Supply chains are designed to accomplish a theoretically simple goal: getting the right product, to the right place, at the right time. But in reality, things are often not all that straightforward.

Integrating different systems of record can be a particularly challenging project when modernizing and maintaining a complex supply chain. In fact, it usually merits a specialized solution, one capable of bridging the gap between cloud and on-premises IT infrastructure and providing additional insight into evolving processes and materials. Let’s take a look at some examples of the issues that can pop up, for example, during a logistics upgrade or implementation.

 

What can go wrong in logistics integrations?

Imagine your organization is in the midst of migrating some of its critical supply chain operations to the cloud and needs to integrate the new cloud-based solutions with existing IT systems. This is not a light undertaking, and it can definitely go off track without the right technical solution and professional guidance.

Some of the potential issues might include:

• Preserving data integrity: When key information is moved between WMS Cloud or OTM Cloud and on-premise Procurement, Inventory and Order Management systems there is the potential for data integrity loss which can be costly and time-consuming to fix.
• Seamless connectivity: It’s not enough to simply connect on-prem and cloud systems. The new setup also needs to handle the orchestration of multiple disparate systems via robust system and process monitoring.
• Changing company culture: A cloud upgrade can greatly shift the responsibilities of IT. Some essential tasks such as infrastructure management, application patching and certain types of testing will become the responsibility of the cloud service provider, meaning IT will have to adapt, potentially on a short timeline.
• Dealing with frequent changes: Today’s supply chains face a variety of rapidly changing parameters. Plus, they may serve multiple markets, each with its own distinctive requirements. The end result is constant change, necessitating an adaptable solution for supply chain management (SCM).

 

Indeed, Inspirage has found that “lack of system integration” is the most commonly cited obstacle to supply chain success, and it’s not hard to see why. A suboptimal integration can leave you with faulty data, insufficient infrastructure to support growth, widespread confusion in the IT department and the general inability to garner insight from all the moving parts in a supply chain.

Solving the integration puzzle with Inspirage iHub CS

With these challenges in mind, the Inspirage team developed the iHub Cloud Service (iHub CS), which is a unified platform for data and application integration. More specifically, iHub CS can:

• Manage integrations across both on-prem and cloud-based systems, with much greater accuracy than traditional integration tools.
• Quickly establish and deliver an integration solution using specific pre-built integrations.
• Work with Oracle R11 and R12 Cloud offerings.
• Provide an accurate picture of the current state of the supply chain, via iHub for SCM Cloud.
• Connect a variety of Oracle applications for logistics, including Oracle Transportation Management, Oracle WMS Cloud and various other ERP systems such as SAP.
• Integrate Agile product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions with on-prem and cloud ERP implementations, to preserve data integrity as it’s moved between these systems and ensure that communications are properly traced.
• Integrate Cloud planning applications with back end ERP systems such as Oracle EBS, NetSuite, and JD Edwards.
• Offer a complete turnkey integration project and ongoing support.

As a whole, iHub CS is easy to implement, inexpensive to integrate and simple to modify. Although it comes with many pre-built integrations, it can also be extended to include a variety of additional source systems. Inspirage will also help you along the way, so that you can get any key questions answered and navigate all possible challenges. Our team features many experienced supply chain experts who can recommend the solutions and practices best suited to your particular situation.

To learn more, be sure to download the iHub CS sheet from this page. You can also view the iHub CS official listing on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace here.