SupplyChain Magazine March 2018 | Page 16

INTERVIEW

mature they want to manage different tiers of suppliers , for example they may need to source exotic materials such as titanium , and will want to balance the use of that across their suppliers to get the best deal .” VanLowe asserts that Exostar can offer cloud delivery that helps its customers avoid expensive ERP transformations while delivering a rapid ROI and remaining compliant . VanLowe ’ s colleague Tim Zullo , Exostar ’ s Corporate Marketing Director , has two decades of experience working in the supply chain arena for industrial manufacturers , and highlights the challenge this poses when working in a highly-regulated industry such as A & D . “ The necessary secure access for viewing data makes it incredibly challenging to adopt cloud solutions ,” he notes . “ A & D has lagged behind so we ’ ve been taking these technologies and moving them into Exostar . We ’ re a managed host service company so we can provide those cloud services in a secure manner , which meets those regulatory requirements because you can ’ t take your direct spend when you ’ re building missiles and stick it in Cooper and do
your sourcing and procurement from there – it just isn ’ t going to fly . Exostar sidesteps the quandary companies usually face such as do you put it on-prem , use your legacy systems or do it all manually via encrypted emails ? “ By working with us , companies can create that safe digital connection ,” Zullo assures . “ It ’ s those controls we have which set us apart and ensure our security levels meet certain standards , so we can become an extension of their enterprise . We ’ re providing offschedule information , sharing with
16 March 2018