Gary Nowacki

Special Guest Blog Post written by Mark Holmes with InterSystems   Top 10 Ways a Data Gateway Improves Time to Value Across End-to-End Supply Chains Supply chain practitioners seeking the best way to speed decision intelligence, unify supply chain data, increase operational efficiency, and improve supply chain resilience can benefit from a supply chain data gateway. A data gateway provides unified access to supply chain data from various sources, including enterprise systems, supply chain applications, data feeds, data warehouses, data lakes, data marts, and business entities. Here are the top 10 ways a supply chain data gateway can improve your supply chain performance. Enables You to Identify Inefficiencies and Make Better and Informed Decisions A unified view of your data accelerates informed decision making and provides you with a comprehensive understanding of your supply chain. For example, a supply planner gains accelerated access to customer orders, inventory levels, and transportation schedules, all in one place, to identify inefficiencies and make better informed decisions. Reduces Implementation Times Enterprises and supply chain software providers strive to reduce application implementation times. A data gateway can serve as a front-end for a range of supply chain software applications, speeding and simplifying data ingestion, integration,…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Stela Jaqueta   In today’s fast-changing world, Africa’s role in global supply chains is at a tipping point. For too long, the continent has been viewed primarily as a source of raw materials rather than as a strategic partner in value creation. But what if we reimagined everything, from policies and technologies to mindsets and sustainability practices, through an Africa-centered lens? In this blog post, I explore five questions that challenge conventional supply chain thinking. From redefining Africa’s place at the global negotiation table, to elevating cultural intelligence from “soft skill” to strategic necessity, to designing climate-restorative logistics and embracing the digital revolution in a way that includes youth-led and informal businesses, each question is a call to rethink, redesign, and re-center. 1. What would a truly Africa-centered global supply chain look like? A truly Africa-centered global supply chain would shift from a model of extraction to one of empowerment and value creation. It would prioritize investment in local manufacturing, infrastructure, and knowledge transfer, ensuring that raw materials sourced from Africa are processed, packaged, and innovated on the continent. African-led businesses are seen as power players, with a voice and authority at the negotiation…