Along with demand management, effective communication and collaboration improve overall efficiency and production of the supply chain. Good communication ensures that all of the company’s team members are on the same page, this way each member can perform his or her duty on time and respond to a change in demand. Communication between members can act as an advantage, for example if a new product becomes available they can jump on it right away and get it on the market as fast as possible. Integration provides a different type of advantage than communication and collaboration because it helps to reduce costs. For instance, Wal-Mart calls upon their suppliers to share up-to-date information on demand to route their products to Wal-Mart’s warehouses, from there the products are shipped to the stores in need, with minimum time in inventory. This integration allows Wal-Mart’s to reduce costs significantly, enabling them to offer customers highly competitive pricing.

The procurement leaders need to encourage their teams to adopt a social mindset and operating model that will sustain the corporate brand in this more transparent era. The people is in a center of change dimensions. The future purchasing leaders will assess their intellectual, geographic diversity, and recruiting sources. Procurement teams will expand and attract more people with backgrounds in education and professional services. Geographical shifts into new emerging market will require procurement teams to have a diverse workforce that will be more relevant to local social and cultural dictates. In the transparent world, the procurement organizations to go far beyond corporate social responsibility and must have a multidimensional approach to managing the supply chain. We cannot forget the foundation factors of purchasing organization including information system, finance and risk. As big data is increasingly intertwined into corporate decision-making processes, the purchasing manager will need to become more comfortable with advanced data mining and analysis techniques. They will also need to develop financial acumen that rivals those of their finance counterparts to build a leading company. The procurement risk management will adopt a more holistic strategy that includes total risk exposure, risk mitigation investments and risk transfer pricing. The procurement leaders