As a decision-maker in a manufacturing or distribution-oriented company, you no doubt have seen or heard discussions about cloud computing. You may have been considering it but don’t have enough information to feel confident to move ahead with the idea. Your IT systems and infrastructure are working, although changes were made to accommodate remote work. And yet people are saying they need to be [...]
One of the world’s largest container ships recently made headlines after it became wedged across the Suez canal and blocked normal cargo flows. The daily losses due to the supply chain disruption was estimated at between $12 million to $15 million. This example is just the tip of the iceberg for many manufacturers and distributors, as disruptions, operational efficiencies and disparate systems became the [...]
Since the first quarter of 2020, there have been more black swan events than could ever have been expected. First, of course, was the Coronavirus pandemic, then the Texas winter storm, and finally, a ship that blocked the Suez Canal for six days. For the food industry, these have all created major disruptions. (more…)
You are a senior executive in a company that is going to implement an ERP for the first time. You don’t have experience with this kind of project. So what should you be planning and doing, when, and who will be involved? In our series on What is ERP, in Part 1 I explained what ERP is and why it has become such a significant [...]
Today’s business environment brings challenges beyond the traditional line of simple operational, financial and IT risks. Product recalls, compliance violations and missed deliveries have the potential to cause long-term damage to the reputations of manufacturers and distributors. (more…)
The Coronavirus pandemic caused people to take notice of what technology could do. The IDC has reported that over 65% of companies have accelerated digital initiatives. Recently, surveys have indicated that companies are optimistic about growth in 2021 and going forward. But as businesses navigate the new post-COVID world and assess opportunities for growth, many are having to evaluate technologies that are relatively new [...]
It was Robert Shiller, a Yale University Professor of Economics and Nobel laureate who famously said “You cannot wait until a house burns down to buy fire insurance on it. We cannot wait until there are massive dislocations in our society to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” (more…)
In the pre-COVID world, no one could have predicted the events that would happen over the coming months. Even today, when many businesses have had time to adapt to those events, we’re still struggling to plan for the future. Which changes will go away? Which are here to stay? (more…)
In 1969, the largest computer company in the world at that time, IBM, decided to unbundle its software from its hardware. This opened up the world to a new business – the independent software vendor – and led to partnering between different vendors. By the 1990s, many IT companies were establishing formal partner or alliances teams to ensure that the partnerships they entered into [...]
Could green ink flowing through human veins overcome a robot invasion? Not in a black-and-white arena. But our world is grey and demands judgement. That, and the embarrassing fact that accountants are only human after all, will ensure the profession’s survival. (more…)
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