Cloud computing to move up to supply chain community

That's the less than unbiased message from Andy Stinnes, managing director of cloud-based collaboration platforms specialist GT Nexus Europe. "Ensuring these processes are linked and uploaded to a cloud-based supply chain platform allows all partners within the supply chain to have complete access to all of the relevant information needed to manage your supply chain effectively," explains Stinnes. His point: they will become more connected to the broader network of suppliers and 3PL providers. "The concept of a cloud community will be the next big thing here – using the learning from interior cloud operations and implementing this to a wider business network," predicts Stinnes. "There are hundreds of business processes that companies engage in with external partners in the supply chain, which will all become part of a cloud community," he continues. "This means that all parties concerned can see the same data, discuss in a Facebook-style way. Not only does this result in greater efficiency, but it also allows companies to get a much better sense of how to operate as a network and respond to changes more quickly." However, Stinnes also suggests that while connecting to networks in the supply chain provides a wealth of data, companies need to turn it into something more. "We think 2012 will be the year that big data becomes manageable and useful. Next year we'll start seeing the analytical capabilities and tools of a cloud-based supply chain being used to take this massive set of interconnected data and turn it into something valuable." For him, it's about cloud-based systems becoming "a supply chain memory", holding a vast amount of data that drives other systems in a standardised format.