Supply Chain - Foundational Data is Where You Start
At the core, your supply chain requires a single company address record. Chris Pardo, Chief Data Officer, Apex Analytics brings a wealth of knowledge to this episode on location intelligence within your supply chain management.
Blog: SUPPLY CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN - CHAIN OF RULES!
Over the last few years, supply chain has become a household word. Once relegated to B2B conversations, most people now know of, and probably blame, notorious supply chain issues for late delivery, missing parts and out of stocks. Despite this newfound buzz, supply chain applications and vendor management compliance have always relied on location information and address verification. Specifically, the KYS (Know Your Supplier) use case requires dependable location data. In a recent ASK THE EXPERTS episode, we explored this topic with Chris Pardo, Chief Data Officer of Apex Analytix, a leader provider of relationship management and risk solutions.
“The common denominator is that you need good company information, and you need good address information,” said Chris, “that's the underlying theme across the 25 years that I've been in the IT world.”
Chris emphasizes that the foundational data is where you start. “Apex Analytix has a very compelling database of around 80 million companies and we're constantly getting signals that these companies are alive.” By building on location information and address verification, businesses can obtain a deeper understanding of their suppliers, as well as improve transparency across their supply chains. Chris notes that there the additional data that you attach to a supplier can help characterize the relationships. “Things like the ESG disposition, what is their impact on environment? Things like cybersecurity risk, do they care about or are they taking the proper steps to make sure that your data's safe?”
KYS is a process that businesses use to identify and evaluate potential suppliers to ensure that they meet the company's standards for quality, reliability, and compliance. Location information and address verification can help businesses achieve this goal by providing more accurate and reliable data about their suppliers' physical locations. “There's a shift towards businesses only having a website. You have a lot more businesses that don't even have a physical location,” explained Chris.
ROWS AND COLUMNS
If you think of a supplier record as the “row” you can add endless “columns” of information, thereby deepening your understanding of that specific relationship. Chris and his team are capturing a series of firmographics on whether a company is veteran-owned, minority-owned, its bank account ownership, is it on a watch list, and even the likelihood of getting better payment terms. “That's just scratching the surface,” Chris enthused, “there's a lot more we can do.”
In addition to verifying a supplier's address, location information can also provide businesses with insights into the supplier's proximity to other important locations, such as ports or distribution centers. This information can help businesses optimize their supply chain by identifying the most efficient routes and transportation options. An enterprise may identify a supplier that is in an area prone to natural disasters and may need to implement additional risk management measures, such as sourcing from alternative suppliers or establishing backup inventory locations. Similarly, a business may identify a supplier that is in an area with strict zoning regulations and may need to ensure that the supplier is complying with these regulations to avoid any legal or reputational risks.
By understanding the geographical location of their suppliers, businesses can also better manage risk by assessing the potential impact of political instability, and other factors that could disrupt the supply chain. “When you think about your supplier, or supplier’s supplier, you want to understand where that company is to see if there is risk. If a company is in an area where there's geo-political risk, we want to know,” Chris warned.
AIRPLANES AND CANDY BARS
Global brands are taking notice and depending on the KYS process and data that Chris helps manage. “Hershey claims this process can give them infinite ROI,” said Chris, “they have internal processes to get 99%, but to get that extra 1% to the 100% coverage, it takes an infinite amount of work. They leverage Apex Analytix to do that. They come to us and treat us as almost as their internal audit firm. It's a way of actually getting that 1% coverage, which would be very hard for them to do.”
While they might double-book a consumer seat, JetBlue leverages Apex Analytix to ensure they don’t double bill a customer. “They could think that they have two separate entities and then send double payments or multiple invoices, but we helped them resolve that so it's one entity and one invoice. It's extremely important.”
Location data and address verification can help companies to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and security of their supply chain operations, as well as better manage their vendors, customers, partners, and all manner of relationships. “When I think about what we have, it's the foundational information to do master data, customer master, vendor master, and then also some additional attributes,” concluded Chris.
It still bears repeating and reminding corporate enterprises that you must have the foundation first. “People talk about dashboards and the latest technology and things like that,” said Chris, “at the core, it's all about getting that single view and then making sure that you have the right company information and the right address information.” So keep Chris’ perspective in mind and don’t let location information be the weakest link in any data chain you are building.