Businesses Must Not Invest in Tech for Tech’s Sake
interview by Meeta Ramnani
Read the full interview on EnterpriseTalk.com
Q: The digital supply chain is changing the enterprise landscape unrecognizably. How do you envisage the SCM technologies changing over the next twelve months?
A: The supply chain, particularly the pharmaceutical supply chain, has been surprisingly ‘un-digital’ but it is definitely undergoing a transformation. The more entities we can get to participate on a digital network platform, the more efficient the supply chain will be. With this, certain business processes will be improved, and will become a lot more seamless.
For example, when working through a process like a product recall or suspect product identification, there are many cases where one party is trying to transmit or exchange information back up the supply chain. Currently, the process is quite fragmented and manual. If this process is digitalized, and all parties involved in the recall process are on one network, digital information sharing would allow the process to become much more efficient.
The other factor that is changing is that everything is becoming very personalized. The pharmaceutical industry is evolving – with innovative approaches to treatments like cell and gene therapies and personalized medicines. There is a much stronger need for specific knowledge on how these therapies and medicines travel full circle through the supply chain. Considerations around logistics, and temperature control are critical, as these drugs are life-dependent and expensive, leaving absolutely no room for error. The industry is in a place where there is a need to adapt to seamless information exchange between supply chain partners, and you need a digital network platform for this to happen.
