Takeaways from Verusen’s Salute to Digital Innovation in the Supply Chain Event

Verusen was pleased to recently gather many of Atlanta’s supply chain leaders to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with supply chain innovation and digitization. Held at the Atlanta Metro Chamber, our event brought together a range of expert perspectives on how disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence will transform physical supply chains into digital supply chains, allowing companies to cut costs and improve efficiencies while developing their digital workforce.

As CEO and founder of Verusen, it was an incredible opportunity to participate in a lively discussion with local supply chain thought leaders, who included the following:

• Tim Brown, Managing Director for Supply Chain & Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech
• Mike Dennis, Principal at Capgemini
• Ben Harris, Director, Supply Chain Ecosystem Expansion, Metro Atlanta Chamber
• Paul Noble, Founder & CEO, Verusen
• Paul Hannan, Director of Sales, Verusen
• Scott Luton, Founder and Host of Supply Chain Now Radio (event moderator)

In case you missed the event, below are key takeaways from some of our speakers.

Data Harmonization and Good Decisions

In addition to his role at Supply Chain Radio Now, a podcast spotlighting the best in all things supply chain, Luton is also executive president of the Atlanta chapter of APICS, the premier professional association for supply chain and operations management. During our event, Luton spoke about the proliferation of data silos within the supply chain and how software and automation can address these.

“In our data-driven world, silos within organizations mean employees work with their own set of data and worksheets, so technologies that automate the data-harmonization process among different sources and systems are important in coming up with the gospel of truth to use for making better—and faster—decisions,” said Luton. “If you’re making decisions with bad data, you’re going to be in trouble really fast.”

Creating a Data Foundation of Truth

Hannan spoke about the importance and opportunities in helping organizations make trustworthy decisions about supply chain activities by setting a data foundation based on true, accurate information―especially in the area of indirect materials.

“At the end of the day, improved data visibility lets an organization look at their business in new ways and make better decisions,” said Hannan. “In the area of indirect materials, we’ve seen a lack of innovation that other parts of the supply chain have experienced. Based on what we’re hearing from organizations, the time is right for improvements in this area because there are lots of opportunities—if they could just trust the data.”

Atlanta, the Supply Chain and Disruptive Tech

Harris was on hand at the Verusen event to discuss the importance of nurturing supply chain technology innovation and talent acquisition in Atlanta as part of the Chamber’s #SupplyChainCity initiative. A Deloitte study found Atlanta the number two city for digital supply chain among seven top cities.

“Right now, Atlanta has a major opportunity to become one of the biggest tech hubs in the nation, so it’s very important for us to actively support companies like Verusen with its disruptive artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology,” said Harris. “As a tech hub, we’ve been compared to Silicon Valley and New York, but Atlanta really is the Silicon Valley for supply chain. Nurturing companies with disruptive supply chain technologies like AI, additive manufacturing and autonomous vehicles is one of the most important things we do here at the Metro Atlanta Chamber.”

A Call for Co-Innovation

Optimizing the supply chain at the core of what we do at Verusen with our AI and machine learning platform, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have access to the great store of Atlanta talent in this field. As Verusen works to provide visibility into materials inventory data in ERP and other systems using AI and predictive technologies, we look forward to working with institutions and companies that call Atlanta home to co-innovate for more agile supply chains.