Since announcing RapidResponse Control Tower in October, we’ve been enormously encouraged by the response. Not only is our message resonating, but our technology
credibly supports the control tower vision evangelized by several industry influencers, in particular that of our strategic partners. At the foundation of our control tower vision is the belief that the operational core of any business is their supply chain. Companies must look at their supply chains as having a “cause and effect” relationship with other key parts of their business. It is in the supply chain and its related areas where companies can effectively address the three key challenges of any business; financial performance, customer satisfaction, and corporate risk. We believe the core capability for any business is to be able to dynamically balance demand and supply of anything (materials, cash, human resources, etc.). I can say with confidence that Kinaxis has the most powerful, flexible, and comprehensive demand-supply balancing capabilities in the world. All of our database engine work over the past couple of years has resulted in Kinaxis having exclusive capabilities in this regard. I believe the key capabilities for a great control tower solution include:
- Global, multi-enterprise visibility - creating a single information source for the extended enterprise.
- Not only event detecting, but event impact measurement capabilities.
- Strong human collaboration tools because today’s business problems have to be solved by people.
- Powerful “what-if” analysis or simulation capabilities. Users must be able to instantly study multiple scenarios to respond to daily changes in their business.
- A great presentation layer and user interface (scorecards, dashboards, mobility, etc.).
- A robust set of analytics to solve difficult problems across different parts of the business.
This last point is very key. In order to provide a true operations (or supply chain) control tower, all sorts of applications need to be dynamically integrated with the demand-supply balancing capability. This provides valuable simulation capabilities to “cause and effect” areas like project management, workforce management, and financial management. With our control tower, we are extending simulation capabilities to these related areas. Everyone in the supply chain, as well as those areas that are impacted, or can impact the supply chain, must be working from a single version of the truth. With everyone “sitting around the same virtual table” using the same information, that’s how you are going to achieve your next corporate and operations performance breakthrough. Stay tuned for weekly "Control Tower Concepts" posts from a wide range of contributors!
Additional Resources
- Supply chain control tower frequently asked questions
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