Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with David Cahn, Global Marketing Director of Elemica:
Q: David, can you tell us something more about the company and your supply chain solution suite?
A: Elemica provides a Digital Supply Network for process manufacturers that allows them to automate their transactions; anticipate demand and reduce risk of uncertainties; and accelerate their supply chain digital transformation. Elemica has a supply chain solution suite built with cloud technologies that includes solutions for the products Elemica’s clients are buying, selling, moving and seeing throughout the supply chain. Elemica is what is called a “networked” supply chain system, meaning that each customer is not isolated within the system, but can interact with others on the network to share information and execute transactions. This is important because Elemica customers frequently buy from each other at different levels of the supply chain. Elemica has expanded globally with clients representing an equal split between North America and Europe, and rest of the world. The company has expanded vertically within the process manufacturing industry and encompasses petrochemicals, oil and gas companies, specialty chemicals, plastics, rubber and tire, agri-science, paints and coatings, food and beverage, and CPG.
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Q: How is your approach to digital transformation different?
A: At Elemica, we consider ourselves the architect of a solid foundation that enables our client’s digital initiatives. This foundation is built off a data driven architecture that removes the barriers such as form and network, unlocking the power that intelligent visibility data can provide.
Not uncommon data transmits in numerous forms: from EDI flows, emails, PDF’s, IoT devices, databases, GPS devices and more. Our platform captures data from customers, buyers, suppliers, and logistic providers regardless of the format it was transmitted. We clean the data converting it to our universal business document data model. All that data coming in from disparate sources and different channels is converted into a unique structure that is common. This drives a specific domain language that is completely re-usable across all the different processes. Once the data is clean, Elemica digitally links the data using proprietary technology on their cloud-based platform. This final aspect of the data requirement leaves every competitor behind. This is where the millions of dollars and custom code are typically spent in a digital transformation project. This cleansed and now linked data is sent back into our clients’ systems through APIs. The data that is transmitted back via this powerful patented technology can be used for analytics delivering intelligent visibility in terms of logistics, order management and fulfillment. Our clients’ ability to learn from this data, feed the need for better predictability, and enable more data analysis.
The data can also interoperate with third-party data, such as weather or risk information to enrich analytics for more informed predictions, such as what can happen if a port is closed. The data can now enable machine learning capabilities that ultimately provides holistic decision-making capabilities and enables customer concentricity to maximize the value for all supply chain trading partners.
Elemica also facilitates transactional emails, a type of email sent to facilitate an agreed-upon transaction between the sender and the recipient. Transactions can include purchase orders, shipment bookings, advanced shipping notifications, Proof of Delivery status, and invoice transactions. These automatically update the ERP systems of the sender.
Elemica eases onboarding of trading partners by helping customers to cost-effectively quickly add hundreds to thousands of their trading partners using Elemica’s tools. Elemica even lets companies add their own trading partners.
Q: Can you give us insights into your solutions?
A: Elemica offers supply chain solutions that automate business processes, connect supply chain trading partners and unlock value across the entire enterprise. These solutions include:
• Elemica Platform: Provides fast and frictionless onboarding of network participants at any scale. Platform helps connect to and collaborate with all of a client’s customers, suppliers, and logistics service providers for the products they sell, buy, and move in a synchronized manner.
• Elemica Buy: Helps obtain collaborative supplier relationships, so products arrive at the right place at the right time, driving ideal balances of inventory, working capital, and service levels. It leverages the benefits of digital procure-to-pay process automation.
• Elemica Sell: Increases customer satisfaction while generating more profit and revenue by automating and providing visibility from customer order through invoice/payment. It provides methods to automate the order capture of thousands of the customers in an omni-channel approach.
• Elemica Move: Connects to and collaborates with all logistics service providers for logistics execution, visibility, site logistics, and freight cost management. It leverages an integrated network of carriers, forwarders, terminal operators, and warehouse providers that provide customers with digital shipment data, regardless of region, mode, or capabilities.
• Elemica See: It provides real-time monitoring and exception-based management to access world events and apply them to supply chains, so managers can understand the orders or locations impacted.
Q: You’ve recently been named “One of the Philly area’s best-kept tech secrets” by Philly Enterprise Tech News; could you tell us something more?
A: Elemica has over 75% of the companies on IHS Chemical Week’s Billion Dollar Club list and most chemical companies on Gartner’s “2018 Supply Chain Top 25: Chemical” rankings. The material value of transactions on Elemica’s network has more than doubled over the past two years to above half trillion dollars, with tens of thousands leading process industry trading partners leveraging their collective activities to capture real market opportunities.
Elemica has also won numerous industry awards from trade magazines and associations, including:
• Food Logistics Top 100 Logistics IT Provider
• Food Logistics Green Supply Chain Award
• Supply & Demand Chain Executive (SDCE) 100 – top supply chain projects
• SupplyChainBrain Great Partner award
• SDCE Green Supply Chain Award
• Inbound Logistics Top 100 Logistics IT Provider
• Mirror Review 10 Best Supply Chain Technology Solution Providers, 2018
• Frost & Sullivan 2018 North American Digital Supply Network for Process Industries Product Leadership Award
• Silicon Review 30 Best Small Companies to Watch in 2018
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Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Elemica will continue to add features and functionality to its networked platform and supply chain solutions. We are working on incorporating next-gen technologies into our solutions, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, IoT and machine learning. Elemica Pulse, Elemica Trace and Elemica Risk solutions already use advanced analytics and machine learning to give visibility to shipments. Elemica recently completed a successful blockchain pilot for two leading, global chemical companies. We will continue to expand on this capability and work together with other providers to create the Network of Networks.
