The Cloud may have the Computing, but the River has the data….
September 1st, 2010What happens in Vegas….shapes apparel supply chains
August 19th, 2010Who has the Largest B2B Integration Network?
August 2nd, 2010Since IBM’s acquisition of Sterling Commerce in May there has been a lot of discussion about the consolidation of B2B networks (and what it means for the industry). One of the topics discussed amongst B2B integration professionals is – Who has the largest B2B network? Numerous analysts and thought leaders declared GXS to be the largest following the successful acquisition of Inovis in June. However, I am not convinced that GXS really is the biggest. Amongst the traditional supply chain ..read more »
3PL Summit and Chief Supply Chain Officer Forum
June 28th, 2010I attended the 3PL Summit in Atlanta last week. This conference was organized by EyeForTransport - a provider of Logistics and Transportation-related information and services and attracted executive-level participation from several leading third-party logistics companies (3PL), Shippers, Retailers, Manufacturers and technology providers that serve the global logistics industry. The 3PL Summit was co-located with the Chief Supply Chain Officer Form and one of the focus areas of both conference tracks was to explore steps and measures that companies were undertaking ..read more »
Earth Day 2010 and the Volcanic Ash Cloud Effect – a Timely Reminder to Develop Greener Supply Chains?
April 18th, 2010There have been many great disaster movies in recent years, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and Deep Impact, but even the Hollywood producers could not have written a script to describe what happened in Europe over the past few days.
The eruption of the volcano in Iceland led to a huge ash cloud covering most of Europe which subsequently grounded all European flights. This is unprecedented in recent history. Most of the disaster movies never focus on what happens to businesses ..read more »
Unwrapping the New Daimler and Renault-Nissan Alliance
April 7th, 2010In my last blog entry discussing Geely’s acquisition of Volvo Cars from Ford, I highlighted a new trend that was starting to emerge across the global automotive industry. Far Eastern automotive companies, keen to get a better understanding of western automotive technology, were starting to embark on acquiring western automotive companies. Meanwhile the extensive M&A activity that has seen many western car manufacturers change ownership over the past few years, is now moving into a phase whereby western car manufacturers ..read more »
Geely acquires Volvo Cars, what will this mean for the global automotive industry?
March 31st, 2010On 28th March 2010, Geely signed a $1.8Billion deal with Ford to acquire their Volvo car business. Now this is significant for two reasons, firstly it represents the largest deal that a Chinese automotive manufacturer has made to acquire a western car company. Secondly it also brings to an end a 20 year cycle of acquisitions and divestitures across North American and European automotive industries.
Ford has been at the centre of many of the acquisition and divestiture activities over the ..read more »
B2B Automation Across the Manufacturing Industry
March 17th, 2010B2B automation can mean different things to different companies. For example some companies will say that they have automated B2B processes but very few have applied B2B solutions across every business process that may be operating across a manufacturing operation.
It is one thing being able to automate internal business processes, for example providing improved integration to an ERP system but it is another trying to automate B2B communications with a diverse range of global trading partners. Now when I say ..read more »