Collaboration in Omni Supply Chain

The retail omni market demands enhanced and robust collaboration between all participants across the entire supply chain from the producer to the consumer.  This is becoming a cost of doing business now in not only the omni supply chain but also throughout the retail marketplace. There are many pockets of collaboration throughout the extended supply chain and between the retailer and the supply chain and the challenge of collaboration in the omni supply chain now is the additional connectivity between the consumer and the omni supply chain along with retailer of course.  Consumers are really in the lead now for these collaborative efforts and open to the omni market opportunity to connect. It is really now a matter of the retailer recognizing the importance and then taking the steps necessary to extend their collaborative efforts to the consumer.

This is at the same time the most challenging and the most valuable opportunity that retailers must recognize and also requires another level of change in the culture of these retailers.  The extended supply chain partners within this framework have already opened their collaborative networks to consumers to support direct interaction with the consumer through either direct sales and marketing or the extended product delivery through carrier services.  There are many islands of consumer collaboration and these islands must be connected through a robust collaborative framework that allows and encourages connections and collaboration across channels, partners and activities to support the consumer shopping experience.

The tools have been available for a while now and are being used by consumers through social networks and the omni market and supply chain to connect to each other.  These tools are in use by the disparate groups and can easily be connected through social networking technology already in use by these groups to connect for other reasons; the retailers already connecting to consumers through Facebook and their eCommerce sites and manufacturers and carriers are also connecting through the same technology.  The omni supply chain demands these tools be connected now in order to enhance and strengthen the relationships with all partners in the supply chain, this is actually the tools and the capabilities that will build out the omni supply chain. The piece necessary to connect and make this happen is the control tower functionality that allows the data and communications to piece together the pieces and parts of data and communications into a cohesive channel for distribution and communication throughout the omni supply chain.

The supply chain and their connected partners have been connected through this type of collaboration network for a while now and so have the tools and practices in place to make these connections.  These supply chain partners have been using these same techniques in their collaboration communications with retailers for quite some time now, the challenge now is the retailers ability to connect with the consumers to create this end-to-end chain of collaboration.  The challenge now for the retailers is the shared collaboration between all partners from the suppliers and carriers to the consumers to bring this omni supply chain together. There are many new capabilities and demands along the lines of this collaborative network and this is the next frontier of the omni marketplace.  

Retailers have been focused for some time now on the operational aspect of the omni market and now must focus on the connectivity of the supply chain partners and the consumer to create a framework to help to clarify and understand the demands of the market.  This is not simply the connection, it is much more focused on the collaboration required to develop and understanding of a very complicated network of partners and participants.