Why do supply chain integrations matter?

Supply chains by their nature often require a number of different companies to communicate and work together all day every day. Suppliers, manufacturers, transport, warehouses, and retailers need to communicate lots of information to each other constantly. This can include inquiring about stock levels and locations prior to ordering, sending and receiving purchase orders and shipping notices, and passing data such as size and weight or customs information. This creates a web of different companies constantly sending information back and forth to facilitate the movement of goods around the world.

Without this constant communication and transferral of information, supply chains would grind to a halt. The information that the various companies need to exchange is critical to the planning, ordering, and movement of the goods - inventory levels, pick up and delivery addresses, product information and dimensions, etc. We all saw the impact that disruptions to supply chains can have to our day-to-day lives, when no one could buy toilet paper during Covid, or when a container ship blocked the Suez Canal. Nobody wants that.

Despite this criticality, it is remarkably difficult and expensive to integrate the systems that power our supply chains - both internally and externally to customers and suppliers. This means that many companies resort to manual processes to manage their orders and systems - driving up operational costs and increasing the risk for human error, which can be expensive to correct.

For companies that choose to build supply chain integrations, these integrations are often expensive and sometimes painful processes, especially if the specific systems or requirements are new to the IT consultants.

What it boils down to is that integrating the systems that power our supply chains is much harder, more expensive, more painful, and more complex than it should be in the 2020’s. This drives up supply chain costs, impacting businesses and everyday consumers across all the goods that they purchase.

Switchboard is here to do things differently, and to improve the way the supply chain systems are integrated. With our cloud-based integration platform specifically built for supply chains, we make integrations fast, easy, and affordable - bringing a modern solution to the way we manage our supply chains.