Another turbulent year in logistics is coming to an end, with a relief in freight rates on the one hand side, but yet again new disruptions on the other, such as the Panama Canal drought, and increasing attacks in the Suez Canal, which have to be mitigated on top. So it is more important than ever for shippers to have a streamlined way to collaborate with carriers, and access to advanced, global visibility into order fulfillment across any mode of transportation. We’ve come a long way, with rounding off our transportation mode coverage in SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace (road, parcel, ocean, air) and SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration (road, ocean, air) – as our SVP & Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer, SAP Business Network Tony Harris just recently stated in response to the question whether supply chain management is the toughest it has ever been “Today’s supply chain challenges are huge. But the tools we have to overcome these challenges are better than ever.”

What SAP Business Network brings to the table has just been acknowledged in IDC’s brand-new vendor report on Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Networks, featuring SAP’s profound portfolio across procurement, supply chain, logistics, asset and finance.

I specifically want to highlight the following two recent innovations in SAP Business Network for Logistics:

1. Gain insight-to-action for in-transit shipment risks and threats within the SAP Business Network, intelligent insights add-on:Supply chain professionals can now survey all their shipments in-transit, enriched by 3rd party risk data from Everstream, to detect supply chain disruptions early and mitigate related risks before these escalate. This nicely rounds off our logistics execution monitor, which covers inbound, outbound as well as intra-company goods movements alike. Watch this video to get an impression of how that looks like in action, and read the related blog if you’re interested in business benefits you can achieve managing your inbound goods flow.
2. Achieve better control of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions through an enhanced technical interface and an enticing user experience within SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace:Capturing emissions across the board is a key requirement in companies’ sustainability efforts: to meet scope 3 requirements, companies need to account for transportation emissions of all involved up- and downstream activities. However, only few carriers can provide actual emission data today. To close this gap, calculated data can be leveraged. So either your carriers provide actuals, or you can leverage data from visibility providers such as Shippeo, with whom an out-of-the-box integration has been set up.

Let’s also celebrate the success of the following companies:

• Al Dahra, who established a logistical control tower with the goal to achieve 100% visibility, and brought a two-digit number of carriers to the network

• Blue Diamond Growers, who were able to improve their customer-order fill rate to an impressive 99%

Lastly, I would like to reiterate that digitizing logistics collaboration benefits shippers and carriers alike. I’m glad that this year the network effect has really kicked in, and more and more logistics service providers follow suite to what C.H. Robinson has proven earlier, based on the guidance SAP provides.

Make sure you subscribe to the SAP Business Network for Logistics Blogs on SAP.COM to get more details and stay up-to-date.

Happy holidays, and to a bright new year 2024!