Adding visibility and collaboration to your company’s supply chain is easier said than done.
Luckily, Google is offering simple, consumer-driven solutions for the global supply chain.
Before joining the Google team as the Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development, Amit Singh ran Oracle’s North American supply chain business for 20 years, and has a wealth of knowledge in the industry.
Now, he sees the supply chain world as moving to a streamlined process, where adding visibility and collaboration are keys to staying ahead in a fast-paced business environment.
“Businesses of all size, small and large, are moving to the cloud,” Singh said. “You can do exactly the same thing, for one hundredth of the price, and that’s new. That opens up new thinking for CIOs and CEOs, who think ‘Why am I investing that much to get the same result?’”
Google recently announced new developments in a line of products designed to help those in the supply chain industry by adding visibility and collaboration to the process.
The first innovation is the Google Prediction API, which allows businesses to plug in data into an algorithm that can accurately predict solutions.
“Using the building blocks we use internally for our products, we’re making that available for businesses to build their own solutions with Google Prediction API,” Singh said. “You can feed it real-time data to find the answer you’re looking for.”
Google is also making strides with its search appliance, bringing its world-renowned search engine into business settings.
“Think of the search experience you have in your personal life, and bring that inside your company, so you can find things with just a few keystrokes,” Singh said.
Google’s fastest growing business, Google Apps, offers real-time collaboration solutions for businesses. Over three millions businesses and 30 million users are already taking advantage of Google Apps, which Singh described as “the biggest success (Google) has had in a long time.”
One of the millions of companies that’s taking advantage of Google’s cutting-edge supply chain technology is Spyder, a provider of high-end outdoor and ski apparel.
“They’re a small company, but they’re a very mobile company and they do all kinds of work, at home and overseas,” Singh explained. “They’ve been able to use Google Apps to talk to people real-time and share documents, from all over the world.”
That visibility and collaboration is what Google is focusing on in the long haul, where the global supply chain will demand flexible, agile solutions.
“Business is moving much faster, and we need to constantly adapt to stay ahead of the curve,” Singh said. “The new thinking between openness and transparency in the supply chain that we’re developing is really quite good.”
