As the buzz around digital supply chain grows louder, many companies today are aiming to transition from the traditional to digital supply management. Cerca Technology is a company that offers a helping hand for organizations embarking on a supply chain transformation journey. Cerca Technology and its team of supply chain experts brings game-changing improvements to the domain. Already having a broad clientele in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cerca Technology has offices in Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Panama and the United States. Currently, the company has more than a hundred clients across sixteen countries in four major verticals: retail, manufacturing, 3PL and distribution. Having celebrated its 25th year in business this year, Cerca Technology has executed more than 250 supply chain projects, the majority involving Infor solutions, Cerca’s primary technology and solutions partner. Led by Gregor Nassief and Bryan Buitrago — experts in technology, logistics and supply chain management— Cerca Technology bridges the gap between an organization and its supply chain solution needs. Team Cerca focuses on adding value to clients’ through improved business results with the effective implementation of solutions for supply chain execution and supply chain planning.
In this interview with CIO Applications, Bryan Buitrago, General Manager of Cerca Technology, gives us insights into the industry developments and explains how the company supports its clients in the age of digital disruption. He also highlights how they help clients overcome the complexities in the supply chain area with effective roadmaps and strategies.
What are the trends and challenges that exist in the supply chain space, and how is Cerca Technology addressing them?
Cerca Technology started 25 years ago and pioneered the implementation of warehouse management solutions (WMS) in the region and we have witnessed the significant evolution of distribution center technologies over the years. Today, omnichannel and e-commerce, driven by more sophisticated consumers, are transforming the way warehouses operate. These emerging channels require the real time processing of a dramatically increased volume of smaller orders, combined with the need for much shorter delivery times and on-line visibility and traceability. This requires warehouses to reinvent themselves with modern supply chain technology and processes. Cerca Technology supports our clients in taking this transformation step.
But a complete vision for supply chain improvement not only requires focus on supply chain execution processes but also on supply chain planning processes. Organizations need to focus on implementing processes and technologies that assist them in better predicting demand, and thus improving order fill rates and achieving optimal inventory levels. This is why we are actively promoting the use of such technologies. The solutions we implement to support these processes are Infor SCE (WMS) and Infor IBP (Integrated Business Planning).
We are turning the idea of ‘digital supply chain’ into reality, allowing companies to take effective decisions by gathering data from all areas in a company such as warehousing transportation, procurement, manufacturing and others. We take advantage of new-age technologies such as analytics, IoT and machine learning to help clients collect relevant business data in real-time and generate insights for visibility and actionable decision making. We deliver these capabilities to our clients by implementing Infor solutions in a cost-effective manner. Infor’s solutions, such as Birst for analytics and Coleman for machine learning are among our focus areas. Once the solutions are implemented, our support takes over to provide on-going support and maintenance that refines and improves the supply chain performance.
Backed by years of experience in implementing Infor solutions, our professional team educates clients on the best practices and strategies for supply chain optimization. Focusing on broadening our clients’ knowledge of the supply chain, we promote the use of technologies such as analytics and IoT in improving supply chain planning and optimization.
Give us insights into your strategy to help your clients succeed in their business initiatives.
Many companies start the digital transformation with the evaluation and implementation of technological solutions. We prefer to guide them in defining the roadmap for digital transformation with a much broader business assessment, ensuring that their business strategy sits at the centre of this digital transformation.
We also of course engage in an in-depth analysis and understanding of the business challenges, “pain points” and business goals which allows us to work with our clients in preparing a technology roadmap and finding the appropriate solutions to meet their requirements. This overall strategy allows for high-impact solutions with a solid return on investment. In some cases, we also work with clients to construct the business case in order to understand the required level of investment and expected ROI.
What are the key factors that differentiate Cerca in the market?
The passion, knowledge, and experience that our team brings to the supply chain space combined with our absolute focus on client success. We are truly zealous about supply chain optimization and this goes beyond the initial implementation, offering on-going support and maintenance so that our clients can focus on their core business processes rather than spending time and energy on IT management. With the most implementations and highest customer retention in the region, our more than 30 documented client success stories speak for themselves. We believe our real differentiator is our commitment and ability to work with and support our clients in achieving their business strategy through an effective next-level digital supply chain.
What does the future have in store for Cerca Technology?
Our growth has always been client-driven, and we expect to see continued expansion throughout the Americas, including the US, Mexico and Brazil. We continue to strengthen our relationship with Infor to better serve our clients as we enter new regions and address the needs of the organizations having a wide range of unique business needs. We continue to be a learning-focussed organization, continuously enhancing the skill set and knowledge of our amazing team of supply chain professionals. All of this with a view to creating strategic partnerships with our clients, delivering the supply chain transformation they seek and exceeding their expectations throughout the journey.
Quote: “We believe our real differentiator is our commitment and ability to work with and support our clients in achieving their business strategy through an effective next-level digital supply chain.”
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