Businesses needs end-to-end visibility in supply chain solutions, study finds

With supply chains continually under pressure to keep commerce moving, companies need supply chain solutions that can provide end-to-end visibility, show value and a quick return on investment.

According to the "The Total Economic Impact of Blue Yonder Luminate", a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Blue Yonder in January 2022, Blue Yonder's SaaS-based solutions do just that.

The financial analysis from the study found that companies had a net present value (NPV) of $59.79 million and a return on investment (ROI) of 394%. Most companies saw a ROI in less than six months.

The study included interviews with nine decision-makers with experience using Blue Yonder's  solutions including Luminate Logistics – warehouse management and transportation management – Luminate Control Tower, Luminate Commerce, and Luminate Planning.

"To truly digitally transform your supply chain, companies need end-to-end visibility, demand planning, omni-channel commerce, and execution capabilities," says Vidhya Srinivasan, senior vice president, Platform and Portfolio Marketing at Blue Yonder.

"Our Luminate solutions, backed by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), provide our customers with data-driven insights to make smarter, more profitable decisions, allowing them to predict and pivot in times of disruption," he says.

"We believe Forrester TEI study underscores that customers utilising our SaaS-based solutions realise real-world value in the form of strong NPV and ROI, as well as a quick return on investment. The customer quotes in the study tell the real story," Srinivasan says.

An eCommerce fulfillment director at a fashion retailer shared, "DC labor shortages and high-demand events put stress on fulfilling orders. For us, a backlog of over seven days is a real problem, and we oftentimes will send the item but not charge the guest for it. We have considered restricting the inventory we advertise on our website in the past. With Blue Yonder, this is no longer a worry.

A director at Global Sourcing interviewed by Forrester Consulting also adds, "Our top implementation risks were business continuity and maintaining service levels, which were quite high already.

"The implementation [ran] very well, so business continuity was not an issue. Very early on, we saw an improvement of on-time shipments from 98% to 98.7%. This led to reduced penalties for late delivery that could be as high as 5% of net sales."

Based on the calculations for a $10 billion company constructed by Forrester as part of the study based on seven of the decision-makers' organisations, the financial benefits of Blue Yonder's Luminate solutions include:

• Labor productivities totalling $31.2 million.
• Transportation costs reduced by $14.1 million.
• Markdown reduction driving margin improvement of $15.3 million.
• Out-of-stock inventory reduction resulting in margin increase of $6.5 million.
• eCommerce labor, software and IT productivities of nearly $1.4 million.