Healthcare Supply Chain Technology and Strategy

Supply chain professionals likely don't recognize the names BlueKai or Silverpop. These companies built their technology to assist online marketing and advertising services. Earlier last year, Oracle acquired BlueKai, which manages data for online marketing services. Similarly in early April, IBM said it would acquire Silverpop, which offers a suite of cloud-based marketing services. These companies were built from the ground up to manage online data and services. Both have technology to create a major advantage for the electronics manufacturing supply chain. Jay Henderson, global strategy director of IBM Smarter Commerce division, said Big Blue continues to acquire online marketing technology that can "feed back up into the supply chain" to help manufacturing supply chain professionals with demand sensing and planning, along with shortening the replenishment cycle times between production and sales. Using snippets of the marketing technology can help to compress procurem...

According to a Gartner Study Firms will focus more on sustainability for 2019 But is it just 'lip service'? Sustainability will move up the business agenda as the economy grows according to a Gartner Study. However, members of the Jury were divided on firm's motives for embracing the strategy, with some saying it was due to better cash flow and others saying sustainability had a contribution to make the bottom line in and of itself. According to analyst James Bruwer, “Unfortunately we continuously see that – with the exception of some big firms – the issue of sustainability gets diluted during hard economic times and is recovered when the economy returns to growth.” The study concludes that a general perception persists out in the wider world that sustainability is still a green fad and a bolt-on, rather than a fundamental part of an organization’s operations. The reality it seems is that Sustainability via legislation is the only way to always deliver change, however, apar...

In parts of North America, millennials and Generation Xers are parting ways with the television cable box. They are taking advantage of other ways — often at little or no charge — to watch television and movies and find other forms of entertainment. It’s referred to as “breaking the cord,” and it’s a concern for many distributors marketing a wide range of products. These distributors are starting to wonder if some younger people, now in management positions, will soon be breaking the cord with distributors who have historically marketed products directly to facility managers and administrators. Here’s the issue in a nutshell. Millennials and Generation Xers are the first generations that have essentially transferred from shopping for products at brick-and-mortar stores to shopping through online retailers. They prefer purchasing this way. But because their numbers are growing so fast, they are highly educated and they are quickly entering and rising in management positions, distributo...