Author Archives: Teddy Nee

The changing role of the CFO in a post-Covid-19 world

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The changing role of the CFO in a post-Covid-19 world

The changing role of the CFO in a post-Covid-19 world

Pre-Covid-19, CFOs primarily focused on reporting historical financial performance. But today, with rising logistics costs, supply chain bottlenecks, escalating input costs, and the uncertainty of sales, developing a forward-looking perspective is a must, write Chee Wee Teo, Huan Gao and Adam Mokhtee from Alvarez & Marsal.

In the months and years ahead, the CFO role must significantly evolve to keep up with the ever-changing Covid-19 environment. To be successful in the role, CFOs need to apply predictive thinking, adopt a greater strategic view, and increase their focus on forward risk assessment and contingency planning.

Develop a forward-looking perspective

Traditionally, finance teams spent 80% of their time on reporting results and 20% of their time on forecasting. In a Covid and post-Covid world, that ratio needs to shift toward a forward-looking approach that will better prepare companies to respond to unexpected events.

With this new approach, the CFO’s conversations with the CEO and the board will center on what could happen in the future. For the CFO who is accustomed to relying on historical data, this may be an uncomfortable transition, but it’s vital for the changing role of the effective CFO.

Digitize the finance function

Although digitizing processes has always been necessary for efficiency, the digitization offorecasting has become especially crucial. Leveraging digitization for predictive analytics can help anticipate challenges ahead and allow companies to stress test their business plans.

In some companies, the CFO manages the finance team while the Chief Digital Officer leads the data analytics effort. We strongly encourage the finance function to collaborate with data analytics so that the CFO can develop a predictive, forward-looking view of where the business can go.

The following should be digitization focus areas:

Customer focus:

Build a profile of key customers, their cadence in ordering products, consumption pattern and liquidity situation.

Production and inventory management:

Establish a robust production system (that captures the right production costs) all the way through to an effective sales fulfillment (that delivers the right product to customers at the right time witminimal production waste and inventory leftover). These interdependent processes are typically filled with manual touchpoints and subject to human judgement. This can be significantly augmented with digital tools to drive optimization.

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Supply Chain Problems in 2021: How They Impacted the Economy and What’s Next?

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Supply Chain Problems in 2021: How They Impacted the Economy and What’s Next?

Supply Chain Problems in 2021: How They Impacted the Economy and What’s Next?

Supply chains are networks — ways to source and supply various goods and services across the globe. Unfortunately, due to complications resulting from the pandemic, both businesses and consumers have learned firsthand how vulnerable these networks are, and how critical they are to deliver what we and others often desperately need.

Here’s how the supply chain impacted the economy this year — and also what the future may hold.

Why Did the Supply Change Shortage Occur?

Supply chain shortages first began back in the first quarter of 2020 — at the beginning of the pandemic. Factories all over the world were forced to slash or halt production due to the spread of COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns. Because factories were not shipping as many goods — or any goods at all — shipping companies responded accordingly by clearing their schedules.

Shipping companies were subsequently called to action to ship personal protective equipment around the world. Unfortunately, many of those containers were unloaded in destination countries, emptied of goods and not returned, which led to a shortage of shipping containers.

How Do Supply Chain Shortages Affect Businesses?

“Most consumers don’t truly understand how astoundingly intricate today’s supply lines are,” said economic expert Monica Eaton-Cardone, owner, co-founder and COO of Chargebacks911. “Corporations might import some parts from China, other parts from India, maybe some rare-earth elements from elsewhere — and if there are any delays at any point, it limits how quickly these products can be sourced, assembled, packaged, shipped and sold.

“As we’ve recently seen, this causes prices to rise because all the efficiencies that were so carefully built into the supply chain have collapsed. Eventually, this leads to scarcity, shortages and lots of unhappy consumers — especially during the holiday season. A broken supply chain is unpredictable, and the system cannot function without reliability in sourcing and predictability in shipping.”

Why Does the Supply Chain Make Such a Difference for Our Overall Economy?

“To compete in the global economy, businesses must outsource and create supply chains,” said Dr. Tenpao Lee, professor emeritus of economics at Niagara University. “The success of a supply chain is based on tremendous collaboration, coordination, and communication. Any small disruption would ruin the whole supply chain system. For example, car manufacturing cannot proceed without simple computer chips. Port congestion can paralyze many related industries.”

What’s Potentially Next Regarding Supply Chain Issues?

“At some point, our supply chain crisis will subside and return to normal,” said Carlos Castelán, managing director of The Navio Group, a retail consulting firm that advises businesses on how to navigate supply chain challenges.

“But until then, the key going forward is inventory,” he said. “For business retailers, inventory could be the difference between success and failure during early 2022. The first and possibly second quarter of 2022 will be a test of retailers’ supply chains and operational capabilities. With shortages of many key components for manufacturers as well as labor shortages – or stoppages in the global due to COVID – retailers are facing a variety of different headwinds across different fronts.”

Read more at Supply Chain Problems in 2021: How They Impacted the Economy and What’s Next?

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Oracle releases new cloud analytics offering for Oracle Fusion SCM offering

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Oracle, a global provider of integrated cloud applications and platform services, announced it rolled out a new cloud analytics offering for its shipper customers using its Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) platform, which connects shippers’ supply networks with an integrated suite of cloud business applications.

Earlier this month, Oracle, a global provider of integrated cloud applications and platform services, announced it rolled out a new cloud analytics offering for its shipper customers using its Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) platform, which connects shippers’ supply networks with an integrated suite of cloud business applications.

Oracle said that the new cloud analytics provide shippers with the needed insights “to detect, understand, and resolve issues faster throughout the supply chain.” And they added that in leveraging Oracle Analytics Cloud and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, the new Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics provides shippers with pre-built metrics and dashboards that utilize machine learning capabilities that help shippers on various fronts, including reducing costs, ensuring customer satisfaction, and driving revenue.

“Supply chains are under immense scrutiny as organizations face new and unexpected disruptions,” said T.K. Anand, senior vice president, Oracle Analytics, in a statement. “Now more than ever, organizations need real-time insights into every element of their supply chain to help them make the right decisions and get ahead of disruptive events and changing customer expectations. With Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics, customers can quickly uncover supply chain performance insights, identify issues, increase efficiency, and minimize supply chain disruption.”

Jon Chorley, GVP of SCM Product Strategy and Chief Sustainability Officer, Oracle, provided LM with a detailed overview this new offering in interview.

  1. LM: What drove the need for Oracle to roll out Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics?
  2. LM: What are the main benefits of the new analytics capabilities for shipper customers?
  3. LM: Can you please provide a basic example of how it functions?

This example highlights how Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics provides customers with new ways of working with data by using machine learning-powered predictions, which helps organizations gain actionable insights to improve supply chain performance – and ultimately deliver the best possible customer experience.

Read more at Oracle releases new cloud analytics offering for Oracle Fusion SCM offering

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5 WAYS TO KEEP VACCINE ‘COLD CHAIN’ SAFE FROM HACKERS

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Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center associate chief of pharmacy operations Terrence Wong opens a box containing a shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine before storing it in a freezer on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.

Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center associate chief of pharmacy operations Terrence Wong opens a box containing a shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine before storing it in a freezer on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.

A major health system commissioned the study, which finds that an attacker located near equipment like freezers and coolers could use electromagnetic interference generated by simple devices like walkie-talkies to fool temperature sensors into giving false readings.

The interference could cause a cooler’s temperature monitor to falsely indicate that the vaccine inside has become too warm to use, or it could cause a freezer to malfunction and spoil its contents.

The good news is there are simple steps that hospitals and health systems can take to protect themselves. Kevin Fu, then associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, led the study. Fu later joined the FDA as acting director of medical device cybersecurity. He recommends the following five steps:

1. Restrict access to data like temperature displays

A potential attacker might try to devise a hack using trial and error—trying several different types of electromagnetic interference (EMI), such as radio waves from walkie-talkies, while watching temperature displays or other data to see which type of interference is effective.

  1. Health systems can protect against this kind of attacker by making data points like temperature readouts less visible. This could be done by:
  2. Installing blinders on temperature displays, similar to those on ATMs and voting machines.
  3. Eliminating real-time temperature displays when possible.
  4. Moving displays to make them less visible—for example, turning a display so it can’t be seen through a room’s doorway.
  5. Restricting access to areas where temperature displays are located.

2. Keep the details about your sensors confidential

If a prospective attacker knows which sensors you use, they could buy an identical model, then work out the details of an attack off-site. Health systems can reduce the likelihood of this by keeping model numbers and other details about the temperature sensors in equipment like coolers and freezers confidential.

3. Keep the locations of your sensors confidential, and move them frequently

To successfully carry out an attack, a hacker must put an EMI device within a certain distance of the targeted equipment. There are a number of ways that health systems can make that more difficult. They include:

  1. Keep the locations of cold chain equipment confidential.
  2. Frequently moving equipment to different locations.
  3. Moving equipment toward the center of the rooms where they’re stored. This makes it more difficult to carry out an attack from an adjoining room.

4. Select the lowest possible sensor sampling rate

Temperature sensors take measurements at pre-set sampling rates—for example, once every five minutes. And a sensor with a lower sampling rate provides less data that a hacker could use to carry out an attack.

5. Use a sensor that’s less susceptible to electromagnetic energy

Depending on specific application, it may be possible to use a sensor that’s less susceptible to interference than a traditional thermocouple, like an on-chip integrated temperature sensor or a chemical-based temperature indicator.

Read more at 5 WAYS TO KEEP VACCINE ‘COLD CHAIN’ SAFE FROM HACKERS

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Blockchain-based platform for fractional property ownership launches in India

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Blockchain-based platform for fractional property ownership launches in India

RealX blockchain-based platform allows Indian investors to buy and sell “direct deeded co-ownership” of holiday properties.

A fintech firm from Pune, India has launched a blockchain-based registry system named RealX that allows Indian citizens to purchase fractional ownership in properties.

A report from The Economic Times states that RealX has partnered with Tripvillas, a holiday home rental service, to blend ownership of holiday properties in accordance with usage and yield. Tripvillas will also be responsible for managing the basket of holiday properties intended for co-investment.

According to RealX chief operating officer and co-founder Neera Inamdar, the COVID-19 pandemic was a key driver for the platform’s launch, as the real estate market’s instability concerned both property developers and investors. Citing the return of a comparatively stable market, she said:

“We offer ‘direct deeded property co-ownership’ and it is in the best interest of investors to become direct co-owners of the property.”

Roshan Lionel Dsilva, founder and CEO of Tripvillas, said that the RealX platform will soon allow Indian investors to co-own international properties on the platform to incentivize dollar-denominated income.

While Indian regulators’ stance on crypto adoption is still unclear, the country continues to experiment with blockchain technology in non-financial niches.

Recently, the government of Maharashtra implemented a credentialing system for providing tamper-proof diploma certificates using the Ethereum blockchain. In partnership with blockchain startup LegitDoc, the Maharashtra State Board of Skill Development has started issuing digitally verifiable certificates.

LegitDoc is also in talks with a few other educational institutions in India that intend to implement a similar solution for countering the ongoing forgery of documents.

Read more at Blockchain-based platform for fractional property ownership launches in India

Record-Breaking Supply Chain Disruptions and Supply Shortages

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aerial photo of pile of enclose trailer

Factory Fires, Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Sales, Factory Disruptions, and Leadership Transitions rank as the top five supply chain disruptions in the first six months of 2021, with life sciences, healthcare, and the automotive industry being most impacted.

Records are to be broken, say observers of the recently-concluded Olympics. But the dark side of such comfortable declarations was evident in global supply chains this year.

According to data released by Resilinc, a global leader in the supply chain risk monitoring space, human-caused supply chain disruptions are rising overall, with the amount of factory fires up 150% (when comparing the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2020).

This year is on track to have the most factory fires ever reported. The uptick is due mostly to gaps in regulatory and process execution as well as a shortage of skilled labor in warehouses.

The data also reveals that disruptions due to Supply Shortages (semiconductor chips, plastics, cardboard are all examples) were up 638% in the first half of 2021. Resilinc sent out 251 Supply Shortage alerts; this type of disruption ranked 6th in terms of most reported events (behind Leadership Transition). Supply Shortages are driving consolidations, mergers, and business sales as companies look to give a quick cash boost to the core business or optimize the supply chain to best serve the customer base.

In the first half of 2021, almost half (46.5%) of disruptive events occurred in North America, followed by Europe (23.43%), and then Asia (19.45%). In comparison, in the first half of 2020: North America had the most disruptive events; Asia had the second highest; Europe had the third most.

While Human Health disruptions, which include COVID-19 related events, ranked 19th in terms of the number of event alerts in the first half of the year, Resilinc has continued to designate the event as “severe.” It’s the first time in the company’s history ranking an event at that level of impact.

Read more at Record-Breaking Supply Chain Disruptions and Supply Shortages

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Covid liquidity pressures place supply chain finance in the driving seat

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Picture: SUPPLIED/INVESTEC

Covid liquidity pressures place supply chain finance in the driving seat

The case for supply chain finance is as strong as ever

Not only did shipping and air freight supply chains come to a halt during the early days of the pandemic, but consumer demand also went through a slump. As a long-term consequence, supply chains have experienced strain, centered on working capital and ensuring business continuity across industry segments.

Today, the challenge is about demand, which exceeds timely supply, placing additional operational pressures on these businesses. This means supply chains are forced to stretch their working capital and make changes to how they finance and sustain their businesses.

According to the World Bank, there is a finance gap of about $5.2-trillion globally — wider in emerging markets where the availability of working capital has been limited or the understanding largely undervalued. As a result, we have experienced many product shortages, a prime example of how buyers and suppliers are facing the challenge to ensure the smooth exchange of products along the value chain.

Finance plays a big role in this continuity and in SA. While we lagged global markets in the adoption of supply chain finance models initially, the pandemic has strengthened the need for it. There has been a rising demand in supply chain finance locally — or reverse factoring as it’s commonly known — with some of the world’s largest businesses turning to this financing to help suppliers optimise their working capital.

However, supply chain finance is not a new concept. Globally, it has been used as a source of capital by many corporates as an alternative funding model to free up cash flow without affecting existing lending facilities.

Supply chain finance plays a pivotal role in markets in a state of flux, ensuring there is speed and efficiency in the payment cycle. Typically, a third-party finance provider will pay a buyer’s debt to the supplier at a discounted rate and much sooner than the buyer is able to do so if done directly.

This facilitates a positive cash flow for the business through the working capital cycle and ensures both buyer and supplier are better able to meet demand vs supply without the red tape of cash flow challenges typically experienced in a recovering market. It gives the buyer time to streamline cash flow, based on creditor cycles, where they pay the finance provider at a later date, allowing them room to ensure solid cash flow and build positive relationships with their suppliers.

It also offers a competitive advantage for the buyer and a financially savvy opportunity for the supplier to take advantage of mechanisms for early settlements and the related discounts that may apply.

Read more at Covid liquidity pressures place supply chain finance in the driving seat

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Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

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Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

B Medical Systems discusses the importance of reliable, high quality bio-medical storage and the crucial impact of the vaccine cold chain.
Optimal cold chain infrastructures are vital if vaccines are to reach healthcare facilities at temperatures where their efficacy remains unchanged. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted the disparities in vaccine roll outs around the world but the logistical hurdles that can arise when transporting and storing medical equipment at ultra-low temperatures. B Medical Systems offers a range of cold chain solutions that can be used to store and transport vital vaccines, medicines and samples around the world. Here, they tell Health Europa Quarterly (HEQ) about some of the key challenges in the vaccine cold chain and how their over ­40 years in operation have helped them become a global leader in providing cutting-edge medical devices.

What sets B Medical Systems’ refrigeration units apart from similar products on the market?

The main factor that sets B Medical Systems apart from other manufacturers out there is our history as experts in the provision of cold chain solutions for vaccines. During our 40 plus years of operations, we have gone through all the ups and downs of the industry; testing our equipment in the most rugged territories in the world. Our main business is in the vaccine cold chain in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia and the experiences that we gained from those areas flow into every product that we have.

What key challenges have you experienced related to transporting vaccines in inhospitable regions?

The main challenge is logistics. Most people will have a refrigerator at home but there are a lot of areas and households in the world that do not have access to power, and the same is true of medical facilities. How do you get a vaccine that is produced with the highest standards in some Western countries – be it Germany, the US, or the UK – to areas without the necessary facilities to keep vaccines stable and stored correctly?

Aside from storing the COVID-19 vaccine, what are some other existing or potential applications for ultra-low temperature freezers?

Any kind of current or future mRNA vaccine that needs or will need to be stored for a long period of time will require storage in an ULT freezer. This though would not be required for those vaccines that only need to be stored for up to two weeks, for instance, but certainly any biological specimen – human, animal and even plant specimens – that you want to store over a longer period need to be stored in an ULT.

Read more at Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

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Cold chain logistics market to grow by USD 9.48 billion

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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Cold Chain Logistics Market for Pharmaceuticals Industry by Service and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Cold Chain Logistics Market for Pharmaceuticals Industry by Service and Geography – Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024

The cold chain logistics market is expected to grow by USD 9.48 billion during 2020-2024, according to the new report from Technavio. This marks a significant market slow down compared to the 2020 growth estimates due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first half of 2021. In addition, the report projects the market to accelerate at a CAGR of over 10%.

The cold chain logistics market for the pharmaceutical industry is driven by the increase in global demand for pharmaceuticals. In addition, the growth in demand for reefer containers from the pharmaceutical industry is anticipated to boost the growth of the Cold Chain Logistics Market for the Pharmaceuticals Industry.

The growth in pharmaceutical sales has globally increased the volume of pharmaceuticals trade. Several government initiatives on health insurance schemes contributed to the high growth of pharmaceutical sales. Therefore, for efficient transportation of pharmaceuticals, warehousing, and distribution in large volumes, the end-user companies would require cold chain healthcare logistics services. This will drive the growth of the global cold chain logistics market for the pharmaceutical industry through the forecast period.

Major Five Cold Chain Logistics for Pharmaceuticals Industry Companies:

Agility Public Warehousing Co. K.S.C.P

Agility Public Warehousing Co. K.S.C.P provides storage in multiple temperature zones, cold chain solutions, reverse logistics, and advanced tracking and tracing technologies.

Deutsche Post AG

Deutsche Post AG provides life sciences & healthcare products and solutions transport services in the market such as DHL Air Thermonet – Standard Temperature Controlled Air Freight, DHL Ocean Thermonet – Temperature Controlled Ocean Freight, DHL Freight Cold Chain – Temperature Controlled for life sciences and health care products, DHL Medical Express – Temperature Sensitive Corporation.

FedEx Corp.

FedEx Corp. provides end-to-end temperature control services such as FedEx Temp-Assure, FedEx Deep Frozen shipping solution, Fed Ex Thermal Blanket solutions, FedEx Freight Freezable protection service.

JWD InfoLogistics Public Co. Ltd.

JWD InfoLogistics Public Co. Ltd. provides services of transportation and distribution management, special attention towards dangerous goods port safety, logistics software development, etc services are available.

Kerry Logistics Network Ltd.

Kerry Logistics Network Ltd. provides a complete cold chain integrity solution, warehousing and distribution service, and other value-added services.

Read more at Cold chain logistics market to grow by USD 9.48 billion

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Role of Business Intelligence in Supply Chain

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Role of Business Intelligence in Supply Chain | Bold BI

Role of Business Intelligence in Supply Chain

Supply chain management plays a vital role in the emerging world market. According to the Harvard Business Review, in 2018, the U.S. supply chain made up 37 percent of all jobs, employing 44 million people in the U.S. To stay competitive in the supply chain management business, you need to recognize the potential weaknesses of your organization and form ideas to overcome them. Business intelligence (BI) helps you identify potential risks associated with your business and enables managers to take timely corrective action. BI gives you the required organization and visualization of the data stored in your business’s data banks needed for insight into its patterns. In this blog, I am going to discuss why supply chain management needs business intelligence and how BI paves the path to the growth of your business.

Why supply chain management needs BI

  1. BI helps key decision-makers monitor internal inefficiencies and gives them the metric-driven insight to take appropriate actions to overcome these inefficiencies.
  2. BI tools, such as scorecards and dashboards, provide detailed breakdowns of reports on your company’s performance with many available metrics and KPIs. These help you monitor the progress of your company growth, like whether quarterly goals are achieved or not, as well as forecast future results based on your previous performance data.
  3. Since supply chain management involves many departments, there is a lack of visibility and lots of data spread across the departments. BI collects all of your company’s data into a single platform.
  4. With the detailed and specific data from every step of production, you can go through the process from transporting raw materials to delivering your final products to customers and strategically enhance each part.

Various aspects of BI in supply chain management

The supply chain comprises various elements, such as operations management, logistics, procurement, and IT. It acts like the wheels of a vehicle. If anyone of them fails, the entire vehicle cannot move. BI coordinate each aspect with the others and helps you to run a more successful business.

  1. Demand and inventory management
  2. Distribution and communication management
  3. Supplier and vendor association
  4. Forecasting

Bold BI’s business intelligence dashboards for supply chain management

With Bold BI’s supply chain management dashboards, you can achieve the objectives of your company by tracking the important KPIs (such as cash-to-cycle time, perfect order rate, customer order cycle time, inventory turnover), drilling down into the key metrics with a detailed analysis in every widget, and identifying the risks in your process and mitigating those risks with action plans.

Read more at Role of Business Intelligence in Supply Chain

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