Managing Supply Chain Networks: Building Competitive Advantage in Fluid and Complex Environments by Gimeno Anne

Author:Gimeno, Anne...
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-21T22:06:42.615000+00:00

Expert’s Opinion

SCM and IT Integration: Key Success Factors and New Trends

Enrique Motilla26

26 Expert in IT and supply chain management, Enrique Motilla holds a MSC in SCM (Cranfield University, United Kingdom). He has more than 20 years of experience in the development and implementation of software for enterprises of all sizes and local governments in Mexico and Central America.

“The only constant is change.”—Heraclitus27

27http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heraclitus

Global and local operations are no longer independent; neither big nor small business processes are supposed to be distant on performance or cost. The influences shaping business and competition in a technology-fueled global environment are calls to action for governments, businesses, and individuals who must stay ahead of these trends in order to remain competitive.28

28www.wikisummaries.org/The_World_Is_Flat

Can technology be considered a key success factor? Sometimes this question can be very obvious and sometimes not. It becomes obvious when there are costs, including total cost of ownership (TCO) and other relevant measures, such as competition response time, volume, and geolocation of operations, that could not be compared in any way to a manual operation.

Everyone has been faced with the complexity involved in the upgrade from old technologies, data conversion, and the problems that arose from incompatible platforms, formats, methodologies yet still expected to continue an operation at the same time. At a corporate level, it becomes clear that technology is only part of the equation, since the human factor can be the most crucial aspect to take into account in order to achieve a successful technology implementation.

The next table illustrates the aspects to take into account from three perspectives: technology/human/corporation.

Figure 1.36. IT factors

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