Supply Chain Digital Transformation

ScienceSoft starts any supply chain transformation project with an in-depth analysis of the following aspects:

• A client’s overall business picture and business goals.
• Current supply chain processes, KPIs, dependencies with other business processes, operational and economic pains to assess the required depth of digital disruption and prioritize the supply chain areas subject to change.
• The existing supply chain software, its weaknesses and transformation potential.
• IT infrastructure and enterprise software to be integrated with supply chain software, their capabilities and constraints.
• Supply chain data workflows.
• Regulatory requirements and risks, e.g., with the WTO regulations, GDPR (for the EU), ZATCA regulations (for the KSA), HIPAA (for healthcare).

To ensure setting the digital transformation goals in accordance with the customers’ ambitious supply chain plans, ScienceSoft’s consultants conduct interviews with the members of the supply chain teams. Among the questions discussed may be the following:

• What are the long-term and short-term expectations from the transformation? (reduced supply chain costs, faster supply chain processes, minimized supply chain risks, etc.)
• What will be the number of users and user roles (an inventory manager, a purchasing specialist, a supply chain analyst, a supplier, etc.) for the supply chain software?
• Are there any specific requirements for user experience with the new digital solution(s)?

Upon analyzing the collected information and combining the insights obtained from multiple stakeholders into a comprehensive vision, ScienceSoft’s consultants prepare a list of digital transformation requirements, which describes:

• Long-term goals and short-term objectives of digital supply chain transformation, prioritized according to their expected financial impact.
• The supply chain areas that digital transformation should cover.
• All the capabilities that the supply chain innovation should provide.

Having formed a high-level vision, ScienceSoft proceeds with the conceptualization of digital supply chain transformation. We create an individual action plan, which involves making a range of important technical decisions:

• Outlining the required modifications of the existing IT infrastructure, for example, cloud migration, infrastructure automation, implementation of advanced cybersecurity tools, etc.
• Defining the optimal non-functional requirements (availability, scalability, performance, security, usability, etc.) and a feature set for the supply chain software, including capabilities powered by advanced techs (IoT, AI and ML, computer vision, AR and VR, digital twins, blockchain, etc.).
• Designing the sustainable and scalable architecture for the supply chain ecosystem, its components and integration points.
• Creating a plan of integrations with corporate solutions (e.g., ERP, selling platforms, accounting software), hardware (machine vision cameras, RFID devices, barcode scanners), external services and tools (messaging services, user authentication services, etc.), third-party systems (suppliers’ ERPs, shipping carriers’ systems).
• Designing the UX and UI of supply chain applications for various user roles.
• Selecting a best-fitting tech stack to deliver the transformation.

During this stage, ScienceSoft introduces a detailed project plan, including:

• Deliverables.
• Project duration and budget (at the level of the whole project and each particular supply chain digitalization initiative).
• Critical milestones, objectives, and KPIs.
• Project team and collaboration workflows.
• Risks and the ways to mitigate them.
• Expected TCO and ROI of the digital supply chain transformation initiatives.

At this stage, ScienceSoft’s team implements the planned digital supply chain transformation initiatives, which may comprise:

• IT infrastructure modernization.
• Implementing IT automation: CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, cloud automation, etc.
• Supply chain software development and/or modernization and evolution of the existing supply chain solution(s).
• Quality assurance of the supply chain software in parallel with development.
• Integrating supply chain software with relevant internal and third-party systems and running integration testing.
• Implementing advanced supply chain analytics, which may cover the design, training, and tuning of data science models.
• Automated deployment of supply chain software to the production environment.
• Continuous maintenance and support of supply chain software (optional).

We understand that the success of ambitious transformation initiatives may be stalled due to employees’ reluctance to fully embrace the changes. To make your supply chain team’s transition to new processes as smooth as possible, ScienceSoft experts:

• Conduct the training on the newly-introduced supply chain techs for the employees and external business partners.
• Draw up user training materials and user manuals and provide them to the company’s IT team.