Top 11 Essential and Effective Features of Supply Chain Software

In order to maximize customer value and get a sustainable competitive advantage, most business organizations can not lack supply chain management operation. However, this is not a simple job with manual performing ways. It needs a supply chain software to run and optimize effectiveness. But there is much software supporting this job, you must learn about and opt. Eleven features of supply chain software suggested below can be useful and suitable to your company.

What Is Supply Chain Software?

Supply-chain-management is one of the software kinds used in executing supply chain transactions, managing supplier relationships and controlling associated business processes. Its functions include:

• Process customer’s requirement
• Process purchase order
• Sell and distribute
• Manage inventory
• Receipt goods and manage warehouse
• Manage supplier and source

Supply-chain-management software can balance the disparity between supply and demand by improving business processes, using algorithms and consumption analysis to better plan future needs. It also allows organizations to trade electronically with supply chain partners. Furthermore, it has the integration system including the finance, accounts payables, accounts receivables, and general ledger. This makes managing bookkeeping easy, processing purchasing and selling tightly.

Top 11 Features of Supply Chain Software

#1. SAP SCM

What is SAP SCM?

SAP SCM is offered as an on-premise or cloud-based software solution with a focus on optimizing and organizing supply chains of large operations. This platform can plan strategies effectively and increase the responsiveness of supply chains as well as manage proper demand. It saves more time on forecasting and gains a global view of the data keeping your supply chain running. Stakeholders can follow progress with integrated communication functionality.

Benefits and insights

• Improve communication: It is easy to communicate between businesses within different sections of the supply chain. Furthermore, demand management and supply chain process organizations are maintained.
• Increased data visibility: It helps users have an overview of the entire supply chain and collect valuable data from everyday processes.  Each portion of a supply chain function is showed more allowing managers to make a decision and make a plan.
• Boost customer satisfaction: It increases visibility into warehousing and transportation helping customers find out when, where and how their product is being shipped. Customers can follow their shipments and update information, this means to boost their trust.
• Accurate forecasting: Users can forecast product demand accurately by using AI and analytics. It helps avoid stock shortages and reduce inventory.
• Better inventory management: SAP SCM’s inventory management tools can follow stored products and optimize stock locations. It helps retrieve goods quickly and accurately for shipment as fast as possible.
• Reduce Costs: SAP SCM has tools focusing on improving the production quality of goods while also cutting down on production issues, problems reducing the number of resources spent on recovery and producing the faulty product.

#2. Oracle SCM Cloud

What is Oracle SCM Cloud?

Oracle SCM Cloud is a software supplying a wide array of applications to the table and offering integrations depending on the operating requirement of users such as modular or integrated set-ups. Additionally, Oracle provides procurement, supply chain planning, logistics and lifecycle management support.

Oracle’s business blueprint can help you focus on optimizing and streamlining the entire supply chain. Oracle resolves all of the major pain points supply chains to increase productivity by many supporting planning functions and logistics.

Benefits and insights

• Flexible installation: Oracle SCM Cloud allows users to components of solutions that they want to install. In order to improve how supply chain functions, users choose the necessary modules to integrate the full-system into operation. Each component is supported by Oracle’s support guarantee. Therefore, users still can access the support no matter what you choose to integrate.
• Leverage the Cloud: When workforces develop continuously and supply chains span the globe, mobile access to supply chain data is more and more important. It helps users back-up important information safely from anywhere as well as any time.
• Surpass goals: Oracle SCM Cloud takes the supply chain plan and other management practices to a new level by a suite of tools. In addition, this solution help cut costs, boost productivity across the entire supply chain as well as gain visibility into important customer service metrics.
• Combine New Technologies: Oracle SCM Cloud always innovates to catch new technology be developing. Include machine learning, AI and blockchain support into your supply chain to get ahead of the curve.
• Digitize Supply Chain: Lower daily operational costs by moving your supply chain to the world of digital data exchange. The supply chain will run effectively with fewer costs without on-site maintenance.

#3. JDA’s Supply Chain Now

What is JDA’s Supply Chain Now?

JDA’s Supply Chain Now is a fully maintained solution delivered via the JDA Private Cloud. It brings a return on investment with less risk within a year. JDA becomes a leading provider of supply chain management technology based on the speed of deployment with advanced capabilities.

Benefits and insights

• It meets consumer’s demand more quickly, cuts costs, reduces inventory, improves customer service and optimizes supply chain strategies.
• Achieve a fast, less disruptive implementation by letting JDA install and manage the solutions.
• Access supply chain best practices proven by some of the world’s foremost manufacturers.
• This is a developed platform, therefore supply chain capabilities can be expanded to meet the needs of the business as it grows in volume and complexity.

#4.Infor Supply Chain Management

What is Infor Supply Chain Management?

If companies are seeking cost-reducing solutions through enhanced supply chain processes and effective supply management, Infor Supply Chain Management is the best-integrated procurement and distribution solution.

Benefits and insights

• Manage purchasing expenses and processes
• Optimize the entire vendor relationship
• Extend the value of your supply chain by transforming the receive ways, deliver and replenish new things
• Bring more spend under management

#5. Descartes Global Logistics Network

What is Descartes Global Logistics Network?

Descartes provides an extensive logistics network covering multiple transportation modes, with the industry’s broadest array of modular, interoperable web and wireless logistics management solutions.

Benefits and insights

• Routing, mobile, and telematics
• Transportation management
• Customs and regulatory compliance
• Global logistics network
• Broker and forwarder enterprise systems

#6. Manhattan Supply Chain

What is Manhattan Supply Chain?

Manhattan is a software supplying a suite of management tools designed for larger and more complex operations. It also includes a management application for both warehouse and transportation. Users can leverage analytical tools, dashboards, data visibility applications and more while executing vital supply chain processes. Some other tools are used to manage stagnant inventory, critical supply chain tasks, etc.

Benefits and insights

• Better data visibility: this software provides a beneficial view of critical processes. Managers can properly plan ahead and make educated decisions by data gathered from these tasks.
• Balance costs: This software solution helps balance and cut costs associated with transportation and inventory management while keeping service levels relevant.
• Multiple deployment options: Manhattan Software is available for on-premise, cloud-based and multi-tenant deployments. Clients can choose whichever better suits their unique requirements.
• Leverage the Cloud: This platform has a number of benefits because of a cloud-based solution. That is important project documentation can be safely stored in the cloud although upgrades being implemented in real-time.
• Reduce errors: this helps cut costs and strengthen customer trust, automate manual tasks to reduce problems related to human error.

#7. Epicor SCM

What is Epicor SCM?

Epicor provides many supply chain management solutions as part of end-to-end ERP solutions. Based on an industry-leading service-oriented architecture (SOA), Epicor SCM complemented features such as customer relationship management (CRM), supplier relationship management (SRM), supply chain execution (SCE), and sourcing solutions.

Benefits and insights

• It can handle simultaneously make-to-order, make-to-stock, and engineer-to-order processing. Besides, users can consider and update plans as demand changes.
• There are automated route scheduling systems that integrate GPS, digital mapping data, mileage, and driving directions to support a customer’s distribution needs worldwide.

#8. Sage Business Cloud X3

What is Sage Business Cloud X3?

Sage Business Cloud X3 allows users to collect data from various workflows and use this source to inform and streamline operations. Process of sale, financial management is automated to reduce the manual time for data entry and tedious communication among departments.

This tool is an on-premise and a cloud-based solution for a specific industry or business size. Users can customize a solution based on specific needs through a range of software which Sage supplies. External services can also be implemented through APIs.

Benefits and Insights

• Streamlined workflows: Sage X3 allows users to manage various phases of your business, from potential customers acquisition to customer shipment and notification. It focuses on these processes and spends less time entering data or manually completing tasks because of its workflow automation.
• Data visualization: users can create dashboards based on trigger events by this program. There are over 400 standardized reports contained in the system and filtering of predefined data collections is also available. This allows users to understand workflows and collect relevant data quickly.
• Integration capability: This is a key component of this tool because users can couple with other Sage products, for example, Sage Pay or external services through APIs to further customize solutions.
• Information security: security standards such as LDAP, OAuth2, and SAML2 are always abided by Sage X3. It traces modifications and allows you to set user accessibility at different levels so that employees can only view information that pertains to their workflows.
• Accessibility: This program is accessible via Android and iOS devices. HTML5 interface helps users personalize the system for their own needs. Because cloud-based software is an option, users can access Sage X3 anytime and anywhere if they choose for that deployment method.

#9. OMP Plus 

What is OMP Plus?

OMP Plus acts as one system of record and is highly praised by analysts for this. With a common, in-memory integrated data model for optimal performance and scalable architecture, it is judged a one-stop solution for all planning functions.

Benefits and insights

• All participants in the supply chain are ensured instant collaboration.
• It helps in order allocation or forecast consumption as well as material allocation, providing the best match between demand and supply at multiple planning functions.
• It uses information from S&OP to detailed scheduling as feedback to customer representatives and provides real-time responses to order requests.

#10. Elementum

What is Elementum?

Elementum has expanded its suite of end-to-end supply chain apps. It maximizes velocity across procurement, logistics, manufacturing, inventory management through the release of the Inventory app.

Benefits and insights

It has digital map of the global product economy helping save millions of dollars. Products are shipped, inventory managed and moved through every part of the supply chain for the company’s customers.

#11. E2open

What is Supply Management?

E2Open Supply Chain Operating Network solutions help companies see things they are performing and run the most complex and responsive multi-enterprise supply chains in the world.

Benefits and insights

• Integrate and automate key supply chain processes from planning to execution.
• Support the material and capacity forecast, commit process between the customer and all suppliers, allow them to collaborate until finding an agreement.
• Enables a streamlined and electronic execution of the procure-to-pay process.
• Enables the three-way procure-to-pay flows between suppliers, subsidiaries, and the central procurement organization.
• It helps companies to monitor all inbound material movements across logistics nodes and control points effectively, so companies can keep track of actual lead times and quickly identify potential delays.

Conclusion

Kinds of supply chain software above have different features and benefits. So you should comprehend each of them and determine which one is suitable for your company. Selection depends on your company’s budget, goal, demand, etc and there are many options except the above ones. You certainly may be confused between options. However, we are always here to support you, let’s ask and contact us if you have any question about kinds of supply chain software.