SupplyChain Magazine October 2018 | Page 32

LEADERSHIP
32 technology , Kirchner says that the majority of companies are attempting to work from the most rudimentary business systems .
“ The media hype is huge , but the reality is that we ’ re a long way from blockchain and the like being used in a widespread manner – companies might say differently but it ’ s just not true .”
“ What we ’ ve seen with our customers is that their operating system of record for most businesses is Microsoft Excel , which means that their needs from a software point of view are much lower than the latest and greatest cuttingedge technology .
“ So , we ’ ve shifted our focus slightly : our starting point is to get all of this information out of spreadsheets and email , so that multiple companies or even separate business units within a company can truly collaborate in a far more efficient manner . We ’ ve gained a huge amount of traction in this space , which has nothing to do with technologies like blockchain .”
Once data streams are amalgamated and digitised , Slync ’ s platform uses predictive analytics and AI to produce predictive ETAs and exceptions using data history , and information such as trade lane trends .
“ We ’ re really flipping companies on their heads by using predictive analytics or using AI to generate workflows ,” says Kirchner . “ Companies are able to see if target shipment dates are acceptable – a day either side of a date is okay , but not anything more than that – so it is enabling them to act a lot faster and react if they see a problem looming . That sort of capability , as well as things

“ It ’ s AI that ’ s going to be the leading technology , because it is going to drive Robotic Process Automation , general workflow and digitisation ”

— Chris Kirchner , CEO of Slync
OCTOBER 2018