Oracle releases new cloud analytics offering for Oracle Fusion SCM offering

Earlier this month, Oracle, a global provider of integrated cloud applications and platform services, announced it rolled out a new cloud analytics offering for its shipper customers using its Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) platform, which connects shippers’ supply networks with an integrated suite of cloud business applications.

Oracle said that the new cloud analytics provide shippers with the needed insights “to detect, understand, and resolve issues faster throughout the supply chain.” And they added that in leveraging Oracle Analytics Cloud and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, the new Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics provides shippers with pre-built metrics and dashboards that utilize machine learning capabilities that help shippers on various fronts, including reducing costs, ensuring customer satisfaction, and driving revenue.

“Supply chains are under immense scrutiny as organizations face new and unexpected disruptions,” said T.K. Anand, senior vice president, Oracle Analytics, in a statement. “Now more than ever, organizations need real-time insights into every element of their supply chain to help them make the right decisions and get ahead of disruptive events and changing customer expectations. With Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics, customers can quickly uncover supply chain performance insights, identify issues, increase efficiency, and minimize supply chain disruption.”

Jon Chorley, GVP of SCM Product Strategy and Chief Sustainability Officer, Oracle, provided LM with a detailed overview this new offering in interview.

LM: What drove the need for Oracle to roll out Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics?

Chorley: Supply chain disruptions have recently been taking over the headlines. The complexities of supply chain management have always been a critical factor for organizations, but now everyday consumers are being impacted – and they’re not happy about it. Our recent survey found that people are concerned that these disruptions will never end, and it’s becoming a make-or-break factor as to whether they buy from a brand or go elsewhere.

Additionally, amid all of these issues impacting nearly every industry, we’ve worked with our customers to understand their needs and how we can help address them. That’s how we knew this technology was not only wanted, but needed for organizations everywhere.

LM: What are the main benefits of the new analytics capabilities for shipper customers?

Chorley: To set the context for the new solution, analytics capabilities are pre-built into the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications suite via Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI), and the new capabilities offered in Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics are fully complementary. Its analytics capabilities offer the advantages of more in-depth and longitudinal analysis, as well as the ability to incorporate non-Oracle Fusion, third-party data sources. In addition, information and data within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications is automatically synchronized with the new analytics offered in Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics.

By leveraging machine learning to deliver pre-built metrics and dashboards that are ready-to-use from day one, Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics helps our shipper customers ensure they’re able to meet customer demand, execute on-time orders, improve accuracy, and benefit from automation. With Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics, organizations can:

• Ensure that customers’ orders are fulfilled accurately and delivered on time by shipping orders from optimal locations and fulfilling backorders faster than before;
• Reduce errors in the ordering process to further ensure on-time delivery, leading to greater customer satisfaction; and
• Gain automated insights—provided by machine learning and predictive analytics —into supply chain data to identify cost-saving opportunities, surface operational bottlenecks, and predict future outcomes. The open architecture of Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics supports data from external supply chain stakeholders, e.g. third-party service providers, which allows shipping professionals to more accurately and quickly adjust to supply chain disruptions like sudden fluctuations in demand or component shortages

LM: Can you please provide a basic example of how it functions?

Chorley: Here is a hypothetical example of Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics in action:

• a scooter manufacturer is an Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics customer and faces spiking demand for a new scooter model—and its revenue is at risk if it can’t meet demand;
• the customer creates an inventory projection for the new scooter model using Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics, which projects high demand under all forecasting scenarios;
• Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics alerts the customer that they can repurpose components for another scooter model to build enough units of the desired scooter model;
• the customer then uses Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics to find inventory for the new scooter model’s components across its supply network; identify the best supplier in terms of costs, delivery time, and available inventory; and locate the employee resources available to assemble the scooters; and
• as a result, the customer is able to produce enough units of the new scooter model to meet the spiking customer demand

This example highlights how Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics provides customers with new ways of working with data by using machine learning-powered predictions, which helps organizations gain actionable insights to improve supply chain performance – and ultimately deliver the best possible customer experience.