A Guest Post by Rick Jewell, Senior Vice President of Applications Development, Oracle (pictured left)The second annual Oracle Value Chain Summit held in San Jose, CA, concluded earlier this month, and by all accounts, it was a resounding success.
We welcomed more than 2,100 customers, partners and industry analysts from 27 different countries to the event this year. In fact, customer attendance was nearly 60 percent higher than the previous year, a clear testament to Oracle’s growing momentum in the supply chain industry. From the beginning to the end, there was a palpable energy amongst the crowds in sessions, demo areas and networking receptions.
Business users chose from more than 200 sessions from different supply chain tracks, including, 150+ customer speaking sessions, as well as keynotes that featured Oracle President Mark Hurd and best-selling author Geoffrey Moore.
Mark’s keynote covered a lot of interesting points as he explained how the combination of globalization, the explosion of data, mobility and more demanding customers has made the supply chain more complex than ever. Organizations are balancing the need to control costs while meeting customer demands; and as Mark highlighted, consumers are now more sophisticated. A missed delivery date can result in not only loss of sale, but now thanks to social, a reputation nightmare. A staggering 26 percent of customers will post negative feedback about products online.
Along similar lines, I presented the idea of the customer-centric supply chain and planning. In a time where it has become even harder for organizations to differentiate themselves, organizations can no longer focus on just ensuring inventory is there when customers need it, but also the need to optimize the overall customer experience in order to stand out in the crowd.
This is just a slice of what we talked about at the event. Presentations and collateral from the Oracle Value Chain Summit are now available for download at: http://oracle.ovcs2014.virtualcollateral.com. Use the password: ovcs2014
If you missed the event and are eager to hear how Oracle is keeping the supply chain moving at the speed of business, you can always catch the European Value Chain Summit taking place March 18 & 19 in Amsterdam. Otherwise, stay tuned for details about next year’s Oracle Value Chain Summit.