Few business processes have as significant an impact on an organization and its customers as order-to-cash (O2C). It is the primary portal into how customers view their experience, and it influences a broad range of internal functions. Improvements to O2C processes can improve the customer experience and the organization’s operations.

In today’s turbulent business environment, customers have higher expectations of speed and service, and transparency in their transactions. It is O2C that drives an organization’s internal response to these new, heightened customer expectations.

Digital Supply Chain Institute and American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) examined how 177 organizations manage and improve their order-to-cash (O2C) processes during turbulent times.

Here are just a few of the key takeaways:

• Ensure high-quality master data, which is foundational for an effective O2C process.
• Increase automation beginning with RPA and moving to ML and AI.
• Centralize end-to-end process ownership.
• Standardize the order-to-cash process.
• Establish common goals and measurements for all stakeholders.
• Enable order visibility and transparency for sellers and customers.

Download the full report here.

The most successful enterprises will emerge from the pandemic with nimbler, digitally transformed supply chains, and a heightened focus on meeting the requirements of the “New Customer” — lightning-fast delivery, tailored products, and a superb customer experience. But meeting the expectations of the New Customer will require an enterprise to excel in supply chain performance and at order fulfillment to ensure their operating and financial models support each other.

The Order-To-Cash (O2C) process is the end-to-end set of business processes starting with the receipt and fulfillment of a customer order through invoice and cash collection. Effectively managing the O2C process can be a key differentiating factor for B2B and B2C businesses in today’s demanding markets. Alternatively, errors in the O2C process can impact lead times, inventory, shipments, cash flow, and of course, customer satisfaction.

To share best practices and key learnings for the O2C process, the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) is conducting joint research with APQC, a leading authority in benchmarking, best practices, and process improvement.

This research will advance the understanding of supply chain and O2C interdependencies and customer impact. “Excellent execution of the Order-to-Cash process allows an enterprise to truly understand the needs of their customers, and to translate those needs into supply chain requirements,” said Kathy Colucci, a DSCI Fellow.

By surveying more than 150 senior executives of large global companies, DSCI and APQC will be able to understand how they are handling their O2C process in terms of governing, measuring, automating, and improving it as an end-to-end process. We will identify the practices that lead to better results.

“Order-to-Cash is a critical end-to-end process that, when optimized, creates a seamless value chain from customers to the business, said Marisa Brown, Senior Principal Research Lead at APQC. “We are excited to partner with DSCI on extending our knowledge of current O2C approaches and opportunities.”

In addition to the survey, DSCI and APQC will present several case studies showcasing different steps of the O2C transformation to provide deeper insights and benchmarking for those executives interested to know more.

This initiative is a further commitment by DSCI’s research to focus internal operations on the customer. We are excited to work again with APQC on critical dimensions of our seminal work “Digital Supply Chains: A Frontside Flip.”

The results of this research will be shared over the next few months.

This year as part of our ongoing focus on demand and its centrality to supply chain transformation, the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) conducted a major global survey of business customers and individual consumers and what they expect, need, and want from a supply chain. Both individual consumers and business customers want something different than they wanted even 12 months ago. We call this market dynamic the “New Customer.”

Please read the B2B New Customer survey report, which documents the major changes expected by business customers worldwide from the sidebar. For most companies, meeting the needs of the New Customer will require a restructuring of manufacturing, distribution, demand management, systems infrastructure, and people. You will find this data useful even if your company typically sells to individual consumers. Why? Because business buyers’ behavior and individual consumer’s behavior is increasingly the same! (In case you missed it, here is a LINK to our individual consumer survey results)

Please reach out to Vivek Ghelani (vghelani@thecge.net) if you have any questions or comments.

Download report here.

The Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) and Bain & Company recently conducted an executive survey on supply chain resiliency that cut across industries and geography. What we discovered was far more than we expected.

Here are some of the key findings from the survey:

• Disruption highlighted fundamental weaknesses in demand planning capabilities, with executives expressing dissatisfaction with demand forecast accuracy and prioritizing collaboration with suppliers and customers to improve capabilities.
• Companies are pursuing supply base shifts, looking to increase the proximity of the supply base to customers.
• Recent disruption has created a shift in priorities; investment goals are changing as companies focus on risk mitigation.
• Resilience is a top priority, which most executives associate with flexibility, agility, and visibility.

The survey reached 200 supply chain executives and survey data was collected in July 2020 from direct responses. Survey reached across many industries, such as Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Technology, and many more.

You can download the full report from the sidebar. Please reach out to us at vghelani@thecge.net if you have any questions or would like to have a call to discuss survey results.

Download report here.

Before the coronavirus burst onto the world stage and began changing everyday life for billions of people, businesses in every corner of the globe and every industry were transforming their supply chains to a more efficient and agile digital model.

Now the coronavirus is accelerating that change. Companies in every industry are moving quickly to deploy new business and operating models to secure customer loyalty, determine and fulfill new customer demands, and to make their supply chains more resilient. At the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI), we believe the crisis has ignited a race for advantage and survival and we are working with companies around the world to help them prevail in this changing environment.

Every company’s supply chain has a different level of exposure to coronavirus. However, every company should be doing the following seven things:

• Establish a coronavirus “war room” with cross-functional representation from key departments—sales and marketing, operations, IT and finance—to track and respond to the crisis.
• Assess supply chain risks and determine new options for meeting customer demand
• Review your existing supply chain data model and revise it as necessary to gather information relevant to this new environment of uncertainty and disruption
• Inspect all suppliers (Tiers 1, 2 and 3) and negotiate favorable terms in the face of multiple conflicting demands
• Modify logistics and deliveries to accommodate global travel constraints
• Protect worker safety, potentially with work from home and leave options
• Model the impact of the virus on financial performance and take the necessary measures

The disruption to supply chains caused by the coronavirus will likely last for many months, perhaps longer. Our advice is to treat the impact on supply chains not as an aberration, but as an expected occurrence in a world where political disruptions, health issues, technology advances, and climate change are all happening at the same time. It is a time to adjust your company’s processes to this new reality.

– Christopher Caine, President, Center for Global Enterprise

Christopher G. Caine is President of the Center for Global Enterprise (CGE), a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to the study of the contemporary corporation in the era of global economic integration. The Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) is a non-profit management initiative of CGE focused on the evolution of enterprise supply chains in the digital economy and the creation and practical application of supply chain management best practices.