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Technology Alone Never Transforms a Supply Chain · Speaking of Supply Chain

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Speaker 1: It's not a technology problem. There may be technology that
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Speaker 1: helps solve your business problems, but technology does not exist
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Speaker 1: in isolation. And if you take one piece of the
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Speaker 1: technology and you put in another piece of technology and
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Speaker 1: you don't address the people, the processes, the mindset, quite frankly,
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Speaker 1: you're going to get less than less than ideal results, right?
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Speaker 1: Welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain. I'm Christine Bernhardt, Head
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Speaker 1: of Industry Engagement and Alliances at NIVAC. This is where
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Speaker 1: we go beyond the buzzwords to explore what really drives
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Speaker 1: supply chain performance. Today, we're talking about the future of
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Speaker 1: supply chain planning, but we're looking at it through a
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Speaker 1: slightly different lens. Organizations are investing in advanced planning technology, AI, data,
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Speaker 1: and new decision capabilities. that technology is only one part
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Speaker 1: of a successful transformation. Companies also need the right operating model, processes,
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Speaker 1: implementation capabilities, expertise, and change support. Increasingly, that means bringing
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Speaker 1: together a broader ecosystem of technology providers, advisors, implementation specialists,
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Speaker 1: and even other customers. So what should supply chain leaders
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Speaker 1: be looking for as planning continues to evolve? And what
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Speaker 1: does a strong technology and consulting partnership actually mean for
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Speaker 1: a customer? So joining me today is a very special guest, Mr.
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Speaker 1: Chris Singerman, Global Commercial Alliances Manager at O & P.
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Speaker 1: Chris has spent much of his career developing strategic partnerships
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Speaker 1: and go-to-market programs across technology and supply chain organizations. At
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Speaker 1: O & P, he works with consulting and technology partners
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Speaker 1: to bring together the capabilities customers need to support successful
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Speaker 1: planning transformations. Chris, welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain. I'm
2:03
Speaker 1: so excited to have you.
2:05
Speaker 2: Christine, it's great to see you and thank you so
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Speaker 2: much for having me. It's an absolute pleasure.
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Speaker 1: I love it. Before we jump in, would you tell
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Speaker 1: us just a little bit about your role and how
2:16
Speaker 1: you found your way into supply chain?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. Happy to do that. So as you mentioned,
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Speaker 2: Global Commercial Alliance Manager with OMP. I've been working with
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Speaker 2: OMP for just over three years now and working closely
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Speaker 2: with Dieter Sleewertz and Philip Verblussen, who you both know
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Speaker 2: well to lead up our alliance programs. Prior to OMP,
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Speaker 2: so early in my career, where it started in New
2:46
Speaker 2: York City and I worked for a financial brokerage firm
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Speaker 2: called Auerbach Grayson, started there as an intern, worked my
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Speaker 2: way up to a licensed equity sales trader and so
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Speaker 2: spent the early part of my career in New York
3:02
Speaker 2: working on Wall Street for five years. I then relocated
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Speaker 2: to Atlanta, which is where I call home now and
3:10
Speaker 2: reside with my family. And so went back to graduate
3:12
Speaker 2: school at Emory because we had a business school. From there,
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Speaker 2: I went and worked for some early stage tech firms
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Speaker 2: focused on supply chain, supply chain finance, and then also
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Speaker 2: a global healthcare supply chain company called Global Healthcare Exchange,
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Speaker 2: which was more focused on procurement solutions. That was my
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Speaker 2: introduction to supply chain. And then a friend of a
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Speaker 2: friend introduced me to OMP. And I was very excited
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Speaker 2: about the opportunity to join the team at OMP. The
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Speaker 2: common theme throughout my career, to your point, has been
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Speaker 2: partnerships and how we leverage partnerships for the interest of
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Speaker 2: our customers and clients.
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Speaker 1: I love it. I just learned so much about you
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Speaker 1: that I didn't know. And I think I've known you
4:00
Speaker 1: since you started with O & P. So we will
4:04
Speaker 1: dive into that the next time we have cocktails because
4:08
Speaker 1: I want to hear about when you were in New York.
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Speaker 1: I had no idea. I just assumed that you've been
4:13
Speaker 1: in the South your whole life. So, you know.
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Speaker 2: I was actually born in New Haven, Connecticut. So my
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Speaker 2: roots are in the Northeast.
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Speaker 1: Very good. So, I mean, you said you work across
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Speaker 1: O & P' s commercial alliance ecosystem and you have a
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Speaker 1: lot of visibility into conversations with customers and consulting firms
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Speaker 1: and other technology companies, right? So from that vantage point,
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Speaker 1: how have customer expectations around supply chain, maybe supply chain planning,
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Speaker 1: but just broader supply chain, how's it changed over the
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Speaker 1: last several years?
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Speaker 2: Well, in the time that I've been with O & P,
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Speaker 2: which is just over three years, so just a couple
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Speaker 2: of the themes that I've seen In my experience. And
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Speaker 2: so one of those is customers are certainly demanding value faster.
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Speaker 2: And so there's a shorter time period for solution providers
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Speaker 2: like OMP and also consulting partners like Meebok and others
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Speaker 2: to deliver value to our customers. One of the other
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Speaker 2: themes that I've become attuned to is proof of concepts
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Speaker 2: are becoming more and more regular And so we are
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Speaker 2: certainly being asked to prove our worth in the market,
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Speaker 2: starting with one or two manufacturing plants before a customer
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Speaker 2: will trust us with a full end-to-end solution implementation. And
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Speaker 2: then finally, as everyone, we've talked about at conferences and
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Speaker 2: also in customer meetings, et cetera, but how are we
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Speaker 2: embedding AI in our solution? and leveraging that for our customers.
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Speaker 1: It seems to me, we're going to dive into this
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Speaker 1: a little bit later, but you have to talk about AI,
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Speaker 1: but it's almost creating more confusion in the market, right?
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Speaker 1: We will get to that, I promise. I do think
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Speaker 1: one of the things that we've talked about that kind
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Speaker 1: of jumps out is that, yes, customers are making investments
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Speaker 1: in planning, but what they're really doing is trying to
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Speaker 1: look for a better way to make and execute decisions, right?
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Speaker 1: So it's not just about planning. It's holistically, they understand
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Speaker 1: that they need to make decisions better and faster, more efficiently,
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Speaker 1: more productively, and that the results of those decisions have
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Speaker 1: to yield better results. Is that fair?
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Speaker 2: 100%. I think you've said it. I've certainly heard customers
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Speaker 2: say this and other partners, but attaching to business outcomes.
6:55
Speaker 2: I mean, that's something that certainly we are trying to
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Speaker 2: do as an alliance and customers expect from us. Yeah.
7:02
Speaker 1: And you know, like we know each other personally. So
7:05
Speaker 1: you know that like planning in particular is one of
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Speaker 1: the areas of supply chain that I'm really passionate about.
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Speaker 1: I think for too long, planning was probably overlooked in
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Speaker 1: organizations as like these people that they sat in a
7:19
Speaker 1: room and they didn't know what they were doing. And
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Speaker 1: they were, you know, telling us how to run our
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Speaker 1: plants and stuff. And I do think during COVID, post-COVID,
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Speaker 1: you know, people have like it's come to the forefront that,
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Speaker 1: planning is the glue that kind of brings everybody together
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Speaker 1: within the supply chain organization. So I have a ton
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Speaker 1: of passion here. But I've also learned that technology alone
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Speaker 1: doesn't transform a organization, right? So if you don't understand
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Speaker 1: the process and you can't align the roles and the
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Speaker 1: data and the governance, you're really not gonna get the
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Speaker 1: value that you need from the technology investment alone. So
8:05
Speaker 1: from that perspective, I think I'm gonna speak for you
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Speaker 1: and say ecosystem is important, right? So help me help
8:13
Speaker 1: people understand how this all fits together and why you
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Speaker 1: need customers and technologists and consultants all working together.
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Speaker 2: It's a collaborative effort, right? And so partnerships are critical.
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Speaker 2: You mentioned it, but O & P is an expert
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Speaker 2: in supply chain planning, advanced planning systems. But we look
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Speaker 2: to partners like NEBOC for, to your point, change management, governance,
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Speaker 2: user adoption. But so OMP, so we certainly have, and
8:49
Speaker 2: you're familiar with this from your prior work experience at Nulogy,
8:52
Speaker 2: but we've got a couple of different lenses that we
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Speaker 2: look to through our alliance network. But certainly technology partners
9:00
Speaker 2: is one. We want to enhance our capabilities and solutions
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Speaker 2: via technology partnerships with Nulogy, with a Blue Crux, whether
9:11
Speaker 2: it be through Axon or Binox. Aira, for example. And then,
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Speaker 2: of course, our robust business alliance that Meebok is part of,
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Speaker 2: where we're looking to system integrators like yourself to help
9:26
Speaker 2: us with rollouts and implementation. So partnerships are central. It's
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Speaker 2: key to our success and then ultimately our customer success
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Speaker 2: as well as we help deliver on those business outcomes.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what's interesting is I think people
9:41
Speaker 1: often think of like our type of a partnership as
9:45
Speaker 1: it's just a two-way partnership. But in our case recently,
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Speaker 1: it's a three-way partnership or if we include customers, maybe
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Speaker 1: even four-way because it's like O & P, Self-Venture, and Meebok.
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Speaker 1: And all of us bringing... really deep experience in our
10:03
Speaker 1: area of expertise, but then using our three areas together
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Speaker 1: to get that horizontal experience that really is valuable to
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Speaker 1: the customer or, you know, in a specific implementation. So
10:20
Speaker 1: I personally, I love this space. I love the collaboration
10:24
Speaker 1: and the really getting to know each other and, you know,
10:28
Speaker 1: what's an O & P strength, what's not a Mebox strength, right?
10:33
Speaker 1: So to dive into this just a little bit more, like,
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Speaker 1: how do you guys look for partners at O & P? Like,
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Speaker 1: what does a good partner look like?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, one thing, and again, I'm
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Speaker 2: playing off some of the themes that you're bringing to this,
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Speaker 2: the conversation, but certainly we want partners, you know, we
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Speaker 2: want to look, we want partnerships or partners that complement
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Speaker 2: a weakness or, you know, I don't want to say,
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Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if I'd call it a deficiency,
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Speaker 2: but some type, you know, we want partners where O
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Speaker 2: & P is not strong. And so... We are very
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Speaker 2: strong in core planning, optimization, solvers, but the change management
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Speaker 2: and some of the other things that NEBOC has a
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Speaker 2: strength in. So to your point, complementing some of the weaknesses,
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Speaker 2: that's something that we look for in our external partner network. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: And you know what? I don't even know that I
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Speaker 1: would call it a weakness. I think there's a limited
11:36
Speaker 1: amount of money to make investments. And you have to
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Speaker 1: channel that money to what you know, what you're good at,
11:45
Speaker 1: where you think you can bring the most value to customers.
11:48
Speaker 1: And that means you can't be good at everything, right? Yeah.
11:52
Speaker 1: you water things down if you try to be everything
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Speaker 1: to everybody. It's one of the things that I really
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Speaker 1: respect about O & P is you haven't tried to
12:03
Speaker 1: be the APS solution for every industry, right? Like you
12:08
Speaker 1: clearly have made intentional investments in industries where you think
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Speaker 1: you're particularly strong and that you have you know, something
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Speaker 1: unique to sell. Not to say that you may not
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Speaker 1: make investments in other industries moving forward, but, you know,
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Speaker 1: there are those technology partners that we've looked at or
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Speaker 1: technologists that we've looked at that really are trying to
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Speaker 1: be everything to everybody. And that's where we tend to
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Speaker 1: be like, you know, we don't really think that's where
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Speaker 1: your strength is. And that's not necessarily to the benefit
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Speaker 1: of our customers, right? It's interesting. So, and I want
12:45
Speaker 1: to say thank you because I know I reached out
12:47
Speaker 1: to you and asked you if you would be comfortable
12:51
Speaker 1: nominating Meebok for the Supply Chain Brain 100 Great Supply
12:56
Speaker 1: Chain Partners. And I reached out to multiples within the
13:00
Speaker 1: ecosystem and customers as well. And we were very honored
13:04
Speaker 1: earlier this month to win for the third consecutive year
13:08
Speaker 1: to be named. So, you know, such a great honor.
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Speaker 2: Congratulations, by the way. I was actually, you didn't even
13:15
Speaker 2: need to reach out to me. I was in the
13:16
Speaker 2: process of submitting the form without any extra push or
13:22
Speaker 2: nudge from you. But yes, congratulations. And I do appreciate that. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I mean, but to me, it speaks as much to
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Speaker 1: who Meebok is as it speaks to who our partners are, right?
13:33
Speaker 1: That our partners are willing to collaborate with us and
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Speaker 1: have conversations and do things like this where we come
13:41
Speaker 1: on a podcast and we have, you know, a fun discussion.
13:45
Speaker 1: So like if, if we want to dig in just
13:49
Speaker 1: a little bit, like how do you like define the
13:53
Speaker 1: roles as you're looking at partners? Because I know like
13:56
Speaker 1: for me, like when I first started, it's like, you know,
13:59
Speaker 1: what do you do? What do we do? How should
14:01
Speaker 1: customers think about developing relationships with, with companies like ours?
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Speaker 2: That's one of the things that sets our partnership apart
14:10
Speaker 2: and sets up success for not only us, but our
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Speaker 2: customers is being upfront, candid, defining, you know, what role,
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Speaker 2: what lane Meebok is going to be in and the
14:25
Speaker 2: role of OMP or the technology, the actual solution. So,
14:31
Speaker 2: you know, using things like races, making sure that obviously
14:36
Speaker 2: when we're presenting to a joint customer that we're coming
14:41
Speaker 2: across as a unified one team and it's coordinated. And
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Speaker 2: I think that's another thing that contributes to a successful
14:52
Speaker 2: partnership is there's got to be a reason for us
14:55
Speaker 2: to work together and jointly lock arms and present to
15:03
Speaker 2: a customer. Those are some of the things that come
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Speaker 2: to my mind.
15:06
Speaker 1: And I know for me personally, working with O &
15:10
Speaker 1: P is it's a pleasure. Right. I enjoy it. I
15:13
Speaker 1: enjoy talking to you. I enjoy like I think there's
15:15
Speaker 1: a lot of cultural elements because you're a Belgian company
15:20
Speaker 1: and we're a German company from our pedigree standpoint. So
15:25
Speaker 1: there's like some shared cultural elements that I do think
15:29
Speaker 1: it just makes it fun. It makes it, and you
15:31
Speaker 1: know what, if it's not fun and we're not enjoying
15:33
Speaker 1: it and it's not interesting, we're probably not going to
15:36
Speaker 1: prioritize it. Right. Certainly.
15:38
Speaker 2: No, you have to, uh, you have to like the
15:40
Speaker 2: people that you work with, that you partner with. Um, yes,
15:44
Speaker 2: we've had these discussions before, but, uh, the fact that, um,
15:48
Speaker 2: there is a similar culture across, um, OMP and NEBAC, um,
15:54
Speaker 2: Certainly with, yeah, Belgium and Germany bordering one another. We
15:58
Speaker 2: have offices in Germany. I know that's, you know, where
16:01
Speaker 2: Meebok is headquartered. Yeah, I do think it's a good
16:04
Speaker 2: cultural fit. I feel that in sort of the interactions
16:07
Speaker 2: and the in-person get togethers that we've had with our
16:09
Speaker 2: teams at conferences and then at your offices and ours. Yeah.
16:14
Speaker 1: So I will say, I think customers, sometimes they hear
16:18
Speaker 1: this word ecosystem and And they assume that it means
16:22
Speaker 1: more complexity, more handoffs, more vendors, more money, right? But
16:28
Speaker 1: from my experience, a good partnership it actually is the
16:32
Speaker 1: opposite of that. In that generally we can help each
16:36
Speaker 1: other to make sure that we're very efficient, we're very
16:40
Speaker 1: cost-effective for this customer, and that we ensure that they
16:44
Speaker 1: have the best experience that is possible. What has been
16:48
Speaker 1: your experience there and what advice would you give to
16:52
Speaker 1: customers as they're kind of leaning in this direction?
16:56
Speaker 2: We've talked a little bit about this, but there's gotta
16:59
Speaker 2: be a compelling reason for the partnership, right? And the
17:03
Speaker 2: fact that Meebok is not presenting or not pitching a
17:08
Speaker 2: loan to a client or, you know, it's a joint presentation,
17:12
Speaker 2: it's a joint offering. So there's got to be a
17:15
Speaker 2: compelling reason that, you know, the sum of the parts
17:19
Speaker 2: has to be greater than the individual parts. So one
17:22
Speaker 2: plus one equals three. I mean, customers are savvy, right?
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Speaker 2: So they're in the marketplace. There's lots of different solutions
17:29
Speaker 2: out there on the technology side. There's also lots of
17:33
Speaker 2: consulting firms. So I think, again, it goes back to
17:39
Speaker 2: the partnership being aligned. The incentives are there. We're organized.
17:44
Speaker 2: We're presenting to the customer as one team because we
17:48
Speaker 2: feel like our joint offering and what we can deliver
17:52
Speaker 2: together is better than doing it on an individual basis.
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Speaker 1: Agreed. And I will tell you, full transparency, part of
17:58
Speaker 1: the reason that we pursued a relationship with O &
18:02
Speaker 1: P is we felt that we needed better depth of
18:06
Speaker 1: understanding as to what is really important from an O
18:11
Speaker 1: & P standpoint. How do we prepare customers well in
18:17
Speaker 1: advance of them maybe doing an RFP or an RFI?
18:21
Speaker 1: And that we really needed... access to, you know, your
18:27
Speaker 1: solution architects and, and product managers so that we can
18:31
Speaker 1: ask questions and really make sure we're providing the best
18:34
Speaker 1: advice that's possible, which, you know, like, I mean, I
18:38
Speaker 1: can look online and see who O & P is and,
18:41
Speaker 1: and what you do, but it's not that, it's just
18:43
Speaker 1: not rich, right? And it doesn't provide the same context
18:47
Speaker 1: that we get by having a regular discussion, right? And honestly,
18:54
Speaker 1: I could not be happier with where their relationship is today, right?
18:59
Speaker 1: And I think part of that goes back to customers
19:02
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to manage customers. relationship that we have with
19:06
Speaker 1: our partners, between each other. And I think we've proven
19:11
Speaker 1: that they don't have to do that. I mean, we're
19:13
Speaker 1: working jointly with Royal Canin. They've spoken about it publicly.
19:19
Speaker 1: And I think we're both really excited to see that
19:21
Speaker 1: project come to life in the future, right?
19:25
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, just two comments I'll make. Oftentimes,
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Speaker 2: Meebok and consulting firms, you're already working with, you know,
19:34
Speaker 2: customers in the industries that OMP centers on. So life sciences, CPG, chemicals,
19:43
Speaker 2: clients are looking to you for input as they go
19:46
Speaker 2: to market for an APS system. and want to evaluate
19:51
Speaker 2: the different solution providers. It's a crowded landscape. So that
19:55
Speaker 2: is certainly something that we look to our partners for
19:58
Speaker 2: is helping to position OMP and make sure that we're
20:01
Speaker 2: top of mind when a customer is going to go
20:04
Speaker 2: out to market and implement an APS program.
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Speaker 1: Right. And, you know, we began collaborating earlier this year,
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Speaker 1: I really believe, around this shared objective of helping organizations
20:18
Speaker 1: turn planning investments into measurable performance, right? From my perspective,
20:25
Speaker 1: OMP brings, and you just hit on it, really deep
20:29
Speaker 1: industry functionality, you know, extensive experience in the industries that
20:35
Speaker 1: you're targeting, right? And I, from my perspective, I've been
20:38
Speaker 1: with Meebok almost a year. And I would say, you know,
20:42
Speaker 1: we're trying to bring this independent advisory and transformation and
20:48
Speaker 1: operating model design, all the things that kind of surround
20:52
Speaker 1: a technology investment. So from your perspective, where do you
20:57
Speaker 1: see the strongest alignment between the two organizations?
21:00
Speaker 2: And again, the two organizations being Meebok and OMP in
21:03
Speaker 2: this instance. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean. It's certainly, again, we've,
21:09
Speaker 2: there's a familiarity with each other. We've worked together, even if,
21:13
Speaker 2: you know, it may have been under, you know, different, again,
21:16
Speaker 2: I'm thinking back to your time with your prior employer,
21:19
Speaker 2: but there's a, we're friends, we're colleagues. And so there's
21:23
Speaker 2: a familiarity and a level of trust, which I think
21:25
Speaker 2: really helps to kick this partnership off. We've got one
21:29
Speaker 2: joint customer or one marquee customer that we are going
21:33
Speaker 2: to expand and build upon, which is fantastic. So there's
21:36
Speaker 2: a good base. And then again, I think it's also,
21:39
Speaker 2: you know, it's a willingness to collaborate and bringing in
21:45
Speaker 2: the broader teams across, you know, industry teams, obviously our
21:50
Speaker 2: CPG industry team, our life science team. You know, we
21:54
Speaker 2: appreciated you co-hosting or inviting us to spend some time
21:59
Speaker 2: with you at the MODEX conference earlier this year in Atlanta.
22:02
Speaker 2: I think it's a combination of all those things.
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Speaker 1: The other thing that I have found interesting, and I
22:07
Speaker 1: don't think it's what I expected when I moved from
22:10
Speaker 1: technology into consulting and I came to Meebok is we
22:14
Speaker 1: know and recognize that you have other partners and we
22:18
Speaker 1: love and appreciate it, right? Because we know that we
22:21
Speaker 1: have some strengths in some areas and then we have
22:25
Speaker 1: other areas where we've chosen not to invest or maybe
22:28
Speaker 1: we're not the right fit. And I always find this fun.
22:32
Speaker 1: My our chief revenue officer for the U.S. and Canada,
22:36
Speaker 1: he's like, there is enough supply chain problems out there
22:38
Speaker 1: for everyone. You know, we we just have to bake
22:42
Speaker 1: more pies. It's not about cutting the pie smaller, right?
22:45
Speaker 1: Cutting your pie smaller. Let's bake more pies. And I
22:49
Speaker 1: do think that that is that's one of the things
22:51
Speaker 1: we've gotten to know other O & P partners as
22:55
Speaker 1: part of starting to collaborate with O & P. And
22:58
Speaker 1: I think that that is Something that I really appreciate
23:02
Speaker 1: that you guys do as well, right, is you're pretty
23:05
Speaker 1: transparent about this is what I need from you. I
23:08
Speaker 1: have somebody else to do this over here. And and
23:12
Speaker 1: that I think that works because, to your point, we're
23:16
Speaker 1: it's not just transactional. It's relationship oriented and there's trust
23:22
Speaker 1: and we're being direct with one another. I mean, is
23:25
Speaker 1: that am I on the right topic there?
23:28
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think it's being hyper specific
23:34
Speaker 2: around the joint value case that we want to deliver
23:37
Speaker 2: to a customer where Meebok and OMP are strongest. And so,
23:43
Speaker 2: you know, I know the roots of Meebok come from
23:46
Speaker 2: warehouse management systems and network design. How do we play
23:52
Speaker 2: upon some of those strengths that you have?
23:54
Speaker 1: By and large, we get our hands dirty. We all came,
23:58
Speaker 1: a lot of us at Nebot came from manufacturing, operations,
24:03
Speaker 1: distribution backgrounds, and we've been in the trenches. And it does,
24:09
Speaker 1: I think, give us a different perspective on what's important.
24:16
Speaker 1: One of the things we've been talking about a lot
24:18
Speaker 1: this year is strategy and only matters if it operates
24:22
Speaker 1: in the real world. So you can build beautiful decks
24:25
Speaker 1: and beautiful strategies, but if they don't operate in a
24:30
Speaker 1: production environment or in a distribution environment, they're not doing
24:34
Speaker 1: you a lot of good, right?
24:36
Speaker 2: Yes, yes. I'm reflecting back to a quote that I
24:41
Speaker 2: saw in a presentation. Somebody put it in, but yeah,
24:44
Speaker 2: everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth.
24:46
Speaker 2: And so I think it was Yeah, I think it
24:48
Speaker 2: was Mike Tyson that said that. Exactly. The other thing
24:51
Speaker 2: that you had mentioned is just being, you know, being,
24:56
Speaker 2: you know, candid about the different, you know, subsectors or
25:00
Speaker 2: sort of subsets of the market that we want to
25:03
Speaker 2: play in. For example, let's really hone in and focus
25:07
Speaker 2: on this industry because we feel like NEBOC and OMP,
25:12
Speaker 2: you know, can deliver, you know, a compelling solution to
25:16
Speaker 2: To a client in life sciences or CPG.
25:19
Speaker 1: I mean, you hit on it. I mean, I think
25:20
Speaker 1: that's the other like for us, if we think about
25:22
Speaker 1: like checkboxes, right, like cultural fit checkbox, trust checkbox, shared trust.
25:28
Speaker 1: industry focus, right? Checkbox, right? Because we are super strong
25:33
Speaker 1: in consumer packaged goods and in pharma life sciences, right?
25:38
Speaker 1: As is OMP. So I think it just naturally creates
25:44
Speaker 1: a great fit with less friction, right? It doesn't take
25:47
Speaker 1: as much to kind of get things moving as what
25:51
Speaker 1: it could. So, okay, I want to transition just a
25:53
Speaker 1: little bit before we run out of time.
25:56
Speaker 2: This is your show. This is your show. I'm following
25:59
Speaker 2: your lead here.
26:00
Speaker 1: If I'm a supply chain leader and I am considering
26:04
Speaker 1: a new planning platform or an upgrade or maybe a
26:08
Speaker 1: broader transformation, what should I be asking of both my
26:14
Speaker 1: technology provider and my consulting partners?
26:18
Speaker 2: Wow, those are good questions. I almost want to kick
26:21
Speaker 2: back the consulting partner question to you. And I can
26:26
Speaker 2: certainly start from a technology perspective. We've talked about it,
26:32
Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, like chief supply
26:36
Speaker 2: chain officers, chief finance officers, chief information technology officers, they've
26:41
Speaker 2: got to deliver business outcomes for their shareholders, employees. and
26:48
Speaker 2: their organizations. And so technology, APS technology, we're actually getting
26:54
Speaker 2: the question now, we're seeing this a little bit of
26:57
Speaker 2: why APS at all? Why shouldn't I solve my planning
27:02
Speaker 2: needs through point solutions and other Excel, business intelligence tools,
27:09
Speaker 2: et cetera? So why do I need APS at all?
27:12
Speaker 2: And so it's a fair question, but The technology is
27:16
Speaker 2: one piece of it. We have to ensure that planners
27:21
Speaker 2: and users of the Unison planning platform are, one, that
27:27
Speaker 2: they're excited to use it, that it's helpful in their
27:31
Speaker 2: day-to-day planning, and that they consider it to be a
27:35
Speaker 2: necessity as they step into work every day, whether that's
27:39
Speaker 2: in the plant or in the office, and they're thinking
27:43
Speaker 2: about their their holistic supply chain.
27:46
Speaker 1: Right. And I will tell you, we get the question too,
27:48
Speaker 1: why can't we just build this ourselves? Why should I
27:51
Speaker 1: spend X dollars on an APS solution? And I generally
27:59
Speaker 1: try to make people understand that industry experience and process
28:03
Speaker 1: experience matters. And you only know your company and your
28:09
Speaker 1: company's processes. which means you're already biased, right? Because you,
28:13
Speaker 1: you haven't seen what others in the industry, sometimes you
28:18
Speaker 1: haven't even seen what others in your company see.
28:21
Speaker 2: Right.
28:22
Speaker 1: And I do think that that is one of the
28:24
Speaker 1: beauties of, of OMP as you're working with, you know, many,
28:29
Speaker 1: many industry leaders, right. Category captains in, in their field.
28:35
Speaker 1: And then, you know, based on what you've learned there
28:38
Speaker 1: and how your solution is developed, you're applying that into Unisim, right?
28:44
Speaker 1: To the benefit of the industry at large. And that
28:48
Speaker 1: is something that, you know, quite frankly, ChatGPT and Claude
28:53
Speaker 1: and whatnot, they're not going to duplicate any time in
28:57
Speaker 1: the near future, right? And so I think that becomes
29:00
Speaker 1: really critically important, which is, what do you know? What
29:04
Speaker 1: is unique about what OMP knows versus what an individual
29:09
Speaker 1: customer knows?
29:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you hit on some of this, but,
29:14
Speaker 2: you know, with Unison IQ and then Unison IQ, you're
29:19
Speaker 2: familiar with, we launched in October of last year. And
29:23
Speaker 2: so that's our AI orchestration platform that's embedded within Unison Planning.
29:28
Speaker 2: And then this year, our product team has been hyper-focused
29:32
Speaker 2: on embedding decision-centric planning and capabilities around evaluating risk and opportunity.
29:41
Speaker 2: at the plant level, different scenarios and simulations, making decisions
29:48
Speaker 2: in real time that affect the plant.
29:52
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So what's one just
29:57
Speaker 1: one practical piece of advice that you would offer to
30:02
Speaker 1: planning leaders to to about, you know, how to really
30:07
Speaker 1: think about planning and make investments in improving planning?
30:11
Speaker 2: You know, first and foremost, you have to I would
30:15
Speaker 2: encourage all planning leaders to I mean, we we interact
30:18
Speaker 2: with with these folks at the Gartner conferences and different
30:22
Speaker 2: industry conferences. There's a lot of information out there. There's
30:27
Speaker 2: a lot of different solution providers. I would encourage planning
30:31
Speaker 2: leaders to actually talk to their peers in their industry
30:37
Speaker 2: and ask them how they are addressing certain challenges or scenarios.
30:46
Speaker 2: Don't take our word for it, but actually go out
30:49
Speaker 2: and talk to their peers in the industry.
30:52
Speaker 1: So, and I would tell you my one piece of
30:54
Speaker 1: advice is it's not a technology problem. There may be
30:59
Speaker 1: technology that helps solve your business problems, but technology does
31:04
Speaker 1: not exist in isolation. And if you take one piece
31:08
Speaker 1: of a technology and you put in another piece of
31:10
Speaker 1: technology and you don't address the people, the processes, the mindset,
31:17
Speaker 1: quite frankly, you're going to get less than ideal results, right?
31:23
Speaker 1: You might get incremental improvement, but it's not going to
31:26
Speaker 1: be transformative, right? And I do think a lot of leaders,
31:30
Speaker 1: they're really looking for transformation. They don't want incremental change.
31:36
Speaker 1: They want things to be fundamentally better.
31:39
Speaker 2: That's where the partnership here adds tremendous value because NEBOC
31:46
Speaker 2: is helping with user adoption and coaching these executives and
31:52
Speaker 2: helping them to realize, realize the transformation and the value
31:57
Speaker 2: that comes from that. So you're absolutely right.
32:00
Speaker 1: I would say even more than that, helping on the
32:03
Speaker 1: front end, doing the assessment and the benchmarking to show, hey,
32:10
Speaker 1: you aren't getting the most out of the process that
32:13
Speaker 1: you have today. And here's the opportunity for improvement. And
32:18
Speaker 1: then really helping companies ask the right questions of an
32:24
Speaker 1: O & P. Hey, according to the benchmarks that my
32:27
Speaker 1: consultant gave me, I have too much inventory and, you know,
32:32
Speaker 1: my OTIF isn't where it should be relative to my peers.
32:37
Speaker 1: And we think those are those problems that you can
32:40
Speaker 1: solve for us, right? As opposed to, you know, like
32:43
Speaker 1: when I did my first planning, which was not with
32:46
Speaker 1: O & P, it was with a three-letter acronym, also
32:49
Speaker 1: based in Europe, but not O & P. I didn't
32:52
Speaker 1: know what to ask. I mean, I knew that we
32:54
Speaker 1: needed to make an improvement, but it was like, I don't,
32:57
Speaker 1: I don't know the right questions. I'm not sure what
33:00
Speaker 1: business outcomes I should be driving. Uh, and luckily we
33:03
Speaker 1: had a great partner that helped us figure that out. Um,
33:07
Speaker 1: so if there's one message that I hope that listeners
33:10
Speaker 1: today would take away from the discussion, it's that successful planning,
33:15
Speaker 1: successful planning transformation. It's a team sport. Um, and Technology
33:19
Speaker 1: matters enormously, but so do your business processes, your data,
33:26
Speaker 1: your operating model, what's happening in your industry. And then
33:32
Speaker 1: you hit on it, the implementation discipline and that organizational
33:37
Speaker 1: change and adoption surrounding it. And that no one company
33:42
Speaker 1: is probably capable of providing all of that, or at
33:45
Speaker 1: least not providing it in a usable or really meaningful fashion.
33:52
Speaker 1: So this has been such a pleasure. It's always good
33:54
Speaker 1: to see you. For listeners who would wanna learn more
33:58
Speaker 1: about O & P or to connect with you directly,
34:01
Speaker 1: what's the best way to reach you?
34:03
Speaker 2: LinkedIn is always a good way to reach out. So
34:05
Speaker 2: feel free to contact me directly there. You can also
34:09
Speaker 2: email me at csingerman at omp.com. Happy to drop that
34:13
Speaker 2: in the chat. And if you want to learn more
34:16
Speaker 2: about OMP, just visit our website or you can reach
34:20
Speaker 2: out to myself or Christine.
34:22
Speaker 1: Perfect. I love it. For those that are listening, if
34:25
Speaker 1: you would like to find me, LinkedIn is also probably
34:29
Speaker 1: the best way to get in touch. Always happy to connect,
34:32
Speaker 1: have a conversation. You can also learn more about both
34:36
Speaker 1: Meebok and O & P by visiting our website or
34:41
Speaker 1: by following us on LinkedIn. Before we wrap today, I
34:45
Speaker 1: would like to take a minute to thank our sponsor, Meebok.
34:48
Speaker 1: So Meebok is a global supply chain consulting and engineering
34:51
Speaker 1: firm focused exclusively on helping organizations improve performance across the
34:57
Speaker 1: end-to-end supply chain. So from strategy and planning transformation through
35:02
Speaker 1: engineering implementation and execution, we help customers turn those complex
35:08
Speaker 1: decisions into operational results that absolutely hold up in the
35:14
Speaker 1: rural world. So thank you again, Chris, for joining us.
35:19
Speaker 1: And we will see you next time, folks, on Speaking
35:22
Speaker 1: of Supply Chain.
35:28
Speaker 3: You've been listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a Meebok podcast.
35:32
Speaker 3: Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in
35:34
Speaker 3: your favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard,
35:37
Speaker 3: please rate the show. That helps us to keep delivering
35:39
Speaker 3: the latest in supply chain information. Thanks for listening.
35:43
Speaker 2: Until next time.