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2013 Global Supply Chain Survey Highlights Value of Speed, Efficiency

Brian Knotts — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:12:00 GMT

A new survey confirms that business leaders around the world are focused on efficiencies in supply chain management as a key to competitive advantage in an ever more interconnected global marketplace.

PricewaterhouseCooper’s 2013 global supply chain survey is titled “Next-generation Supply Chains: Efficient, Fast and Tailored.” It included surveys of more than 500 participants from manufacturing and service industries. The bottom line shows clearly that organizational leaders are looking for relief from the pinch of constant volatility – from natural disasters to technology to up-and-down markets.

“The increasing use of online channels is driving the reduction of response times and forcing supply chain managers to find new answers for global micro-delivery of multiple small-customer orders, instead of the large-batch movements,” the authors wrote. “Maximizing supply chain flexibility and managing multiple supply chain configurations have become the new imperatives for today’s supply chain executives.”

The authors used executive interviews to come up with six key findings that point the way toward a future where supply chains are more efficient, transparent, dexterous and customized to an individual company’s needs.

Here’s a look at the six key findings in PwC’s 2013 report:

‘You Can Have It All’: The study said companies with better supply chain management than the competition also achieved significantly better financial results. However, those companies often don’t recognize that superior supply chains are to credit for the good results. Supply chain leaders delivered OTIF (“on time, in full”) more than 95 percent of the time and had more than 15 inventory turns a year. Companies the study defined as “laggards” averaged under four inventory turns.

“Perhaps more important,” the study noted,” “leaders show it’s possible to deliver orders very efficiently without driving up their working capital, which refutes the still widely held belief that delivery performance is a function of inventory.”

Researchers found that just 48 percent of the top echelons in the “leading” supply chain outfits recognize mature supply chains as an important competitive advantage. Once the C-suite comes around, the study says, “it will be easier to persuade executives to make the investments needed to bring supply chains up to the next level.”
‘Leaders Focus on Best-in-Class Delivery:’ Executives are focused on maximizing profitability in supply chains, while reducing costs and getting more responsive to customers. One respondent told survey researchers: “We’re juggling multiple supply chain balls faster and faster and just hope that none of the efficiency or customer satisfaction balls drops to the ground.”

With that in mind, two-thirds of execs say their top priority is looking to stay more resilient to shifts in volume. Sixty-nine percent are most focused on meeting increased customer requirements. Sixty-one percent want the ability to respond to competitive pressures.
‘One Size Doesn’t Fit All’: More than 83 percent of supply-chain leaders optimize their supply chains to meet the needs of specific customer groups. For example, they might have various configurations for high-end and low-end products, or different configurations based on desired delivery times.
‘Global Control of Core Strategic Functions’: Leaders in the survey may outsource some production and delivery functions, but they retain global control of core functions, such as customer order desks. Outsourcing, overall, might have plateaued as companies seek to mitigate risks.
‘Supply Chain Capabilities Are a Differentiator’: Leaders as defined by the study already take cost-effective supply chains as a precondition for doing business. Now, they’ve moved on to “differentiating capabilities” that provide competitive advantage, things like collaboration with key partners to maximize delivery performance and creation of supply chain redundancies.

Leading organizations are adopting innovative supply chain technologies, such as RFID tracking in warehouse management, and other digital tools. More than 50 percent of respondents said they are implementing or plan new tools that increase automation and visibility, and nearly two-thirds say automation will be “vital” in the next two years.

“The technologies companies are deploying are far more sophisticated than before,” the study concludes. “Companies in every sector are looking for holistic solutions that encompass everything from order to delivery — solutions that are supported by enterprise applications and that draw on so-called big data to provide greater transparency within the supply chain and to help them optimize their logistics and distribution operations.”

History Can Help Navigate Your Business – If You Have the Data

Brian Knotts — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:59:00 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough once called history, “a guide to navigation in perilous times.” Many lesser men have said, somewhat less famously: “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

Therein lies the key to understanding the value in organized, transparent data, whether your business is supply chain management, e-procurement or warehouse management: Everything you need to know is out there, just waiting to be interpreted.

Two recently published articles brought to mind the very important role past events can play in determining future success – if only we had a reliable and organized system for examining historical facts.

Using Science to Make Successful Films

One was the New York Times piece on Hollywood’s efforts to apply science to the art of screenwriting. Vinny Bruzzese’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group charges up to $20,000 per script to scrutinize the story structure and genre of a draft script before locations are scouted or a single frame is shot. Analysts use an extensive database of focus group results for similar films, and they survey 1,500 potential moviegoers.

Some things they know, based on data: Movie flops tend to contain bowling scenes, and guardian superheroes (Superman) go over better than cursed superheroes (Batman). The company turns around a 20- to 30-page report that helps tailor the movie, statistically, for success.

The writers, of course, hate this idea as an intrusion on the creative process. But movie execs and financiers have endorsed it, commissioning about 100 script reviews, including one for the recently released “Oz the Great and Powerful.” Producer Scott Steindorff told the Times that the approach “takes a lot of the risk out of what I do. … Everyone is going to be doing this soon.”

Studying the Past for Clues About the Future

The second piece, which appeared this week on Wired.com, is about mathematicians and scientists who scour history for patterns they can use to predict the future. The field is called “cliodynamics,” after the Greek muse of history, Clio, and it is led by University of Connecticut professor Peter Turchin.

As Wired notes, the idea is not new. Philosophers and historians have long used statistical techniques to predict the future. What’s different now is the ready availability of voluminous data – digitized newspapers, historical accounts, public records – that make mathematical modeling more accurate. The information existed previously; it simply wasn’t accessible.

Most traditional historians – not unlike the Hollywood writers – are wary, but one Yale professor was quoted as saying his field should take notice of how Turchin is applying data.

Applications for Business

The implications for business are obvious. The data – the history of transactions, product movement, procurements, inventory levels, supply and demand – are just sitting there waiting to help you make better decisions. Chances are, though, the data is locked in mainframe databases that you can’t easily access or scattered across several databases that don’t talk to one another. Or, worse yet, you still keep records on paper.

Smart organizations know that the key to their futures is in linking all that information together and making it transparent and user-friendly so it can be interpreted and applied in anticipation of the next spike in demand or supply chain interruption.

Enterprise applications exist now that can help you be smarter in every facet of your operation. They allow you to capture all the data about how and where company money is being spent on air travel, hotels, office supplies, etc. That information can be used to negotiate lower prices and bulk discounts.

Similarly, integrated procurement and inventory/warehouse management applications can help you know in real time which products need to be replenished and when. You can even put mobile technology to use and optimize routes for a fleet of service vehicles, based on past delivery times.

The possibilities are virtually endless. However, if you haven’t corralled the data in a useful way, your organization is doomed to prove correct the anonymous man who said this: “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Soon, Even the Money In Your Wallet Could Have RFID Tags

Brian Knotts — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:54:00 GMT

We’ve written here about how smart organizations are using RFID technology for fixed asset management of all types, from store security to securing police equipment. Engineers have given us ways to embed a radio frequency identification tag in just about everything.

Here’s a new one: A research team at North Dakota State University in Fargo has come up with a way to embed RFID tags in paper, a development that could help battle counterfeiters and keep track of sensitive documents.

‘Smart paper’ Process Likened to Screen-Printing T-shirts

Dr. Val Marinov’s research, presented this week at RFID Journal Live!, has been chronicled in Science Daily and Prairie Business. Marinov calls it “smart paper,” and his team has applied for a patent for a laser process not unlike the screen-printing technique on t-shirts – only instead of an image Mötley Crüe, the process shoots tiny silicon chips onto paper.

Marinov told Prairie Business that the biggest potential benefit of the team’s invention is to prevent counterfeiting money. One of the design challenges was to ensure the circuitry on “smart paper” was flexible and could withstand being crumpled in your pocket.

In exploring market possibilities, Marinov has talked with a Canadian office furniture manufacturer interested in using the design for quality control. Another company is said to be interested in embedding the technology in hospital patient wristbands.

The current goal is driving down the technology’s cost to about a nickel per sheet of paper. One company already sells “smart forms” at 80 cents to $1.50 each, Prairie Business said.

An Epicenter for RFID Research

North Dakota State, it turns out, is an epicenter of RFID research. Another team there has developed “antennaless” tags that would solve the problem of radio interference when traditional RFID tags are affixed to metal objects. Typically, RFID tags are made up of an integrated circuit and an antenna. Previous attempts to design tags that work on metal have resulted in bulky tags that can easily be destroyed in handling.

But a team led by Cherish Bauer-Reich came up with antennaless tags that are less than 3 millimeters thick. They can even be recessed into the surface of a metal container.

So how do they work? Here’s the genius: They use the metal they’re attached to as the antenna. The advance will allow asset management for a wide range of items encased in metal, from coffee cans to barrels of oil.

Supply Chain Conference Keynote: Companies Need ‘Hyper-Agility’ Today

Brian Knotts — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:37:00 GMT

Having data is one thing. Making sense of it is another thing entirely. Without the second component, supply chain management is even worse than a guessing game because companies are forced into making bad assumptions.

That was the message Stanford University professor Hau Lee delivered to attendees in his keynote at the Institute of Supply Management annual conference this week. Lee, widely quoted since his research on the “bullwhip effect” was published 15 years ago, told the conference that many businesses use a “sense and response” approach to supply chain management.

‘Sense and Response’ Doesn’t Work

However, Lee said, they really need to get smarter. That means not making assumptions about customers, because the customers’ world might have changed – or be in the process of changing. The key is awareness.

“If you ‘sense’ without thinking exactly what the information meant, or understand what is behind the signals, you could interpret them wrongly. So I think we need to do ‘smart sensing’,” he said.

According to supplymanagement.com, Lee gave several examples of companies potentially failing to “sense,” or distorting raw data. One example: A spike in the sale of Spam canned meat. If you merely acted on the data, you might fill your store shelves with Spam. But what if you understood the reason for the spike was temporal: An earthquake or other crisis that would soon pass.

Another example Lee gave: A retailer who failed to order enough mosquito bite ointment one summer. The retailer said it couldn’t have predicted a spike in demand. The supplier of that ointment, however, understood the trends, if anyone had asked.

Better Decisions Through Collaboration

Avoiding such bad decisions means using technology to foster better collaboration with suppliers up the supply chain, Lee said.

“A large number of users say ‘I cannot respond fast enough.’ You cannot respond fast enough because the suppliers are not fast enough. The suppliers are not as flexible,” Lee said. “That requires a two-way collaboration of information. Suppliers have to give us more information about their capacity, about inventory. We have to give more advance notice of our forecast sharing. So I think that the importance is to be able to share two-way and not one-way.”

‘Hyper-Agility’ Can Defeat the Bullwhip Effect

Lee said it’s not enough anymore for companies to be “agile:” “If you want to be ahead of the competition, ahead of everyone else, you need hyper-agility.”

Lee has been banging the drum for better flow of information for a long time. His “bullwhip effect” research concluded that good context is the chief cause of supply chain distortion. In short, the effect occurs when demand order variability gets amplified from one end of the supply chain to the other, causing tremendous inefficiency.

The antidote, Lee argues, is getting better real-time information and constantly adjusting your reactions accordingly.

Timesheet Controls Reduce Fraud, Losses

Brian Knotts — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:27:00 GMT

You would think that organizations with the chief purpose of providing order wouldn’t need a time and attendance solution to keep timesheets fraud-free and accurate, but several recent cases show that even those who “should know better” sometimes don’t.

Detroit TV station WXYZ was first to report on a payroll fraud scheme that involved officers of the Detroit Police. Here’s how it worked: Officer Kim Mosby-Colbert was the “timekeeper” in the Southwest District. According to the station, Mosby-Colbert was using the position to exercise a little creativity on her own timesheet.

Mosby-Colbert initially denied any wrongdoing, but eventually she pleaded guilty to bilking the cash-strapped city of $30,000 for hours she did not work. Unraveling the scheme required an audit by a commander, a step that might not have been necessary had the a financial productivity solution that offered a more granular view of individual timesheets. With such software, exorbitant overtime charges for an 8 a.m.-to-4 p.m. office employee might have stuck out sooner, like a sore thumb.

‘Rampant’ timesheet fraud in San Jose

A federal lawsuit in northern California uncovered an even larger pattern of abuse in the San Jose police department. The case was filed by officer Thomas Correa, who alleged he was forced to retire from a 27-year career after he refused to take part in systematic timesheet fraud. He says he was branded a “snitch” and even physically assaulted, according to broadcast reports.

The lawsuit says officers set up a system that double-staffed operations one day a week – one team would show up for work and fill in timesheets for the other team, which spent the day taking long breaks, going to movies or going home early.

"Many police officers feel justified in committing such fraud because of the City Council’s attempt to reduce wages and benefits,” the case alleged. “Many officers view this fraud as a way of making things ‘even.’”

Again, automated timesheet management provides a remedy for such situations by enabling top-to-bottom transparency. It’s doubtful crooked officers could get away with such a scheme long if managers had constant visibility instead of shuffling stacks of timesheets.

Fraud Doesn’t Always Happen on a Grand Scale

By contrast, though, most timesheet fraud gets far less media attention because it involves private employees on a smaller scale. It usually involves less-conspicuous methods as well, such as “buddy punching” (punching in for someone else) or simply recording the incorrect amount of time. These actions – sometimes inadvertent – can nibble a business to death, one hour at a time.

Cracking down on timesheet fraud means getting the right message across to employees – corner-cutting will not be permitted and will be dealt with seriously.

But the right message will be toothless if the bosses don’t know what’s going on. That means having an automated systems that forces employees to be physically present when they clock in. Automation tools also can reduce losses due to inadvertent errors or inefficient processes, and they can cut losses accrued from calculation errors, manual data entry and other problems.

On top of all that, automation saves time. And what organization can’t use a little more of that?

NYPD Pilot Project Shows the Promise of Maximum Visibility

Brian Knotts — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:20:00 GMT

What if all criminal information available in all known databases could be routed through a mobile application to a single, searchable database that was accessible from an ordinary smartphone? How much better – how much smarter – would police departments and individual officers become, almost overnight?

How much safer could our neighborhoods become, simply through better data integration?

The New York City Police Department is exploring the potential of harnessing data to fight crime. As the New York Times detailed recently, the department last summer started a pilot program that distributed about 400 dedicated Android devices to officers. The early results are startling.

Information Is Power for a Cop on the Beat

According to the Times, officers on the beat now have amazing, instant access to information they previously would have had to obtain through myriad web searches, emails or radio and phone calls. Here’s a passage describing how officers approached a 14-story housing project in Harlem and simply typed the street address into the dedicated phone.

“The officers suddenly had access to the names of every resident with an open warrant, arrest record or previous police summons; each apartment with a prior domestic incident report; all residents with orders of protection against them; registered gun owners; and the arrest photographs of every parolee in the building. The officers could even find every video surveillance camera, whether mounted at the corner deli or on housing property, that was directed at the building.”

As the old saying goes, information is power. With that level of detailed knowledge about a building in Harlem, one officer is instantly more empowered with data to protect both him or herself and those who live there. Suddenly, suspects are less able to lie about their identity or whether they have outstanding warrants.

Connected Mobile Devices are Superior to Laptops

As the Times reported, these connected devices are superior to computers mounted in patrol cars, partly because of the always-on mobile connectivity and party because of the app that knits the data together.

As Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told the paper, a single point of entry allows access to many databases, without the need for multiple passwords or the need to log into various sites. Everything comes together in one place for maximum efficiency.

People have been using the buzz phrases Big Data and Internet of Things for a few years. Now we’re starting to see what those phrases mean. The NYPD experiment is a great example that useful data integration technology has arrived, not only for police who protect us, but also for other government organizations and companies in search of maximum transparency in emergency management, supply chain management, asset management, e-procurement and other areas.

Harnessing Big Data means empowering yourself with transparency to transform an organization from reactive to proactive. Like an officer on the beat, organizations without sufficient visibility are simply groping their way down dark, strange hallways and hoping for the best.

B2B e-Procurement Is Arriving On the Big Stage

Brian Knotts — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:37:00 GMT

There is something afoot in the B2B e-procurement space. Late last year, Forrester Research sized the market at an eye-popping $559 billion – close to twice the size of the B2C e-commerce market. Also, much of that activity is yet unrealized. A separate study found that only 25 percent of B2B companies have an online presence.

Tompkins International also predicts a momentum is building in this still-nascent industry. It notes that online business will be worth $1.4 trillion worldwide by 2015. That, coupled with the growth in e-commerce and evolving customer expectations in general, is poised to set a new pace in the industrial distribution market, Tompkins said in a paper titled “Industrial Distribution at a Crossroads.”

“This has led distributors to consider more online options and how to expand their channels to create an ‘endless aisle’ for customers,” says Vince Esposito, principal at Tompkins International and co-author of the paper.

So, What Has Changed?

Ok, fair enough. But frankly we have been-there, done-that with B2B e-commerce. and for some reason activity in this space has never made the splash – or created significant shifts in business operations – that occurred in the B2C space.

The last piece of the puzzle, though, may have fallen into place. Last year, Amazon moved into the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) market with AmazonSupply. Then, at the start of this year, Google launched Shopping for Suppliers. It is still in beta and offers only products from selected categories, but Google has a history of building out storefronts rapidly and with ease.

With such highly visible providers now moving to establish a presence in B2B e-commerce, the thinking goes, the market is finally ready for a more formal approach.

The Road to B2B E-Commerce

To be sure, there have been many fits and starts in the push to realizing a robust B2B e-commerce community. Ten to 15 years ago, fledgling e-commerce initiatives among the global auto supplier providers promised to remake the sector. While some progress was made, it hardly represented the sea change that the initial buzz suggested.

But while some of these endeavors flamed out, there have been other initiatives that became quietly successful, paving the way for such initiatives as Shopping for Suppliers.

E-procurement, for instance, has become more sophisticated, especially as enterprise vendors moved into this best-of-breed niche. In related areas, meanwhile, such as marketing, companies have been taking careful note of B2B trends. One company, Demndbase, specializes in B2B online marketing and recently created a filter that allows companies to display ads online to other companies that have similar technology in house. The reason? Apparently the company has noted that it is easier to cross-sell and up-sell to companies if they both use, for example, Oracle and Salesforce.com. In fact, it goes so far as to say that the type of technology a company uses is an important defining attribute in a B2B sale.

Another reason behind the push toward B2B e-commerce is the ubiquity of mobile devices and the range of functionality they offer consumers. Consumers can pay their mortgages, book a flight and even buy a car or expensive piece of jewelry using their mobile devices — so why can't they shop for and purchase a supply of electronic components online, let alone with a mobile device? Why not indeed.

There is even talk that as mobile CRM makes greater and greater traction, it will expand to the B2B community. But that is another topic altogether.

How e-Marketplaces Help Purchasing Agents, Buyers, and Suppliers

Brian Knotts — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:26:00 GMT

These days, of course, it’s possible to purchase just about anything electronically, through one-off online orders. That can save money and time. But implementing a purpose-designed e-procurement marketplace has additional advantages. In particular, it lets organizations effectively manage buyers, catalogs and suppliers. And it benefits everyone involved in the purchasing/procurement process.

The beneficiaries start with purchasing agents. A properly constructed electronic marketplace lets them select specific vendors as preferred suppliers and allows them to establish and enforce rules requiring buyers to purchase from those suppliers. The marketplace can even let the agents control which suppliers and items specific buyers can see when selecting purchases – an important ability, especially when handling security-sensitive products. It can also route purchase requests to managers for approval as necessary. All of this lets agents keep centralized control over both suppliers and prices.

An Easier Road for Buyers

E-procurement software also makes the purchasing process easier for individual buyers. For example, it lets them easily find items they need from the electronic catalogs of approved suppliers, while also letting them compare prices from those suppliers (or request special pricing or products they don’t see offered). It also automates the process of generating and submitting purchase requests. All buyers need do is add items to the shopping cart in the online catalog of the selected vendor, and submit an online requisition for approval. Once the transaction has been approved and processed, the system keeps the buyer informed of factors such as the status of the order, available inventory of the item being purchased, and shipment status.

The electronic marketplace also helps suppliers provide the best service. They can, for example, update and add product information to their electronic catalogs as necessary. They can receive and process electronic purchase orders. They can combine related products into popular packages or sets for convenient ordering. And they can access real-time information about payment status.

Tying It All Together for Transparency

Tying the electronic marketplace into other automated systems brings further benefits. Purchase requests, once approved, can automatically turn into purchase orders. When the order has been filled, the supplier can electronically submit an invoice based on the purchase order to the purchasing company's integrated invoice management system. The invoice becomes one of many types handled by this system. Such integration extends automation seamlessly from procurement through payment.

This integration multiplies the efficiency of both types of automated systems. The electronic marketplace e-procurement system can set purchasing rules to obtain maximum discounts. The invoice management system then generates payments that meet any terms necessary to capture such discounts. This system also provides reporting capabilities letting purchasing agents analyze the resulting discounts by various criteria. That in turn allows them to modify or update procurement rules to further increase savings.

This reporting capability also lets agents minimize waste and needless expenditures. For example, they can confirm whether the purchasing rules they set up produced the results they expected. It lets them see how many purchases took place off-contract or that otherwise failed to follow procedures. And, if necessary, it even lets them change preferred suppliers mid-stream.

The Link Between Electronic Payments and Fraud Reduction

Brian Knotts — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:22:00 GMT

The Association for Financial Professionals uncovered an interesting correlation in its most recent AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey series: a drop in payment fraud last year coincided with electronic payment methods as well as other fraud mitigation strategies, such as automated invoice management.

Not that fraudsters have stopped targeting business-to-business payment fraud, according to the survey. It found that 61 percent of the financial professionals responding to the survey experienced such fraud or attempted fraud last year. However – and this is key – that figure is 12 percentage points lower than in 2009.

In the interim, companies have been stepping up deployment and implementation of automated invoice management. The survey found, for instance, that 84 percent of companies posted a drop in paper payments while increasing electronic payments.

What It Takes

Implementing electronic payments for a company can be an investment, requiring at a bare minimum a robust ERP and general accounting system. From there, the deployment and integration requirements grow, especially as companies expand their payment capabilities with other partners.

A survey by GXS found that 96 percent of respondents plan to increase the number of customers they trade with electronically, the number of suppliers they trade with electronically, and the number of business processes they support. In addition, 59 percent of participants plan to expand their use of B2B e-commerce in all three areas.

The GXS survey honed in on managed service as a solution to this complexity: It found that 96 percent of respondents felt managed services has added significant value to their overall B2B integration programs, with cost savings as a key benefit.

Other Recommended Steps

But there are other steps companies can take to maximize their electronic payment systems and general IT systems to prevent fraud. The AFP survey found, for example, that performing daily reconciliations (76 percent) and reviewing and strengthening internal procedures (68 percent) were key steps as well. And these are hardly the only tools and processes available. A separate survey, CyberSource's 13th annual online fraud survey, found that to manage online fraud, merchants are using an average of 4.9 fraud detection tools, with larger merchants using an average of 8 tools.

One of the most important things to have, however, is automated invoicing ability that gives the company a top-to-bottom view of all transactions, with maximum searchability and intuitive use. Fraudsters depend on your inability to easily detect what they’re doing.

The Problem with Checks and Manual Processes

One sticking point, though, may be companies’ ongoing love affair with paper checks. According to the AFP survey, checks are still ubiquitous in the corporate world. Here too, though, fraud detection and control procedures can go far in preventing theft. CFO Magazine, which reported on the AFP survey, told of a common – and low-tech – prevention tool: positive pay. This is an internal control in which the company’s bank pays only the checks the company’s finance department preauthorizes.

Indeed, it appears that low-tech tools will continue to be a staple in the fight against payment fraud for some time, even as more companies shift to electronic methodologies. The CyberSource survey also found that 75 percent of merchants surveyed conducted manual reviews of their orders, with slightly over one out of every four orders being manually reviewed. “Although order volumes have increased significantly over the years, manual review rates remain fairly steady, implying that merchants are manually reviewing far more orders today,” according to the report.

Unfortunately, with 75 percent of manually reviewed orders ultimately accepted, these merchants are incurring significant expense to review legitimate orders, the report concluded.

There is, after all, a reason why companies see the value in automating processes such as payment and work order management – reasons that are far more basic than preventing fraud. Efficiency, for instance.

	SaaS	On-Premise
Cost	Pay as you go, per user, per month, etc.	Up-front capital costs for hardware, software licensing, training, etc.
Hardware	Hardware and software handled by provider	Customer provides hardware and system platforms to run apps
Customization	Limited customization	Maximum customization capability
Control	Provider manages systems and is entrusted with customer data	Control of systems and data completely managed by customer
Security	Customer data kept on servers managed by provider	Customer data kept on site and managed by customer

Cloud Computing Blog | Enterprise Blog

2013 Global Supply Chain Survey Highlights Value of Speed, Efficiency

History Can Help Navigate Your Business – If You Have the Data

Soon, Even the Money In Your Wallet Could Have RFID Tags

Supply Chain Conference Keynote: Companies Need ‘Hyper-Agility’ Today

Timesheet Controls Reduce Fraud, Losses

NYPD Pilot Project Shows the Promise of Maximum Visibility

B2B e-Procurement Is Arriving On the Big Stage

How e-Marketplaces Help Purchasing Agents, Buyers, and Suppliers

The Link Between Electronic Payments and Fraud Reduction

Planning for Black Swan Events in a Global Supply Chain

Automated Expense Management Makes T&E Tracking More Efficient

How a TX Police Department Found More Time for Policing Through RFID

How Walmart and Others Are Achieving Same-Day Delivery

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Tech 101: Mobile Buzzwords

How Work Order Management Automation Can Improve Customer Relations

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