Accenture has announced it will expand its partnership with SAP to help organizations reinvent their supply chains with a comprehensive supply chain nerve center that can reduce risk, enhance visibility and support sustainability goals.
The companies will co-develop new capabilities for the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain (SAP IBP) solution to enhance organizations’ abilities to quickly and cost-effectively respond to changes in supply, demand and inventory.
Through the use of cloud, data, artificial intelligence and analytics, the supply chain nerve center can provide n-tier transparency which allows organizations to identify risks beyond tier one and tier two suppliers, with deeper visibility into their network of suppliers and subcontractors.
The supply chain nerve center turns data into actionable insights and is said to improve decision-making by sensing factors like whether suppliers align with an organization’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.
Featuring assets, accelerators and assessments, the center includes a supply chain resilience stress test to identify potential points of failure, assess related financial exposures and define appropriate mitigation strategies and actions.
Digital twin simulation software from Cosmo Tech gives organizations insight into the vulnerabilities in their supply chain, simulates the behavior of their supply chain under heavy loads and builds mitigation plans throughout their planning process.
In addition, Accenture’s data-driven tool, Enterprise Navigator, identifies where to focus to capture business value, pin-pointing opportunities to standardize across processes, data, people and technology.
Caspar Borggreve, senior managing director and lead, Accenture SAP Business Group, Accenture, said: “To build intelligent and resilient supply chains, organizations need a strong digital core that is powered by the cloud, data and AI.
“By collaborating on the supply chain nerve center, and helping SAP develop new capabilities for its SAP IBP solution, to accelerate its long-term roadmap, we are enabling organizations reinvent their supply chains to deliver more value.”
Dominik Metzger, head of digital supply chain, SAP, said: “Teaming with Accenture on the co-development of new capabilities and functionalities of SAP IBP will help our customers realize a greater return on their investment while offering significant enhancements to the supply chain nerve center.”
Accenture’s supply chain nerve center offering is compatible with other SAP solutions such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Business Network, SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and the SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud solutions.
