Covid-19

Pharmaceutical industry challenges

Top 5 Challenges in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The COVID-19 Effect

Top 5 Challenges in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The COVID-19 Effect 700 500 Xcelpros Team

At a Glance

  • The economic upheaval caused by the shutdowns to prevent the spread of coronavirus is raging globally, and many industries, including the pharmaceutical sector is facing uncertainties.
  • The pharma companies, however, have another significant role in the pandemic, and that around managing Pharma operations during the pandemic.
  • The unprecedented demand and expectation from the pharma sector in terms of R&D, production, supply chain management, and cost optimization is presenting many issues across the industry.
  • Top executives and decision-makers will need to maneuver their pharma companies in a calculated manner to rise to humanity’s occasion and make their businesses steady again.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus across the globe halted air travel, crumbling healthcare systems, countries going under lockdowns, thousands losing their jobs, and a looming prospect of the economic crisis are all the events that we as a world have seen in 2020. Industries across the board face the brunt of disrupted supply chains, skeletal workforce, and dwindling investments. However, one industry to which everybody is looking with bated breaths is the pharmaceutical industry- for it can provide an answer to this pandemic in the form of a drug or a vaccine.

Figure 1:Adverse Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic Globally

Adverse Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic Globally

To say that major and minor pharma companies have sprung into action would be an understatement! The leaders and decision-makers from different pharma companies have responded reasonably quickly and are guiding the world towards a better tomorrow. However, the ‘new normal’ that we live in currently presents many pharmaceutical industry challenges (from financial to operational).

According to a report by Global Data, 23 percent from the pharmaceutical sector are concerned about supply and demand gaps tied to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Let us take a look at some of the top concerns that the pharmaceutical sector will be facing in the current times and the post-covid-19 world:

1.Disrupted Supply ChainOver the globe, supply chains have been broken, disrupted, and some have even come to a grinding halt because of the nation-wide lockdowns, closed borders, and halted air travel. The coronavirus pandemic has created a disorder of the kind that we have never witnessed before. The pharma sector drives its operations through the smooth running of the supply chain to deliver drugs and vaccines across the globe by:

  • rapid procurement of raw material and chemicals for drug manufacturing
  • managing equipment for research & production
  • optimized warehouse management
  • inventory management through track and trace
  • on time in full shipments to customers

The industry executives will need to reduce their pharmaceutical supply chain challenges by changing strategies and using available resources to their fullest. A robust supply chain management (SCM) tool with interconnectivity and interoperability can work wonders to realign the supply chain and provide extensive visibility to stakeholders that sequentially bring processes back on track for pharma companies.

2.Need for Highly Skilled Workforce Almost all the developed and many developing companies are involved in research, development, and clinical trials for the potential coronavirus vaccine. This research requires scientists with immense knowledge, experience, and skills. The pharma sector will need to boost its investment in the high-skill workforce to continue making progress in the current and future times.

3.Humongous Data Collation and AnalysisThe research and clinical trials for potential drug treatments and vaccines for coronavirus worldwide generate unprecedented amounts of data and information. Paramedical experts and scientists in the pharma industry look at agile tools to collate and manage data while generating insights. After all, the clinical trial data insights will help pharma companies guide the world towards a better tomorrow.

4.Need for Agility and TransparencyWith the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been immense interest in the pharma sector’s workings by almost all social hierarchies. There is an increased need for faster, accurate, and transparent operations across the board.

5.Workforce optimization and ControlsDuring COVID-19, Pharma manufacturing companies made many adjustments to modus operandi. That includes accommodating remote workforce, social distancing when in person, wearing masks and gloves, and avoiding any possibility of spreading the coronavirus. Mainly while dealing with organic material within the raw material ingredients, additional testing is needed before the drug passes Quality and is deemed ‘in spec’. The extra impetus has led to newer Standard Operating Procedures in operations and quality when it involves batch production through batch records.

While these changes and concerns are bound to affect the pharmaceutical industry’s workings, proper management, technology, and software to navigate these challenging times will enable the pharmaceutical sector to rise to the occasion.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought forward existing and new challenges for the pharma sector. However, it has given a chance to create opportunities and get transformations that can have a positive impact on the pharmaceutical industry.

Key Takeaways

  • Pharmaceutical companies need to change their business strategies to suit the current environment and to navigate smoothly through the times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • There is a need for pharma companies to invest in robust software and tools that can optimize supply chains, facilitate automation, reduce manual labor, and systematically manage the enterprise to maximize their output.

For more information on our Microsoft offerings for the Pharmaceutical industry, Contact us today!

Top concerns of biotechnology industry current issues banner

Top Concerns of Biotechnology Industry Current Issues

Top Concerns of Biotechnology Industry Current Issues 700 500 Xcelpros Team

At a Glance

  • The world has turned its hopes towards biotech companies to reduce the spread and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • The biotech industry is working continuously towards fortifying healthcare systems, enabling serosurveillance to gauge the spread of disease in a community and to aid in the development of a vaccine.
  • With governments across the globe funding research and production costs to enable biotech companies to win this battle against time, there are various operational, technological, and workforce concerns that these companies face that need to be addressed with strategic maneuvering from the apex.

Introduction

The Biotech and Life Sciences industry is one of the most sought after sectors this year in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry as a solution to the current Covid-19 pandemic. Health experts across the globe have agreed that highly effective treatments, including the development of a vaccine, would be needed to reduce and eventually stop the spread of novel coronavirus, allowing cultures around the world to get back to normal activity. While some countries have fared better than others in handling the Covid-19 health crisis, there are still looming fears of new waves. Current Biotechnology issues are expected to normalize with an effective antidote or vaccine.

While the biotech industry sprung into action to begin developing a solution almost immediately, there’s still a long way to go. Challenges faced by biotechnology have been as real as the crisis itself. While the biotech and life sciences industry has a primary role in addressing pandemics like that of COVID-19, it’s not immune to economic downturns, supply chain disruptions, workforce shortage, or any other challenges.

Below are some of the pain points that the Biotech and Life Sciences industry are facing:

01.Roadblocks and Hurdles

All over the world, various biopharma companies, both privately and through government-funded efforts, are performing clinical trials for different potential vaccines and drugs. In 63 days after the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus was shared with the world, USA’s Moderna Biotech Inc. had developed its mRNA candidate to battle the pandemic. Being able to move at a pace never seen before requires immense talent, robust AI-enabled software setup to perform bioinformatics processes, and exceptional R&D infrastructure.

The journey from vaccine development to approval and administration on a global scale is wrought with numerous additional steps and hurdles, requiring mobilization of assets and task forces, recruitment of volunteers, conducting clinical trials, collation, and analysis of humongous amounts of data, smoothly operating supply chains, enormous monetary investments, and a well-equipped production and distribution infrastructure.

02.Collateral Delays

The spread of the coronavirus pandemic brought most of the world to a screeching halt, with many businesses having been forced to close. A result of this is disruptions to major clinical trials and research work on medicines and vaccines for other life-threatening diseases like cancer, HIV, autoimmune diseases, etc. These are collateral delays, and the biotech industry is now challenged with not ignoring existing health issues while still focusing on developing a solution for the ongoing pandemic.

03.Global Distribution

Health experts and top executives at significant biotech companies agree that even if we succeed in making an effective vaccine for Covid-19, there would be a need for immense strategic and operational changes in the current global and local supply chains to ensure that it’s produced and distributed to everyone around the world. With disruptions to most supply chains, only adding to challenges faced by the Biotechnology industry, it will be interesting to see how these organizations address these issues.

Figure 1Covid-19 Vaccine Development in Phases: The Role of Biotech and Pharma

Covid-19 Vaccine Development in Phases: The Role of Biotech and Pharma artwork

04.ROI

A global health crisis of this scale requires a humanitarian approach to ensuring treatment is available to all. This is why most pharmaceutical and biotech companies have agreed that the first or even second batches of any drugs or vaccines they produce(should they prove to be valid) will be distributed at non-profitable rates. We shouldn’t, however, neglect the current biotechnology issues who are investing millions of dollars in rising to the occasion. These organizations will need a blueprint for steady business growth and monetary returns in the post-COVID era.

05.Remote Solutions

Now more than ever, biotech companies need highly skilled and experienced scientists, health experts, and paramedical personnel who can make this journey towards vaccine development smooth. With most businesses still not fully operational to support new workplace requirements, more remote access solutions will have to be developed and embraced to keep operations moving forward.

Role of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain in Biotech Companies

We have spoken about some ongoing challenges faced by the biotechnology industry in the war against Covid-19. It is important to note that current biotechnology issues are handled with strategic realignment and robust Enterprise Resource Planning tools. An ERP system such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain enables biotech companies of all sizes to optimize their supply chains, mitigate costs on manual labor, avoid redundant efforts, automate billing cycles, and other enterprise-level processes.

Key Takeaways

These are challenging times for organizations in the Biotech and Life Sciences industry. They now, more than any other sector, continue to work at unprecedented speeds to help the world end this global crisis. Billions of lives are at stake, waiting anxiously for a solution to the ongoing pandemic. There are many challenges that the biotech sector needs to address from disrupted supply chains to the need for multi-layered coordination for clinical trials. With strategic intervention by strong leadership and the use of modern robust tools, these challenges and more, can all be overcome.

Get Consultation For all Your Business Needs

Get Started Now

enhance supply chain planning within pharmaceutical operations banner

Enhance Supply Chain Planning within Pharmaceutical operations

Enhance Supply Chain Planning within Pharmaceutical operations 700 500 Xcelpros Team

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant changes in market dynamics, forever changing the face of the global economy. Along with the pandemic’s impact on our daily lives, there has been a ripple effect in the day-to-day operations of Pharmaceutical manufacturing. As industries around the world continue to adjust to changes, Pharmaceutical manufacturers in specific, are noticing technology, process, and infrastructure gaps that are impeding growth and sustainability. Additionally, businesses that were forced to slowdown production during the initial stages of COVID-19 and are now getting back to full momentum, are finding it difficult to manage end-to-end operations.

Pharmaceutical companies cater to a customer base that is dependent on their products to manage patient health. This requires additional efficiency in everything they do, especially for planning supply-demand. The primary objective is to not halt manufacturing, as the dependencies can impact the entire Pharma value chain. Since pharma companies are quality controlled, there is an additional time factor that comes into the picture while determining the right deadlines to produce finished product and deliver to end customers. The entire process from drug discovery to packaging for delivery is a series of collaborations within the supply chain before the final product reaches the end customer.

Roughly 66% of the surveyed were concerned that COVID-19 could result in a possible supply chain disruption for pharmaceutical products. The statistic illustrates concern levels on possible drug supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic as of April 7, 2020. Matej Mikulic | Statista

The Planner’s Panorama

Due to the rapid changes in the global supply chains, production planners at pharmaceutical manufacturing are now tasked with surveying inventory and operations with a new set of eyes. Organizations need to be more watchful of new safety standards related to inventory storage, retrieval, usage of material, and equipment maintenance. Tools like Visual Gantt Charts are becoming invaluable for planning and managing inventory. The ability to depict a weekly schedule of operations for different production jobs and a clear picture of resource capacity is a core requirement for any good production planner. The production planner’s prime focus is to ensure there are enough raw materials and resources (equipment or human resources) to ensure a near-to-perfect supply-demand ratio. An additional element that supports a planner is to have inventory visibility within their current warehouse and plan transfers of inventory from overflow warehouses.

Operations gantt in batch manufacturing

Simple visual planning methods are no longer adequate to correctly manage all inventory-supply-demand processes and ensure proper movement of transactions across the company’s supply chain.

What planners need is a robust system that can track supply – demand by including a complex set of parameters such as lead times, working calendars, the capacity of equipment and capability of vendors to ship materials on a timely manner. Planners also need the ability to alert different departments of the next steps based on plans made for upcoming weeks or months. Any modern system should be able to offer required insights including the current state of batches manufactured and available equipment for future work orders.

A production planner often prefers handling the supply chain proactively rather than reactively by responding to the demands. The planner needs visibility of when the finished product will be ready, tested, and released for shipment. This type of planning helps overcome downtime and shortages in raw materials, which is a common issue in most companies. Responding quickly to changing inventory is one way for planners to be more proactive.

Process manufacturing operational efficiency

Even today, many small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies continue to use a combination of excel sheets, inventory reports, and some old school methods when managing their supply chain. As industries continue to face changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, only companies that have thought ahead and have invested in an automated AI-based planning system that can assess and predict future demand as well projected resource plans will be best equipped to handle their product delivery on time and in full. Companies now need a quicker and more streamlined process to take their products to market.

The Role of a Master Planning and Scheduling System

01. MPS Driven by Demand

The goal of a Master Planning and Scheduling (MPS) system is to provide suggestions to meet material requirements. If set up correctly, MPS systems respond to demand and plan supply accordingly. Demand usually comes from sales orders recorded in the Order Management system. Master planning ties Planned orders for Production or Procurement to corresponding sales orders. The supply requirements are then calculated based on settings for each item that is included in the Finished Goods Bill Of Material(BOM). The coverage settings of an item show precisely how and when to send feedback with a view of current stock levels or foreseen changes in stock levels from existing planned orders in place.

02. Planned Supply

MPS systems use algorithms for tracking the demand from sales orders, customer forecasts, safety stock levels, and calculating net-requirements for purchase and manufacturing. MPS also pulls together independent or groups of demands that trace back to the production of intermediate and raw materials to be consumed in different Manufacturing and Packout processes.

Determining the quantities required would depend on the inventory quantity setup of any single item. The requirement could be specific for a static batch size or dynamic quantities based on the demand needs. MPS systems provide planners the capability to either consolidate supplies across multiple demand orders, offering a comprehensive supply and demand management experience, or consider only the net change from the start of a full production run.

03. Lead Times

The ability to define lead times is critical to a master scheduling system. For instance, if a user enters a purchase lead time the system should account for the time it takes to receive raw materials after placing a purchase order.

I. Purchase Lead Times

Purchase lead times for a supplier can be set up based on different factors including

  • Pricing agreements
  • Time in days that a supplier can accommodate
  • Transportation time, and
  • Any other unforeseen coverage settings

Within Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain, a purchase lead time found for a specific supplier and item combinations takes precedence over general settings of an item. This applies when (1) no vendor is assigned to the item, and (2) the Find trade agreements checkbox is selected via Master planning parameters form > Planned orders tab.

II. Production Lead Times

Production lead times are the details that can be configured in coverage settings; however, these values are disregarded when items are produced via routes. Routes, defined in the modern Production control modules, consider available resources (people or equipment) and their working schedule. In this situation, production lead times needed to create finished goods do not have to be specified by a user, as they are calculated automatically.

Planning for the Unknown

There are still unknowns within pharmaceutical production and operations. Without the right system, planners will struggle to retrieve the data needed to better streamline the manufacturing process. To help with this, Production Planners can benefit from valuable information like –

  • Batch production history and patterns of user behavior that show actual production lead times
  • Quality standards of work-in-process production run based on raw materials that are procured from specific suppliers
  • Quantity yields of past batches, actual scrap percentages based on changes in production routes and resources
  • Accurate actual batch costings in comparison with estimates

These additional details provide supplementary insights to help improve production, downtime planning, maintenance, and most importantly, promise dates to customers. Production planners need to be equipped with a system that presents elaborate sets of insights and actionable suggestions on how to plan/schedule production operations. A well reliable tool empowers a company to drive efficiency and growth.

An AI-ML & Analytics Centric Approach

Eventually, and soon, a standard planning system will no longer be capable for the Pharmaceutical supply chain to operate efficiently. Systems that reduce human effort, learn from history, and improve daily operations will become necessary to overcome inefficiencies. At the same time reporting possible issues and roadblocks that impact orders as well as deliveries, improves the overall plan vs actual picture. Production planners are proving to be more efficient when they have real-time and historical analytics available during the planning process to make better decisions while managing inventory and orders. A guided method of operating and reporting through actionable data can make your company a powerhouse within the industry. An intelligent and optimized planning system can help eliminate guesswork for the production planners in build a competitive edge in the market.

Final Thoughts

The supply chain within a pharmaceutical company is only as efficient as the ability of a planner to proactively coordinate supply, demand, and inventory. A robust planning system with an emphasis on analytics and guided user behavior can play a key role in building efficiency and moving shipments out the door, along with meeting the required quality standards.

Xcelpros has designed Microsoft’s offerings to enhance planning for Pharmaceutical, Chemical, or Biotech industries. For more information on Production planning and Scheduling tools within Microsoft – Schedule Demo

Maintaining an Integrated Supply Chain Key Solutions

Maintaining an Integrated Supply Chain: Key Solutions

Maintaining an Integrated Supply Chain: Key Solutions 700 500 Xcelpros Team

At a Glance

  • Many organizations that fail to recognize supply chain as a strategic business function, tend to not move to a digital supply chain and lose out on the benefits that come with the transformation.
  • Traditionally, manufacturing companies have treated supply chain as a transactional function, a bargaining chip to reduce price and secure on-time delivery of raw materials. The modern supply chain is viewed as a strategic asset to the organization, integrated deeply with other business functions, aimed to increase customer satisfaction.
  • Companies unable to track hidden costs across the supply chain lose track of actual costs, damaging their bottom line. Proper supply chain monitoring can save anywhere from 20-30% of distribution costs.

The Supply Chain Challenge

Supply chain management is one of the most critical elements of success for any business in today’s global market. However, its application is undermined by many companies as business leaders face challenges to control the cost of a supply chain without compromising on its efficiency. Since COVID-19 we have witnessed drastic changes in methods and methodologies for streamlining supply chain operations. It, however, doesn’t take away some key fundamentals required for healthy functioning of a company’s supply chain and inventory management.

According to the Logistics Bureau, for companies running global operations, their supply chain cost could rise as high as 90% of their total expenditure.

The Supply Chain Slowdown

The problem lies in poor strategic management. Supply chain managers are focusing on cost minimization, most of them without having detailed field knowledge of how the system works, and the result is it is impacting other areas of the process such as inventory optimization, ‘on-time delivery in full (OTDIF)’ and customer satisfaction. Trying to improve one KPI is resulting in a cost spike in other areas of operations, which can have a long-term impact on revenue.

FIGURE 1 Where Business Leaders are Falling Short

Where Business Leaders are Falling Short

A robust supply chain needs strategic alignment and planning in line with the overall business functioning. For example, in order to control cost, you need to first understand the key drivers of cost in the supply chain and most importantly how to measure the supply chain cost. While the strategy is important, establishing an integrated supply chain requires a synchronized approach to planning, execution, and application of technologies in order to create an end-to-end unified system across the entire organization.

FIGURE 2 Key Elements of an Integrated Supply Chain

Key Elements of an Integrated Supply Chain

In this article, we will touch upon some interesting facts that make an appealing case as to why the Supply Chain strategy needs to be digitally enhanced and properly integrated with other parts of the business.

Switching from Traditional to Next-Gen Digital Supply Chain

The rapidly evolving business landscape is disrupting the way companies function. Moreover, the advent of the latest technologies and growing competitive markets are driving companies to push their limits and redefine supply chain operations.

Is your business ready to embrace a digital supply chain as a key distinguishing factor for its competitive advantage?

Most SMBs are holding back the transformation due to the fear of possible risks that could surface. Per our industry experience, it’s due to the age-old perspective in which company leadership is analyzing their supply chain. In most of the cases, we found that they are way behind the entire purview and don’t realize the true potential of a well-integrated, technologically advanced supply chain.

Traditionally, business leaders focused on pricing and product quality, but priorities today have completely shifted. Major Objectives and Key results of organizations are geared towards optimized supply chain and operations to boost businesses forward. With Industry 4.0, advanced analytics, and robotic process automation rising, companies are realizing the need for an integrated supply chain. This has become even more true as the Covid-19 crisis continues. Demand planning and fulfillment, supplier-customer relationship, customer retention, on-time delivery are some of the major expenses of a company. An efficient supply chain not only helps with cost reduction in these segments but also ensures growth, profitability, and customer satisfaction.

Top Reasons to Upgrade Your Operations with a Next-Gen Digital Supply Chain:

Shifting from a plant-level production planning to a demand-driven focus with customer-centric mindset but not compromising with the product quality

Getting rid of outdated processes and technology to match the transforming global business landscape

Reducing cost to formulate a more efficient value chain to remain cost-competitive in the market

Ability to outsource parts of your supply chain process in order to reap economic benefits and superior supply chain network design

Achieving more efficient product lifecycle management

Collaboration with stakeholders to integrate business processes for increasing visibility throughout the value chain

The Impact of Supply Chains

An integrated supply chain influences the overall functioning and improves profitability of the business. Going digital and increasing interoperability across these functions sets a business up to accelerated growth. Let us discuss a couple of key areas that are impacted by a well designed supply chain.

FIGURE 3 Upgrading the supply chain will improve your bottom line

Upgrading the supply chain will improve your bottom line

01. Supply Chain and its Impact on Customer-Centricity

When business leaders discuss improving their supply chain, their main focus is usually related to accelerating growth by cutting down costs, achieving better lead time, and ensuring on-time delivery; as all these factors contribute towards business development. What slips from their mind is what customers really care about. It all starts and ends with customer satisfaction. Delivering the right product at the right time improves your organization’s brand value and credibility to customers.

What the customer cares about is receiving quality products on the promised delivery date without having to spend too much time or effort. This can be seen in Amazon’s announcement of one-day delivery. Late and inaccurate deliveries bear a significant impact on customer loyalty.

70%

of industry professionals predict that their supply chain is going to be a key driver of improved customer satisfaction by the end of the year.

Source: Accenture

Your procurement division must understand the importance of cost-saving, but they need to be in line with the expectations of the customers and procure quality raw material for manufacturing the items. If expectations on raw material quality is not set, you could save money purchasing raw materials upfront, but end up spending more in the long run.

Let’s take a look at Kimberly-Clark’s journey to understand this better:

Kimberly-Clark is a manufacturing-focused organization that up to a few years ago did not have a supply chain division. Sandra MacQuillan, their first Supply Chain Officer, built a solid team to ensure the supply chain was focused on customer satisfaction. In the process, she integrated various functions such as procurement, quality (know more on quality management by clicking here), logistics, manufacturing, safety, etc. that are interconnected and delivered for one common goal – that is customer satisfaction.

Kimberly-Clark was able to achieve 25-30% cost savings by interconnecting various aspects of the Supply Chain, focused on better customer service, resulting in improved efficiency.

If you connect with the issues faced by Kimberly-Clark, or your supply chain is functioning in silos, it could be the best time to make a change. You can take this opportunity to update and integrate your supply chain with overall business functions and work towards a common goal like customer Satisfaction. A strongly integrated application will have the ability to incorporate holistic business functions including analytics, collaboration with notification, secure information sharing, control-based decision making using Artificial Intelligence, and more.

FIGURE 4 KPIs that are critical for supply chain monitoring

KPIs that are critical for supply chain monitoring

02. The Role of supply chain in sustaining business long term

According to the Logistics Bureau, nearly 50% of companies shut down within the first five years of operation. One critical factor contributing to these failures is an inefficient and poorly conceived supply chain. Supply chains in most organizations have evolved as a practice, rather than a well-designed process.

79%

of companies with robust and high-performing supply chains are able to outperform their average peers in terms of higher revenue growth. This fact signifies the positive implication of a connected supply chain for a business.

Source: Deloitte

5 Steps to Integrate your Supply Chain

Break down organizational silos

For an effective, integrated approach to Supply Chain Management (SCM) the organization must operate end-to-end as a unified entity.

01

Define organizational objectives

Move beyond basic business and functional unit design and metrics. Look at the organization holistically and define the objectives as a complete entity.

02

Align business processes

Take a cross-functional approach to business process design. Start at a high level and map out the supply-chain flow with the goal of creating an end-to-end mapping of the business process.

03

Design the IT architecture to support an integrated approach

Leverage a cross-functional approach to IT systems design. As much as possible, standardize the organization in terms of the applications that are used. Seek to eliminate as many disparate applications as possible in favor of a common set of applications across the business.

04

Reshape leadership and culture

For most organizations, the major roadblock in delivering an integrated approach to supply-chain management is culture change. Change of this magnitude must be driven by solid leadership. There should be strong collaboration to drive the effort to deliver an integrated supply-chain organization.

05

Final Thoughts

There is no way the importance of an integrated Supply Chain should be overstated or undermined. If you or your organization have not prioritized your supply chain efforts, it’s never too late to take the first step.

An intelligent ERP software comes with a holistic supply chain module along with advanced analytics to support the following functionality.

  • A manufacturing execution system
  • Financial and cost accounting
  • Inventory and warehouse management
  • Purchasing and planning of materials
  • Product information management
  • Sales and marketing of the products
  • Transportation and logistics management

In order to push a company forward especially post-COVID-19, a sound digital supply chain strategy would be needed.

Do not let operational inefficiencies limit your business, long-term goals

Act Now

ENTERPRISE PROCESS AUTOMATION TRENDS

Upcoming Process Automation Trends That Will Transform Your Enterprise

Upcoming Process Automation Trends That Will Transform Your Enterprise 700 500 Xcelpros Team

Introduction

The ultimate goal of any enterprise is that of speeding up processes, reducing errors, and increasing business output for better revenue generation. With the onset of the digitization era, companies have upgraded their technological prowess to adapt to process automation. It is important to understand that in the rapidly transforming world, process automation is not just a technological ability to speed up processes but a strategic movement towards better use of software to streamline workforce, introduce better work practices and mitigate cost inflations. Since COVID-19, process automation has turned into a need of the hour to improve operations that are built with adherence to process compliance and yield better outputs with a limited workforce. This means process automation will transform enterprises at a larger scale to increase agility and reduce dependency on manual work.

Manual Vs Automation

Is your business still operating through manual handoffs, excel macros, and cumbersome reporting? As businesses are integrating automation in more rapidly in different facets right from HR to Marketing, Production, Sales, and Information Technology; there is a considerable reduction in human intervention for mundane and simpler tasks. A component of efficiency will be introduced with the implementation of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in process automation. According to a leadership piece by Sogeti (1), enterprises will look into integrating robotics process automation (RPA) with AI to extract more business value. Read on to know why an enterprise should consider intelligent process automation for complete transformation and the latest trends that will help businesses along the path of said transformation.

Why Embracing the Latest Process Automation Trends and Techniques is a Necessity for an Enterprise?

As an enterprise, you need to ask yourself a key question: Where should the business’ attention be?

While at face-value this question may seem trivial, the entire enterprise architecture revolves around this key aspect. The more attention your skill base gives towards the latest trends like the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Cloud, Advanced Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and automated-integrated workflows, the better streamlined and agile your workforce would be. Hence it is highly significant for enterprises to explore deep into the latest process automation trends and make their employees acquainted with these trends for a competitive edge.

There is no doubt about the fact that legacy systems need upgrades and modernization to encompass latest trends of digitization, modern technologies and to become aligned with the fast-paced, changing business demands. Process automation plays a key role here. If not for process automation, the IT systems would face the brunt of not being able to keep up with business process improvements (carried out usually at a large-scale), leading to lesser productivity and overall loss of revenue. Automation helps you form ‘bundles’ of data and migrate them to platforms for systematic records management. Process automation can help your enterprise reduce the error rate, and increase productivity at a lower cost. But one point to remember is that the process automation described above would only make sense if your company has already transformed into a modern ERP system.

Figure 1 8 Reasons to Automate Your Business Processes

Reasons to Automate Your Business Processes

1.Handling the Unstructured Data Challenge: While data on systems has been very much taken care of by current process automation tools, enterprises and their related facets still struggle with unstructured forms of data such as hand-written notes, bills, invoices, images, etc. With the introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence, businesses are digging up automation solutions that will not only recognize this type of data (with the help of Robotics), but also assimilate and use it in processes similar to structured data.

2.Low-Code Solutions for Faster Results: Robotic process automation when integrated with low code solutions forms a golden bridge of zero human intervention and faster application development. These low code solutions enhance efficiency as well as help in transforming core processes like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

3.Integration of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Business Process Automation (BPA): Interdependent workflows have always been a part of large enterprises and the IT skill set in an organization has mostly been at the helm of managing these interconnecting processes in a complex workflow system. The latest automation tools will help in integrating RPA with BPA resulting in the formation of intricate workflows and implementation of all the related processes.

4.Real-Time Automated Decision Making: Enterprises will see more and more management of big data with the help of artificial intelligence and this will facilitate the way for flexible tools for IT operations that will preempt glitches and provide real-time solutions. This will help in better resource-allocation, lesser communication gaps, and fewer outages.

5.A Chance Towards Skill Set Upgrade: When computers were introduced as a tool to reduce human effort, they were met with a lot of apprehensions. In fact, many considered them as machines that would make a human contribution to technology obsolete. Similar apprehension and even cynicism can be seen in the case of process automation tools and software. After all, process automation eliminates the need for human intervention, making many technical jobs outworn.

However, enterprises are now looking up to this advancement in process automation as a chance to upgrade the skill set of their current employee base and make them adept in the latest technologies and tools. This will not only help the IT personnel move from labor-intensive, monotonous jobs to skill-based, dynamic ones, but it will also create a learning curve in the industry resulting in more innovations. When put in perspective, automation is not the cause for losing jobs, it is instead an opportunity for companies to fill the skill set gap and enhance the expertise of their IT personnel for innovation and better strategic output.

By 2023, AI-enabled automation in data management will reduce the need for IT specialists by 20%Source: Gartner report

The Changing Landscape

An enterprise cannot deny the fact that adapting to the need of the hour with the latest process automation trends is going to work in favor of its core business value. Numerous users across organizations will gain access to data, automated workflows that will be systematically prepared, and actionable insight that will aid towards building an agile enterprise. In the current market being agile as a company will be your strong suit. As they say, the cards are laid on the table; it is up to the businesses now to play their hand wisely!

Remote work is becoming more prevalent post-COVID-19. Companies are looking for more ways to streamline operations, engage the workforce, and yet meet the needs of customers. Process automation plays a major role in volatile market conditions during COVID-19. A combination of Microsoft’s Power Platform, AI – ML, Dynamics 365 for Sales and Dynamics 365 ERP, integrated with Teams allows users to streamline their processes and build needed visibility for management to effectively view the progress of operations remotely.

In fact, a successful use case off-late within various companies is to integrate Dynamics 365 with flow, teams, planner, and SharePoint to enhance compliance of process, coordination with team members remotely, track processes that are running in each department and provide task execution clarity for each employee within a department. More companies are adopting this suite of tools to improve productivity and simplify workforce engagement. All major functions of a company – be it Procurement, Sales, Manufacturing, Quality, Finance or HR, when unified together help a business stay afloat during challenging market conditions and support the over well-being of a business.

Key Takeaways

  • Introduction of Automated workflows, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Big Data, Machine Learning, and Advanced Electronics has changed the face of process automation for better and faster results.
  • Enterprises will need to invest more in advanced process automation tools to stay ahead in the competition and to gain critical business value.
  • Evaluate low-cost solutions for process automation that is easily customizable for your business and build enhanced visibility of how your company is performing in a challenging market.

Reach out to us for your company’s Digital transformation

Get Started Now