Recent Posts by Tom McDonough

Product innovation is often thought of and reported on a grand scale or very specifically related to a new product feature.  As an example, we know quite a bit about the introduction of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and how that has transformed our everyday lives.  More specifically, in 2017, the inclusion of facial recognition, used for secure unlock of our phones, was a great workaround for the challenges password management can present.  These are strong examples of product...

In the second half of 2020, MIT Technology Review Insights, in association with Oracle, surveyed 860 senior executives and directors, split evenly from finance, human resources, information technology, supply chain and logistics, and the C-suite. One of the primary conclusions was that more than half of organizations surveyed have begun to accelerate their cloud adoption.  The survey also showed that AI and machine learning have gained the trust of most of the companies...

The Supply Chain Planning software market can be confusing for buyers.  With many options, the selection process can get bogged down with specific claims of feature superiority or analysis of how challenging integration into existing Enterprise Resource Planning or Supply Chain Management systems will be.  The IDC Marketscape provides some context for decision making, without the added layer of interpreting which company has ‘the best vision’ other analysts claim to provide. Th...

Effective structure and use of information flow in supply chain management is often underutilized and sometimes ignored completely creating a ‘Groundhog Day’ scenario for operations and finance managers. Traditional ERP and SCM systems which are supposed to help guide product and finance flow from supplier to customer (and back) are often paired with aging email and mobile text applications, disconnected from the product and finance systems, to report and manage issues and...

Manufacturing continues to evolve, creating new challenges. According to John Barcus, group vice president, Oracle Discrete Manufacturing Industry Solutions, these challenges include how to meet the demand to launch new products faster, support rising customer expectations and requirements, keep costs in line, and manage the increasing complexity of global operations. In an interview with representatives from Oracle customer Juniper Networks and partner Trinamix, the three...

The rise of the COVID-19 virus in 2020, as well as increasingly regular ‘black swan’ events which can be weather or geo-politically driven makes it increasingly important for Demand Planners to develop agile and resilient responses to adjust forecasts to the new normal. In discussion with customers through the first six months of the pandemics spread, we’ve heard stories of independent demand fluctuating wildly.  Many companies saw a pause or initial drop in demand in March...

Hitachi Vantara, the tech-forward division of Hitachi Corporation, knows quite a bit about digital transformation.  The company’s mission is focused on helping customers develop practical, scalable digital strategies and solutions that transform operational processes, improve customer experiences and create new business models to drive innovation and growth. So when they decided to change their approach to demand planning, Hitachi Vantara’s team knew that they needed to...