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How MRO Alignment Strengthens Supply Chain Execution · Speaking of Supply Chain

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  Speaker 1: A majority of the inventory that any organization folds are
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  Speaker 1: slow moving, non moving, or obsolete products. Something can be critical,
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  Speaker 1: but it also could be very available in your supply chain.
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  Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
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  Speaker 2: explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and
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  Speaker 2: supply chain industries. I'm your host, ellen Wood Maintenance, Repair
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  Speaker 2: and Operations. Supply chains often suffer from chronic inefficiencies, disconnected data,
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  Speaker 2: redundant inventory, and fragmented procurement practices that during resources in
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  Speaker 2: a road competitive advantage. Joining me today to explore how
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  Speaker 2: businesses can achieve clearer visibility, optimized inventories, and stronger supplier
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  Speaker 2: relationships is Paul Noble, CSO and co founder of Verison.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome Paul, thanks for having me. Looking forward to taking
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  Speaker 1: a deeper dive into this often overlooked part of the
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  Speaker 1: supply chain.
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  Speaker 2: Agreed, So before we get started today on MRO supply chains,
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  Speaker 2: let's take a moment to get to know you a
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  Speaker 2: little bit better. So our icebreaker question for today is
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  Speaker 2: what is the best dish you can cook?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Love love to cook, break away from the grind and
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  Speaker 1: spend some time there. So I would say, not any
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  Speaker 1: specific dish, but you know, living in Atlanta, we have
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  Speaker 1: pretty good year round weather and so I have nice
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  Speaker 1: green agge smoker and blackstone grittle top setup that I
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  Speaker 1: like to play around with as much as I can.
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  Speaker 1: And so, you know, from smoking all different types of things,
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  Speaker 1: we tried just about everything at this point. And grilling
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  Speaker 1: it's always it's always my contribution to the meal or
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  Speaker 1: the event or get.
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  Speaker 2: Together that sounds fun, and especially in the summertime. You
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  Speaker 2: know what is better than cooking outdoors and just getting
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  Speaker 2: to enjoy well, I don't know. In Atlanta in the summer,
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  Speaker 2: maybe not so much. You take your grilled food inside.
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  Speaker 1: Gets a little steamy, but certainly a big part of
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  Speaker 1: what I like to do and a big part of
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  Speaker 1: our culture here at Verison. We even have a specific
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  Speaker 1: channel on our slack called Hungry where everyone posts what
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  Speaker 1: they're making they've eaten, and it's one of the favorites
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  Speaker 1: for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I could see that that would be a lot
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  Speaker 2: of fun to to, you know, collaborate with your colleagues
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  Speaker 2: and exchange recipe ideas. We have an office pot luck
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  Speaker 2: once a month and so everybody just brings something in
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  Speaker 2: and We have a lot of international colleagues, so we
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  Speaker 2: get a lot of different tastes from around the world.
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  Speaker 4: That's a lot of fun.
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  Speaker 2: I also love to cook, and I don't know that
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  Speaker 2: it's the best thing I know how to cook. I
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  Speaker 2: do a lot of Italian and Asian food. We have
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  Speaker 2: a fantastic international grocery here in my neighborhood, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: able to find and source ingredients that normally, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you wouldn't even consider looking.
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  Speaker 4: For in a regular grocery store. So that's a lot
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  Speaker 4: of fun.
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  Speaker 3: Are my favorite types of foit.
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  Speaker 2: This weekend, I'm actually making an Italian dish from an
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  Speaker 2: old cookbook that my dad gave me. It was one
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  Speaker 2: of his cookbooks. He gave me my love of cooking
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  Speaker 2: and love of food, and it's an old I don't
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  Speaker 2: even know if people know who he is anymore. Jeff Smith.
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  Speaker 2: He used to have the TV cooking shows back in
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  Speaker 2: the eighties when it was him and Julia Child and
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  Speaker 2: pretty much no one else on PBS. And there's a
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  Speaker 2: recipe out of one of Jeff Smith's cookbooks, his Italian cookbook,
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  Speaker 2: that I'll be making this weekend, and it's a chicken
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  Speaker 2: rou Lade and it just it looks really basic, but
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  Speaker 2: it sounds like it's going to be really really good,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 1: Those are some of the best dishes, right, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if I'm talking Italian, and regardless of what level of restaurant,
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  Speaker 1: you know, three star, four star, Michelin rated, whatever you
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  Speaker 1: want to say, I'll always gravitate to a good spaghetti
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  Speaker 1: and meatballs dish.
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  Speaker 4: You can't go wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: As much fun as it would be to talk about
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  Speaker 2: food all day long, that is not the topic of
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  Speaker 2: our conversation today. Today we're talking about MRO supply chains,
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  Speaker 2: and these have historically just been overlooked. They were just
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  Speaker 2: part of, you know, the cost of doing business. They
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  Speaker 2: weren't really seen as anything such as a revenue driver
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  Speaker 2: or you know anything.
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  Speaker 4: Really, it was just a.
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  Speaker 3: Need whatever you need to do to keep things up.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, a necessary evil.
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  Speaker 2: So talk to us about your approach to some of
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  Speaker 2: those common MRO challenges we talked, like redundant inventory, fragmented procurement,
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  Speaker 2: siloed operations.
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  Speaker 4: What does that look like from your perspective?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not too dissimilar to how supply chains
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  Speaker 1: were looked at overall up until you know, the pandemic
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  Speaker 1: era where supply chain became a great competitive advantage and
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  Speaker 1: you know, and organizations begin investing in technology across their
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  Speaker 1: supply chain overall, because it's all about really understanding where
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  Speaker 1: you're at, what levers you can pull to move move
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  Speaker 1: to the right balance of working capital without introducing risk,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and so you know, from an m RO perspective,
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  Speaker 1: it's certainly that you know that bucket right. Most organizations,
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  Speaker 1: based on the challenges they have with systems and data,
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  Speaker 1: the processes of individuals working together. We often say, uh,
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  Speaker 1: the m RO takes a village because you have maintenance
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  Speaker 1: and operations, you have procurement, you have finance, and all
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  Speaker 1: of it's there to make sure that you're you know,
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  Speaker 1: producing whatever product that you go to market with.
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  Speaker 3: And so.
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  Speaker 1: Bringing those together and giving an organization full visibility of
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  Speaker 1: where you're at, but what opportunities there are in the data,
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  Speaker 1: presenting it to people, allowing them.
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  Speaker 3: To align and break down you know.
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  Speaker 1: Solution and just organizational silos really helps set a target
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  Speaker 1: and drive transformation in this era in this area of
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  Speaker 1: supply chain. And so you know, that's what we we
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  Speaker 1: do for our customers. And you know, when I founded
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  Speaker 1: the company really saw it as an opportunity where organizations
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  Speaker 1: are blocked by dirty and untrustworthy data.
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  Speaker 3: So if I can't trust the data, how do I
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  Speaker 3: trust the outcomes?
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  Speaker 1: You can't, So we you know, we plug in and
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  Speaker 1: give that full visibility, but also bring trust in what
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  Speaker 1: we've trained from a very purpose built AI solution that
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  Speaker 1: can read data but then also present it to the
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  Speaker 1: outcomes that matter for organizations. So it's this combination of
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  Speaker 1: what do we see in the data? What do people
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  Speaker 1: know that they would never put in an ARP or
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  Speaker 1: an EAM or procuretive based system, which is a lot
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  Speaker 1: that goes into our ability to understand why do I
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  Speaker 1: inventory something and where and that why do I buy
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  Speaker 1: and where from? So that you can really control that
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  Speaker 1: costs and then you know, really get to a better
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  Speaker 1: target where the company should be from a working capital
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  Speaker 1: at risk perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that's I think that has its basis in
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  Speaker 2: any supply chain project. It's getting that data, that first data,
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  Speaker 2: because you can't do anything else unless you have a
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  Speaker 2: complete and accurate version of vision of the as is situation.
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  Speaker 2: And how do you ensure accurate data capture from the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: Is it just a matter of you know, sitting down
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  Speaker 2: with them and saying, look, you have to you have
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  Speaker 2: to make sure you have clean data. I don't care
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  Speaker 2: how clean you think it is, it's not enough.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Sure.
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  Speaker 1: It was actually part of our the success and the
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  Speaker 1: speed speed to value that we drive is because we
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  Speaker 1: can work with existing data, even in its dirty and
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  Speaker 1: incomplete form. We can look at materialized data free text purchasing.
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  Speaker 1: And the model that I mentioned earlier that was our
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  Speaker 1: first innovation was what if we could go in and
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  Speaker 1: start garning inventory and procurement and you know, risk management
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  Speaker 1: outcomes across an m RO supply chain without having to
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  Speaker 1: lead off with you know, a nine to twelve month
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  Speaker 1: data cleansing project.
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  Speaker 3: And so the various in.
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  Speaker 1: Material graph is now the world's largest MRO knowledge base
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  Speaker 1: where we've controlled the training so that when we go
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  Speaker 1: in we can read this data very accurately out of
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  Speaker 1: systems of record, whatever Frankenstein the organization's running, and give
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  Speaker 1: it a brain and then start.
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  Speaker 3: Saying, hey, these.
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  Speaker 1: Are opportunities that you know, low hanging fruit that you
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  Speaker 1: can take advantage of. That goes with you know, setting
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  Speaker 1: proper min max levels at an item level, at a
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  Speaker 1: facility level, but then also opening up opportunities to run
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  Speaker 1: network scenarios. Ultimately, we want to give a full view
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  Speaker 1: of what does the organization need that satisfies the item
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  Speaker 1: level individual need at the plant level, and that's often
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  Speaker 1: very complex and very difficult. But the training that we've
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  Speaker 1: done and the amount of data that we've seen immediately
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  Speaker 1: gives us trust so that within a ninety day period
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  Speaker 1: we can light that up and we can start getting
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  Speaker 1: to work with our customers and they can utilize us
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  Speaker 1: as a partner and a tool to accelerate that execution
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  Speaker 1: so they can see both economic savings but also operational efficiencies,
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  Speaker 1: opportunities for process improvement, and that that really helps drive
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  Speaker 1: a sustainable, sustainable transformation part of the spy chain.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I like that you said it integrates with Frankenstein
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  Speaker 2: Systems because that happens overtime. Companies invest in different technologies
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  Speaker 2: as they're able to, and sometimes it is very customized
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  Speaker 2: and cobbled together.
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  Speaker 4: It's not an easy.
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  Speaker 2: Plug in, and for the platform to integrate with it
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  Speaker 2: very easily and be able to pull that data is
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  Speaker 2: so huge. Can you share some examples of how you've
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  Speaker 2: leveraged the AI portion of that for that inventory and
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  Speaker 2: predictive maintenance.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, So any organization we go to, like we have
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  Speaker 1: a lot of SAP customers, Oracle customers, Maximo, Hexagon, Koopa, Riva,
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  Speaker 1: and we take data from each of those systems, depending
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  Speaker 1: on again, what that Frankenstein looks like. We've built in
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  Speaker 1: you know, simple processes so that it's not your traditional
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  Speaker 1: software implementation where you know, you agree to buy Varison
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  Speaker 1: and then it takes you know, six to nine months
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  Speaker 1: to you know, for a custom implementation, we've been able
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  Speaker 1: to identify you know, standard tables that nearly every customer has,
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  Speaker 1: which gives us information on not only material naming and
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  Speaker 1: detailed data, but movement history, supplier history, things of that
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  Speaker 1: nature that will train a model on top of the
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  Speaker 1: material graph and allow of four organizations to really configure
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  Speaker 1: it to their organization. And so by doing that, we've
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  Speaker 1: built in simple ways to do it right. So now
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  Speaker 1: takes that you know, traditional system integrator six months to
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  Speaker 1: stand up a software solution across supply chain takes us
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  Speaker 1: you know, forty five or sixty days depending on you know,
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  Speaker 1: where in line we are with it, but gets it
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  Speaker 1: in and allows people to start working on it, so
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  Speaker 1: that that simplicity and taking that from months.
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  Speaker 3: To hours over that period of.
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  Speaker 1: Time is a big advantage and making you know, as
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  Speaker 1: partner defines like the ideal supply chain project, you know, value,
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  Speaker 1: low effort, low risk. We've we've built this solution aligned
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  Speaker 1: to that. It's powered by you know, AI native uh
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  Speaker 1: technology cause we were like the joke that we were
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  Speaker 1: AI before it was so cool, and that's that's allowed
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  Speaker 1: us to have this foundational intelligence that we're now layering
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  Speaker 1: on agents and and ways to uncover and remove manual
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  Speaker 1: processes and a very transactual part of the supply chain.
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  Speaker 1: So it keeps doing more and more for our customers,
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  Speaker 1: and more and more of that will be well be
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  Speaker 1: automated and because you know, closer and closer do autonomous awesome.
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  Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about supplier relationships because
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  Speaker 2: you mentioned that earlier specifically like strategic sourcing versus just
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  Speaker 2: transactional procurement. You need a thing, you go buy it.
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  Speaker 2: Whereas you know, having that relationship with suppliers insures you
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  Speaker 2: have more importance in their eyes, that it raises your
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  Speaker 2: stature just a little bit. If there's a strategic relationship
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  Speaker 2: there in place.
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  Speaker 4: What does your tool do to.
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  Speaker 2: Help develop those or you know, build that kind of
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  Speaker 2: of relationship with with multiple partners.
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  Speaker 1: We began looking at this, you know, once we could
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  Speaker 1: understand everything that an organization used came from industrial distribution
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  Speaker 1: and manufacturing supply chain prior to founding the company, which
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  Speaker 1: you know, allowed me to see the pain and feel
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  Speaker 1: the feel the challenges that existed there. Then we ultimately
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  Speaker 1: went out to solve with Verison. And for so long,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the m RO part of the supply chain,
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  Speaker 1: procurement and sourcing, we're reacting, you know, they were they
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  Speaker 1: were trying to figure out what relationship and ships they needed,
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  Speaker 1: how could they secure supply, and it oftentimes was against
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  Speaker 1: just historicals or inaccurate demand. So one of the reasons
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  Speaker 1: that we started with really understanding and really understanding what
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  Speaker 1: organizations need and do inventory optimizations because it right sizes
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  Speaker 1: demand and then we can get that demand down to
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  Speaker 1: the item level, so I know what to buy. If
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  Speaker 1: I know what my people need and they say, yes,
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  Speaker 1: this is what I need, it builds trust between these
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  Speaker 1: two parts of the organization that are often misaligned on
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  Speaker 1: incentives and allows you to build trust that you'll have
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  Speaker 1: what you need, but also do it from a strategic
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  Speaker 1: sourcing perspective. Right, So a lot of our key stakeholders
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  Speaker 1: are procurement leaders that are charged with and this is
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  Speaker 1: an ongoing trend of organizations looking to procurement to be
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  Speaker 1: the champion, be the owner of these improvements and be
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  Speaker 1: able to.
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  Speaker 3: Serve their state colder.
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  Speaker 1: So by building trust and identifying purchasing and sourcing to
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  Speaker 1: what demand you are you actually sourcing against, it greatly
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  Speaker 1: improves the execution of which suppliers am I buying from?
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  Speaker 1: So we've we've taken that and stepped it up to
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  Speaker 1: the next level where item level data cleansing is no
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  Speaker 1: longer really a prerequisite. Better data is always better. We
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  Speaker 1: did a study across our customer base, which you know
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  Speaker 1: is over three dozen global one thousand organizations. We manage
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  Speaker 1: over twelve billion dollars and spend, and we started to
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  Speaker 1: look at, you know, why does every organization categorize differently?
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  Speaker 3: Right? There are global standards.
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  Speaker 1: In terms of uh, you know, we we aligned to UNSPSC,
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  Speaker 1: and we can we can bucket these contracts and how
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  Speaker 1: they buy and that identifies where there's tail spend where
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  Speaker 1: there's leakage, and gives data to a supplier that they
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  Speaker 1: can go say, all right, now, I know what you need,
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  Speaker 1: so let me secure that for you, rather than just
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  Speaker 1: guessing based on what you've needed in the past. So
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  Speaker 1: those elements and how those associations of how those are
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  Speaker 1: influencing one another are really important to be able to
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  Speaker 1: empower and allow these parts of the organization to work together,
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  Speaker 1: but then ultimately inventory better and spend better.
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  Speaker 2: One thing that I've been hearing you say a couple
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  Speaker 2: times in this conversation is these different siloed business units
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  Speaker 2: within an organization, And historically that has been a major
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  Speaker 2: stopping point at roadblock hindrance when it comes to getting
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  Speaker 2: any type of project, system wide project off the ground
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  Speaker 2: because you've got too many different stakeholders with too many
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  Speaker 2: different needs and requirements. So what kind of process do
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  Speaker 2: you use when implementing within those client organizations to help
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  Speaker 2: with that change management and encourage that employee engagement and
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  Speaker 2: the leadership buy in.
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  Speaker 1: We do start even before we sign a customer. We
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  Speaker 1: you know, get eyes on the data. We put a
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  Speaker 1: really nice and accurate business case together of what we
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  Speaker 1: see from their data. And that allows us to de
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: risk the investment of partnering, but also gives us some
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: targets that we can set as we as we get
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  Speaker 1: all those things stood up. And because we're a software
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: organization and you know, we have a product that helps
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: support this, we have a great customer success organization that's
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: assigned to each customer. So they go in and they
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: train each of the individual users based on whether a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: company's centralized or decentralized, as well as meet regularly with
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: leadership to say, hey, here's the opportunities we see, here's
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: what you've done, but here's the new opportunities that have
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: opened up based on based on usage. So, like many things,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it's communication. But that also allows us to you know,
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  Speaker 1: to do multiple what what are typically multiple projects that
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: have to be siloed in themselves and prioritize and you know,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: kind of slow rule so to speak, allows you to
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: do those in parallel, so we can we can do
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  Speaker 1: multiple things. And that's a bit of the visibility we
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: get give our customers and and partners, and then ultimately
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: you know, transfers and translates to suppliers that get that information. Again,
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  Speaker 1: it takes a village, so we want to enable that
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  Speaker 1: entire supply chain, so we can say here's where you
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  Speaker 1: need more, here's where you need less, here's what you
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: can repair, Here's where you have you know, tail spend opportunities,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: purchase price variants, and that all can run in flight
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: with one another and doesn't need to be sequential anymore.
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  Speaker 2: That's huge just in the project execution. Sure surely drives
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the buy in that it can be
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  Speaker 2: done on that quicker timeline, but also that it's addressing
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  Speaker 2: their specific needs as as you're going through it, and
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  Speaker 2: it's not like I have to wait for my need
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  Speaker 2: to be addressed towards the end of this project. And
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  Speaker 2: it's a nine month project, so I've got to deal
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  Speaker 2: with the mess in the interim and all of the
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: confusion and complication that trying to get this off the
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: ground is going to create. So you know, that's that's
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  Speaker 2: got to be huge. So what is what is a
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  Speaker 2: typical timeline for one of your projects?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: So you know, we we work on the annual subscriptions.
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  Speaker 1: Most of our customers enter into multi year agreements because
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: once we've right size an organization or get you know,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: get a great windfall of economic savings. The big thing
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: is that we're learning from all those interactions, right, and
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: so as people change, as business changes, you know that
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  Speaker 1: that is also where we're using deep learning and intelligence
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  Speaker 1: and different mind models to not only automate portions of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: that manual work, but also sustain that that advantage that they've.
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  Speaker 4: Gained right the momentum.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they can continue that rather than ending the project
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and going back to where they were over a couple
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of year period of time. And that's been very prevalent
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: within MRO for decades and why you see so many
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: organizations on a different page. So as we've developed Verison,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: we looked at, you know, regardless of what you.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Do, whether you make food or automotive.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Parts or cars or you you know, drill for oil,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: MRO as m ROS MRO based on some foundational fundamental
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: things and then they we can configure to different industry.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So we've created this vertical agnostic system, agnostic tool that
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: can allow us to speed that process up and get
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: customers going into an engagement knowing what their targets are.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And we actually put guarantees on those things because we know,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: you know, once we see the data, we're very accurate
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: and being able to go execute that and then be
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: able to, you know, within that sixty to ninety day period,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: light up an entire business unit, an entire country, whatever
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: it may be, or an entire company depending on the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: level that they can handle.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: From a change management perspective. All that said, it's.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: A very short speed speed to value that allows you
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to either put that to the bottom line or reinvest
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: it in other adjacent projects like EAM or other things
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: like that, where we've been able to partner with different
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: system providers consultants so that we're at the table with
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: these different stakeholders internally and externally really drive in the chink.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: So what are some.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Of those measurable outcomes KPIs I mean you were talking about,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: you know, having tangible savings. Obviously that's that's a big one.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Everyone likes dollar signs, but you know, to really demonstrate
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: the effectiveness is it you know, is it inventory turnover?
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Is it you know, the the cost savings? Is it
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: just the ease of finding what they need when they
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: need it? What what are some of these you know,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: benchmarks that the companies are expecting.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: To achieve driving economic value certainly always top of them, and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: so We certainly are very good at finding money for organizations,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and it starts with you know, understanding the data very quickly,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: categorizing that appropriately and then applying it to inventory optimization
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: so we can set demand. So we're most mature in
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: that perspective or that that part of thisly chain.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: So if we go reset min.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Max reorder point levels down, next time they order, they
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: don't order the old level, so there's cost avoidance there.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: And then we you know, we're getting feedback as we're
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: presenting what's in the data, right, so we go from
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: here's what we're seeing in the data that made us,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you know, drive this decision. We've added some explainability AI
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: that says it's simply right, so it's not a black box.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Here's why we've made this recommendation. You can accept it,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: where you can disagree with it and tell us why.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: And we learned from that why. And then we look at,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: you know, from those verifications, when will it hit the
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: P and L where are you using things that you
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: know they look dead but are used at other plants
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: that you're procuring, and just look at this entire network
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: scenario so it unlocks you know, cost avoidance and then
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: hard dollar cost savings to the P and L and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: then we take that those verified demand signals and then
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: apply that to you know, most commonly purchased price variance
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: and tail spent.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: So our customers will.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Inform us, you know, we've we've selected motion industries for
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: these three categories. So we'll look at those three categories
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and we'll say, all right, what percentage of your spend
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: over the last year has gone on contract or off contract?
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: And here's how you can you know, funnel the tail
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: to your strategic suppliers, which empowers them.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: You know, it's mutual.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Value, so the flier doesn't know the user in many
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: cases doesn't know all the things and items that they're
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: spending on and off contract.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: So by by making.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: That visible, it really drives not only inventory and working
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: capital holding costs and savings, but it also helps drive
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: compliance and cost savings from a procurement perspective, and in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: many cases saves a lot of internal resource time having
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: to spin up RFPs arbitrarily, arbitrarily just to you know,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: we got to put this out to bid so we
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: can get cost savings. That's a really intensive process and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: so if we can avoid that, if you like your supplier,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: but just need to empower them with more accurate information
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: so that they can serve you better. You know, that's
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: what we ultimately want to do across the various MRO categories.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Well, it seems just intuitive that given the data driven approach,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: this solution is scalable. You know, it could whether you're
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: dealing with one facility or two facilities, ten facilities, one
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: hundred facilities. Scalable is there? But what about adaptability and
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: resiliency with industry shifts or differing client expectations, you know,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: as as time goes on, And I know I'm thinking
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: about it just because it happened two days ago. There's
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: a tornado that came through our community, and you know
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: that is a natural disaster that's going to necessitate you know,
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the type of you know, heavy duty repair that's not
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: planned for. So what what kind of adaptability does it
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: have or does it enable for your clients?
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Significant amount. Like one of our most popular use cases
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: or features in the platform is search. Right, so it's
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: very in an ERP or EAM or procure it pay
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: kind of a clunky search experience, and so we identify
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: that most people have uncertainty over order or add new
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: materials from you know, non strategic sources because they can't
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: find it in their network. So we make it very
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: easy to find what's available in the network in an
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: emergent situation that could be natural disasters, changes in the market,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: so they're able to at least see what's available internally
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: before they run a fire drill externally. Additionally, we've been
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: working with a lot of organizations as they bring and
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: stand up new facilities. You know, what assets am I
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: using at these new facilities? Where am I using those assets?
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Am I existing facilities? Where do I have things that
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I can transfer? And on the flip side of that,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: if I'm shutting down a facility, where can I redeploy
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: things that I already have to my existing facility network,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: so that we're not just going and buying everything for
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: that new asset, right, So it's its combination of those
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: different things and being able to have that visibility and
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: understanding of the materials at the item level, not just
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the category level, allows us to do it. So we
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: continue to go deeper and add more layers to it.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: One AI that we've just released that we're turning into
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: an agent is Criticality so again we studied our customers
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and the data showed that a majority of the inventory
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that any organization holds are slow moving, non moving or
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: obsolete products. They were brought in at some point because
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: you know, these are insurance items, we bought a new
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: asset whatever, We got to hold these because if.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: We don't have them, it'll go down.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Now, that could be very true and very accurate, it
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: often isn't because it's a subjective opinion. You know, what
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: one person thinks is critical, another person thinks could be
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a non critical item. So we try to right size
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that and establish the right criticality metrics based on why
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the organization deems something critical. So off of that we're
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: able to say something can be critical, but it also
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: could be very available in your supply chain. So obviously
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: we start with the most critical items and say why
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: are you holding two years when you could really get
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: it in two days if you just share that with
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: your supplier. Right, So it's simple. Things of your critical
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: items can be very critical but also be very available,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: so don't hold so much. And so again, over time
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: that contributes to the right sizing of you know, and
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: build and trust building across the organization. So that maintenance
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't hoard parts as much as they tend to do.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: You know, this makes me laugh because I think about
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: my own personal supply chain as a mom and a wife,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and you know those things where you like, something that
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: you use all the time is on sale, so you
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: buy it in bulk and you have a lot of it,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: but then you're stuck with the storage cost and the
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: lost opportunity cop of what else could I be doing
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: with this space if I didn't have ten fifteen boxes
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: of the same cereal that I know my kids will eat.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: But the grocery stores down the road, I can go
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: get another box if I need to. The only reason
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: I have this much is on hand is because of
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: a particular thing that happened.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: It was on sale.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: So I mean, that's that's interesting because you know, for me,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I think about that as a space constraint in my home.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: But for an organization, when we're talking about you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: facilities and space that they need for housing their own inventory,
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: for their product, for their materials.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: They need to spend that hoarding light bulbs.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And that's and that's you know, you hit
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the nail on the head there, because manufacturing square footage
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: is very expensive, and if I can put another asset
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: and manufacture more products, I can make more revenue and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: not just sit on you know, potentially obsolete parts and
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: things of that nature. And so you know, by doing that,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: and then also a big portion of what we're getting
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: to is, you know, really it's not about controlling your inventory.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: It's really about securing supply. And so as we can
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: extend the network and under you know, an organization can
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: understand what they need and then get their strategic suppliers
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that information of what you know of what they need
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: to hold for them. Your securing supply outside of your network,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: you can get suppliers to hold that for you and
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: not bring it onto your books before you need it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: And so that network extension, network resiliency from a buzzword
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: perspective is really important, right, And that's what we're aiming
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: to do is kind of get outside and extend the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: network and again mutually beneficial suppliers sell more and can
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: offer better service and those things that they're charged to.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Do guaranteed client contract, yeah, and.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Being blocked by data and blocked by uncertainty and lack
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: of trust. So you know, that's really some of the
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: core principles that we've we've built into Verison and that
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: also we you know, meet with clients all the time
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: and customers and then get their partners at the table.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Think if we're all at the table, it's easy to
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: clarify who plays what role and we can be valuable
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: to the entire network.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Well, and we've been talking mainly about manufacturers distributors that
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: have this internal MRO supply chain, because when you have
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: a facility, you have to maintain it. That's just the
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: nature of the beast. But what about companies or businesses
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: and organizations that are in the business of maintenance and
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: repair and operations. I'm thinking utilities companies. I know when
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: we first spoke, I mentioned my husband used to work
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: for Comcast, and so you know they have the warehouse
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: full of all the materials that the technicians could need
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: throughout the day, and based on their work orders, they
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: would you know, go and submit the requisition for whatever
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: information or whatever materials they needed. But how do you
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: work with those types of organizations or should I say,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: do you work with those types of businesses that that
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: is their business is doing this for another client?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we do have external partners. One that we announced
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: recently is a company called ATS.
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: They're a you know.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Outsourced maintenance organization that can do near term, short term
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: or full time maintenance services take over the store room
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: and you know, again they're bound by data what's repairable
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: versus what are you buying news, so we can tell organizations, hey,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: you're you're buying all this planned and unplanned maintenance. All
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: these planned and unplanned maintenance parts. You could repair those
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: that will help save money and also build predictability into
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: when when those things are maintained so you don't have
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the surprised outages. And then we also work with you know,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: companies that don't produce a hard good, but they produce
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: energy and they produce you know, need to keep a
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: grid up and running or a network up and running
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: like your example, where do we have these things across
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the network and how can we run the network models
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: for hub and spoke or virtual storerooms so you don't
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: have to physically move things and keep things central, but
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: you know where they are. So that's all a component
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: of you know, additionally, some of the silos and things
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: that we're working on breaking down because a lot of
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: times those parts of the organization don't really talk to
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: each other from a data perspective, right, it's you know.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: I need this, these are the work orders.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to buy everything I need for the work
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: order without looking internally to say.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, we already have half of it, right.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: So then you only complete sixty seventy percent of the work.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: You have all this excess.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: It goes back into inventory and then you see you're
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: holding costs spike. So yeah, it's it's very applicable and
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: again something that we support a handful of organizations and
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: partners on.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: So before we finish our conversation for today, what would
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: if you had one customer story that just kind of
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: encapsulated the best case scenario you could possibly have as
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: your case study, like your number one? What would that
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: story be? Tell us a little bit about it.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And we've had this kind of scenario or story
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: line up more and more as we've matured, Right, year
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: over year, we continue to add more capabilities that brought
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: you know broadly.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Go across the supply chain.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: But you know, I think the biggest, biggest aspect of
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: that starts with again getting in aligning with you know
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: it and business stakeholders lighting that, you know, getting all
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: of the data up and running and having that visibility.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: What we've been able to accomplish is being able to say, all, right,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: now we know we know what you have.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Let's go.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: After this business unit or collectively these fifty to seventy facilities.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: We start seeing good momentum on what's been really exciting
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and where it's going. As I've mentioned, you know where
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you add agents into the fold and start automating more
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and more. We've been seeing a handful of customers that
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: have been with us for a year, two years or
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: more start trusting the AI right and so they know
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: that if we present them an opportunity, eighty percent of
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: the time, they're going to say yes. So if it's
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: a non critical item under two thousand dollars, they can
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: push a button and accept all those recommendations and it
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: becomes more and more automated based on the training, so
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: that frees up their people to do more strategic things.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: So you know, that component is really exciting. And then
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and then how that again influences things that we're building
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: for the procurement stakeholder that can help manage that side
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: of the house more effectively. We support them very much today.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: But you know, there's a handful of these types of
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: stories where it's great because trust is central to everything
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: we do. Empowering people is a big component of what
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: AI is. You know the place it's going to have
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: in the supply chain, and we're seeing that come to
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: fruition with the trust of well, yeah, I trust Verison
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: to just make the recommendation and we'll take it without
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: four outcomes and stock outs and things of that nature.
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: Thank you for that.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: So it's clear this conversation is just really beginning, and
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I look forward to seeing all the things that you
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: guys are coming up with as you continue to innovate
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: and improve your platform for your clients. Thank you so
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: much Paul for joining us today sharing your insights.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Appreciate the opportunity and enjoy the conversation with'sward of doing
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: it again sometimes.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Of course, to our listeners, if you found today's episode valuable,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: please be sure to share Speaking of Supply Chain with
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: your colleagues, follow us wherever you get your podcasts, and
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: until next time, keep that inventory moving.