Will also Help Companies Respond to Supply Chain Disruptions

Supply Chain Digest Says...   Consumer packaged goods company Kraft Heinz North America, truck-maker Daimler Truck North America and fitness firm iFit are already using the technology as part of a trial period. What do you say? Click here to send us your comments   Click here to see reader feedback

Microsoft said this week that has significantly upped its supply chain game, announcing the launch of its new Supply Chain Platform, which it says is a tool that is a combination of its artificial intelligence, collaboration, low-code software, security and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications.

Microsoft wants customers to build a connected supply chain with the aid of its low-code development platform PowerApps. It further says the new platform supports demand management, supply chain intelligence, supply and demand insights, performance tracking, supplier management and real-time collaboration.

That’s not all. Microsoft says the platform also provides fulfilment optimization, pricing management, warehouse management, inventory optimization, order track and trace, and more.

That would seem to about cover the supply chain software gamut, except maybe “digital twins.”

Microsoft has also launched a preview of the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, which it says will track world events that may impact a customer's supply chain, orchestrate actions across a supply chain, and use AI to reduce supply and demand mismatches.

This, it says, is the core of the Supply Chain Platform.

“"Businesses are dealing with petabytes of data spread across legacy systems, ERP, supply chain management and point solutions, resulting in a fragmented view of the supply chain," said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Applications and Platform, in the announcement.

The Microsoft Supply Chain Center will be fed with data from its own Dynamics 365, as well as SAP and Oracle ERP applications, and standalone supply chain systems.

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It says it will also support software partner modules within the center.

Consumer packaged goods company Kraft Heinz North America, truck-maker Daimler Truck North America and fitness firm iFit are already using the technology as part of a trial period, according to a Microsoft blog post.

Explaining things in more detail following the press release, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on LinkedIn that “It’s time to transform supply chain operations. That’s why we’re bringing together data, AI, and collaboration – to tackle customers’ most urgent supply chain issues.”

Lamanna said there is a lot of value from pulling data together from different systems, saying that “This harmonized data will unlock visibility across the supply chain and drive intelligent action back into systems of execution.”

All of course on the Cloud.

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