June, 20208 IN MYV EWENGINEERING EFFICIENCY IN THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN ECOSYSTEMIn our contemporary, hyper-globalized world of trade and commerce, being digital could well be assumed to be the default. But that assumption would not necessarily be an accurate one. Most business-to-business transactions today are comprised of distinct yet interwoven processes, spanning a range of departments, both within and without an organization. Typically, procurement sources, treasury funds operations, logistics arranges for physical goods movements and finance arranges and reconciles payments. Partners and suppliers feed into this central nervous system, contributing to a company's entire supply chain. It is completely intuitive therefore, that integration sits at the core of creating a single, end-to-end supply chain. The advent of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ­ while undoubtedly transformational in many ways ­ was only the tip of the iceberg. Much remains to be done in the quest for a seamless, tightly integrated, and interoperable global supply chain ecosystem, especially in the area of financing. With financial transactions being embedded into the core of all businesses, driving efficiencies in this area would have ripple effects across the enti re system.Straight Through Processing (STP) ­ the complete automation of financial transactions from their initiation through to their settlement ­would allow companies to dramatically lower time/cost inefficiencies, eliminate manual handling and reduce errors and fraud compromise points. However, there are a few imperatives the industry needs to collectively tackle, before the vision of STP can be fully realized.The STP Conundrum: Mission Critical, yet Elusive Unfortunately, STP continues to be largely elusive. Counter-intuitive as this is, it can be attributed to the complex web of supply chains today - the majority of discrete processes in a supply chain require various internal departments to rely on and interact with service providers of their own and their business counterparties. Although ERP implementations are the norm across most industries, the points of hand-off between various links in the supply chain are still often paper-based and/or analog, rather than digitally synchronized. STP therefore becomes an impossibility to implement; this significantly and adversely impacts system efficiency.A Sea of Digital Islands For most companies, high volumes of paper-based BY GERALD SUN, VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, TRADE AND INDUSTRY, ASIA PACIFIC, MASTERCARDGerald Sun
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