BT has announced new cloud-based capabilities for BT Trace, its portfolio of supply chain solutions designed to help organisations overcome the challenges of managing increasingly complex global supply chains.

BT Trace now includes a cloud-based solution that will provide a single, accurate view into complex supply chains in near real time, to see how and where changes need to be made and enable customers to improve operational efficiency.

Companies with a global supply chain deal with multiple issues, from counterfeiting and shrinkage to product recalls and perishable goods. This is typical for global companies active in industry sectors such as consumer packaged goods, logistics, manufacturing, pharma or retail for example.

They need an accurate understanding of all inventory and on-shelf availability, all the while trying to comply with regulations and operate a sustainable business. Supply chain visibility is a challenge for those companies because of the multiplicity of formats, sources and partners that collect data. All too often, their various resource planning and backend systems are not even connected. BT Trace helps companies respond to those critical challenges.

The new cloud service announced today, cost effectively and securely collects, stores, shares and interprets high volume event data about goods and assets moving along an extended global supply chain. The new service integrates the complex information from the various resource planning and IT systems used by global companies and by their suppliers, to provide a single view of the whole supply chain through a customised web portal.

Melanie Posey, Research Vice President at IDC, said: "Through the combination of global network and data centre reach, multi-tiered security capabilities, industry expertise, and systems integration skills, BT brings to market a differentiated value proposition to the challenging problem of supply chain management. The cloud-based capabilities announced today for BT Trace provide global companies with end-to-end visibility of their supply chains and expedite the process of transforming enterprise resource planning data into real-time, actionable business intelligence."

The new service has been trialled and tested with TNT Express, one of the world’s largest express delivery companies. The service developed by BT in close collaboration with TNT was implemented to help drive operational efficiency; improve customer service and optimise reverse logistics.

Steve Brown, Divisional General Manager of TNT Special Services stated: “We have shown that greater visibility across the supply chain increases efficiency and flexibility.  There is no doubt that a single view across all systems and data speeds up processes and identifies significant events, allowing us to respond in new and better ways to our customers, and they, in turn, deliver a better service to their customers”.

Luis Alvarez, CEO for BT Global Services, said: “Billions of dollars are attributed to the cost of an organisations’ global supply chain, with boardroom focus firmly on reducing cost and driving up operational efficiency. We are uniquely positioned to solve today’s key supply chain challenges based on a heritage of managing complex data interactions over our global network.

In addition, BT’s worldwide infrastructure, service provision, security expertise, and track record of successful system integrations align precisely with the demands of modern supply chain systems. This combination is brought to bear through our strategic focus on global industry sectors, including consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceuticals and retail. Customers in those sectors clearly depend on the efficiency of their supply chains to gain competitive advantages. With BT Trace, we are pioneers in providing those customers with the ability to identify inefficiencies, streamline their processes and be more successful in their market place.”