Introducing the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform

Published on 14 Nov 2022 by Charles Lamanna, Corporate Vice President, Business Applications & Platform.

Although supply chain disruption is not new, its complexity and the rate of change are outpacing organizations’ ability to address issues at a global scale. Many solutions today are narrowly focused on supply chain execution and management and are not ready to support this new reality. Enterprises are dealing with petabytes of data, spread across legacy systems, Enterprise Resource Planning programs (ERPs), and custom solutions, resulting in a fragmented view of their supply chain.

An organization’s supply chain agility and resilience will be determined by how they can connect their data and orchestrate actions across all relevant systems to quickly respond to changing market conditions. To be truly agile, supply chain software needs to increase visibility across data sources, predict and mitigate disruption, streamline collaboration, and fulfill orders – sustainably and securely.

Today we are announcing the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, which helps organizations maximize their existing supply chain investments with an open approach, bringing the best of Microsoft AI, collaboration, low code, security, and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications to a composable platform. As part of the new Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, we are also announcing the preview of Microsoft Supply Chain Center. The Supply Chain Center empowers customers to get started quickly with a ready-made “command center” that natively works with existing supply chain data and applications.

The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform: An open, collaborative and composable foundation for data and supply chain orchestration

Across Microsoft, we deliver a breadth of capabilities for organizations such as Grupo Bimbo, Mercedes Benz and Tillamook to build their own custom supply chain solutions. With today’s announcement, we are making it easier for customers to leverage the full Microsoft Cloud to enhance their supply chain. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform provides building blocks across Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams and the Power Platform for customers to adopt capabilities that address their specific supply chain needs. With Dataverse, customers can use hundreds of data connectors to gain visibility and act across their supply chain. The Power Platform also enables custom workflows, data reporting, and applications that connect to existing Supply Chain systems.

Partnering to empower customers in supply chain transformation

The Microsoft partner ecosystem will continue to play a critical role in enabling customer supply chain resiliency and agility. With the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, partners can bring their industry and domain expertise to create integrated solutions leveraging Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams and the Power Platform. A rich supply chain partner ecosystem includes advisors and implementers like Accenture, Avanade, EY, KPMG, PwC and TCS. In addition, to help customers find the best solution for their supply chain needs, the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform connects to Blue Yonder, Cosmo Tech, Experlogix, Flintfox, InVia Robotics, K3, O9 Solutions, SAS, Sonata Software, To-Increase and many more.

Accelerating business agility and efficiency with the Microsoft Supply Chain Center

At the core of the Supply Chain Platform is the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, now available in preview. The Supply Chain Center provides a “command center” experience for practitioners to harmonize data from across existing supply chain systems, like Dynamics 365 and other ERP providers including SAP and Oracle, along with stand-alone supply chain systems. Data Manager in Supply Chain Center enables data ingestion and orchestration to provide visibility across the supply chain and drive action back into systems of execution. During preview, our launch partners C.H. Robinson, FedEx, FourKites and Overhaul, will offer native experiences within the Supply Chain Center.

The full post can be read here.