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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B2B Integration Can Ease Pain, Maximize Gain of Emerging Supply Chain Technologies

Supply Chain Digest Editor Dan Gilmore proposed a different way to look at supply chain technologies in a recent editorial: The pain to gain ratio.

“The gain is related to both the size of the benefit and the consistency of achieving it,” he explains. “The pain part has to do with the ease of implementation, and the percent of projects that just don’t seem to go very well.

“In other words, we do not accept the “no pain, no gain” concept. We want low pain, lots of gain.”

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Four Ways to Cut Procurement Costs & Align with Business Strategy

Business revenues may be rising, but companies still are cutting procurement budgets this year, according to a recent study by the Hackett Group.

While revenue growth is projected to rise by 6.5 percent, the study found that procurement budgets will be reduced by .4 percent. On top of that, it’s expected staff numbers will also decline by about half a percent, reports Procurement Leader.

At the same time, chief procurement officers are being asked to make innovation a top priority with reducing procurement costs, the article states. For Chief Procurement Officers, this will mean aligning tightly with business objectives. So how can CPOs accomplish all of that?

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