A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, including the supply chain. When businesses extend their operations beyond traditional parameters and collaborate with their partners and suppliers to share information and processes, the entire supply chain process and everyone participating in it increases efficiency. This arrangement is known as an extended enterprise system.
What Is an Extended Enterprise System?
An extended enterprise system (EES) is a business system that extends beyond the boundaries of a single company. It allows companies to share data and collaborate on tasks across organizational boundaries. EESs can be used for a variety of purposes, including supply chain management.
The term “extended enterprise” was originally trademarked in 1999 by the Chrysler Corporation as follows:
Extending business relationships by providing process management consultations and workshops to… suppliers and supplier tiers in order to reduce cycle time, to minimize system cost and to improve the quality of the goods or services provided by the suppliers.
When implemented correctly, an EES can help companies to better manage their supply chains. It can allow businesses to share information about suppliers, inventory, and order status, improving efficiency and reducing costs.
What Are the Benefits of Using an Extended Enterprise System?
An EES can help businesses run more efficiently by improving communication and coordination between departments and organizations. Here are four ways that using an EES can help your business run more efficiently:
1. Improved communication between company departments. By sharing information electronically, businesses can eliminate the need for manual input and reduce the chances of errors. This improved communication can help departments work more efficiently together and make it easier to track inventory and customer orders.
2. Improved communication with suppliers and distributors. EES can help businesses streamline their ordering process and facilitate communication with all parties involved in the supply chain process.
3. Improved decision-making. An extended enterprise system can help businesses make better decisions by providing real-time information on inventory levels, order status, and supplier performance. This can help businesses optimize their operations and respond quickly to changes in the market.
4. Better visibility. An EES expedites real-time collaboration between you and your vendors, offering improved transparency regarding costs, transportation, warehouse activity, and inventory, and it allows all involved parties to collaborate to improve supply chain logistics. With an EES, you can continuously manage product movement with partners, including eleventh-hour inventory shuffling to accommodate adjustments in customer demand.
Unlocking the Potential of Your Supply Chain
An extended enterprise system is pivotal to unlocking the potential of your supply chain. By automating key business processes and connecting with your customers and suppliers in new ways, you can gain efficiency and improve your bottom line. With the right extended enterprise system in place, you can easily run your business and take it to new heights.
CloudLogix offers all the tools you need for an extended enterprise system in our platform, including order management, carrier visibility, invoice management, real-time reporting, configurable settings, a robust search engine, a secure platform, and custom roles for vendors, operators, site admins, client admins, and accounting personnel.
Contact CloudLogix today for a demo of our system!
