An August 2012 survey on Supplier Lifecycle Management found that 35% of Best-in-Class companies are currently leveraging supplier B2B social efforts to improve intelligence and supply chain operations, while only 13% of Industry Average and 10% of Laggards were doing the same. This study shows a correlation between results and use of social media within the supply chain. And yet, another study done by JDA found that out of 77 companies, only 1% are utilizing social media in their supply chain operations.
Kevin Lynch, CEO of Volerro comments:
There’s a huge potential to leverage social platforms to drive supply chain efficiency and engage sales and distribution channels. But today’s social platforms are far too open and far less secure than is required for enterprise operations teams. We believe our new offering bridges this gap, helping to make social operational. – from PRWeb
Volerro’s Business Commerce Network, launched in April 2012, harnesses the concept of social media to create an infrastructure where businesses can connect to one another to collaborate on a secure and private platform. On this platform, businesses can collaborate in real-time to share documents; discover disruptions and engage engage others in determining solutions; streamline the contract process; monitor social mentions; and more.
As a general rule, companies have integrated one or more social media tools into various business processes. However, Aberdeen Group research shows that out of a survey of 89 retailers, only 44% use social networking among employees and trading partners. 37% plain to begin using social media within their supply chains within the next 1-2 years, indicating a large opportunity for tools like Volerro. The same research shows the business benefit is clear:
- Businesses that used social networking delivered goods to customers on time 94.3% of the time, compared to 92.2% for companies that did not
- Out-of-stock rates were lower at 3.4% for socially networked operations, compared to 7.2% for others
- Fulfilment costs increased year-on-year by 4.3% for businesses not using social networking; and only 2.4% for social media adopters
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Submitted By: Teara McGinn. To contact the author of this entry please email at: teara.mcginn@gmail.com.
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