To succeed in the future and better their supply chain, businesses need to move away from “the way we’ve always done things” mentality and towards innovative practices to connect, automate and improve interactions between all parts of the supply chain. Elemica is one company that is leading the way specifically for process industry manufacturers but also should be taken as an example for where other industries should be headed for the future of business success.
Elemica is a Supply Chain Operating Network provider, designed to give businesses total control over their global supply chains. Capturing transaction data, across all trading partners, and translating it into actionable information is key to driving value out of the supply chain. Elemica achieves that keen insight by combining powerful SmartLink business process applications with a robust QuickLink Network.
Organization: Elemica
Industry: Information Technology and Services
Name of Contact if available: Ed Rusch, Executive Vice President, Global Marketing, Elemica.
Web References: Investopedia, Elemica
What is a Supply Chain?
A network created between different companies producing, handling and/or distributing a specific product. The supply chain encompasses the steps it takes to get a good or service from the supplier to the customer.
It can seem like a simple and straightforward enough concept but the actual process is extremely detailed and when it spans multiple organizations and thousands of people it can be quite convoluted, cumbersome and time consuming. This is where a Supply Chain Operating Network comes in.
What is a Supply Chain Operating Network (SCON)?
Why your business needs a Supply Chain Operating Network?
Supply Chains can be extensive networks that need constant communication. Maintaining relationships, finding ways to share information and collaborating with partners can prove very time consuming and costly.
Elemica takes this messy cumbersome part of the relationship and smooths it all out, letting businesses get back to the important work they need to do and not be tied up in technical difficulties.
“By tapping into the collective insights and knowledge of supply chain participants, businesses can drive innovation within their supply chains, which leads to continuous improvement and business growth.” -Ed Rusch, Elemica
What does Elemica do?
Elemica provides all the businesses within a supply chain with the easy ability to communicate and collaborate to enhance the way they do business. It allows them to meet all their partners and collaborators on one level without the issues of having to adapt to each businesses’ processes or technological capabilities.
“Elemica’s QuickLink Network platform, in a very straightforward way, integrates the extended supply chain using technologies that allow for easy on-boarding of thousands of trading partners without requiring them to change the way they fundamentally do business. Our patented approach to integration means that companies can seamlessly and efficiently conduct business with other on the network without having to make costly investments in time and technology.”
– John Blyzinskyj, CEO Elemica
They have quickly become the leading Supply Chain Operating Network provider for process industry manufacturers globally with their innovative SmartLink Applications and QuickLink Network. Elemica helps “companies automate commercial and logistics business processes and form deeper collaborative relationships across their trading partners, thereby increasing productivity and lowering costs, leading to superior operating results,” said Juan-Carlos Mani, Vice President of European Sales at Elemica.
In addition to being a platform that helps industries share their data easily, automate supply chain processes and conduct commerce, Elemica has a business to business (B2B) Networking and Collaboration system included in their QuickLink Network. Their own private social networking system built right in to allow all the trading partners the ability to easily communicate and conduct business amongst each other.
Examples of Businesses already using Elemica:
Lessons Learned:
Social networking tools work differently for every industry and business. Different networks allow for a better medium for your industry. In communications with Ed Rusch, the Executive Vice President Global Marketing for Elemica, he passed along this bit of wisdom that I think many businesses forget when they are exploring collaborative social mediums for business. They become too overwhelmed with the vast amount of choices and forget that: “attempts at collaboration on the wrong platform would not bear any fruit.” He uses Elemica as an example “sure, Elemica could be used for all industries technically speaking. So, for example, there is nothing stopping a person from using Instagram to share a collaborate on professional and career minded objectives. However, the platform would not best facilitate any valuable outcomes for that user because it doesn’t have critical mass of people leveraging the platform for those objectives.”
Perhaps the reason there is a lack of information on different industries utilizing social networking for their supply chain management, is that the platforms have not yet been created to really assist those industries with their individual needs.
Thank you to Ed Rusch of Elemica for answering my questions. Elemica has a wealth of information to help explain Supply Chain Operating Networks that I would recommend everyone check out. It helped someone like myself with absolutely no knowledge of the topic gain insight into something I was having difficulty wrapping my head around. Be sure to tune into their very informative and entertaining YouTube videos “Elemicans in Cars Talkin’ Supply Chain”.
Submitted By: Paige Mahoney-Nagle, SMBP student, University of Waterloo
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.