New Banking Standard Supports Interoperability in Supply Chain Finance

Banks are often on the cutting edge of technology, but not, it seems, when it comes to managing supply chain finance.

Just as in manufacturing, banks and financial services firms operate a supply chain of services that requires purchase orders, payments and other management details. The problem is, banks have been trying to manage all those transactions without agreeing to interoperability standards, according to a recent whitepaper, “A New Start for Supply Chain Finance.”

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A New Tool for Measuring Supply Chain Process Improvement

The operations and financial performance of supply chains are often top-secret affairs, particularly in retail and high tech where it can literally offer a huge strategic differentiation.

One unfortunate side effect of this is it’s difficult to benchmark your supply chain’s financial performance against your industry peers. A new Supply Chain Index is designed to address that data gap.

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Four Reasons to Pursue B2B Visibility

There’s a lot of talk about visibility in the B2B and supply chain trades. But why is visibility so important?

While supply chain managers may know the insides and outs of what’s happening in their supply chain, that doesn’t make the information accessible to business leaders.

In fact, many business leaders are content to let B2B processes be a literal “black box.” That’s a problem for procurement and supply chain leaders, who are under growing budget pressures to cut costs while supporting revenue growth.

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Find Hidden Supply Chain Value with B2B Integration

Retailers who rely on warehouse management systems alone are missing opportunities to dig up savings and cut costs in their supply chains, according to retail distribution consultant Kevin Harris.

In particular, Harris writes in a recent Supply Chain Digest article, retailers need to better capture and leverage the data found in purchase orders and core B2B documents and related data, such as:

• Advanced Ship Notifications (ASNs)
• Purchase orders
• Receiving documents
• Orders, such as flow-through, pick-from-stock and cross-dock
• Vendor non-compliance
• Storage and retrieval activity

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