Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Jul 2013)
ASPECTS REGARDING THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ASSURANCE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE
Abstract
This paper is intended to outline the importance of e-logistics programs, based on the new information technologies and successful e-business applications in the case of Romanian companies that activate in the production and services field, namely producers, suppliers or distributors. The redesigning of the logistic system and the reconfiguration of the supply chain management (SCM) challenge the firms, especially the small ones, to explore new e-business applications, on the basis of feasibility studies before getting implemented. For a long time, firms considered that commercial changes are the last solution to resolve SCM problems, however many supply chains have been a failure. The explanation resides in the fact that a number of companies that had integrated their supply chains noticed that there was little or no response to the existing requests in this field. Although commercial changes represent an important part of Business to Business programs, actually very few managers understand the way to deal with them, which is integrating them in e-business programs. This paper outlines the companies’ need to develop e-business programs and the importance of these programs for the whole supply chain to obtain performances, taking into account that many firms that get integrated in the supply chain lack the technological capacity to implement electronic means for processing, transmitting and receiving data. One remedy might be their initiative to use Business to Business programs, with the purpose to offer easily configurable optimized networks and interactive solutions based on Web, at competitive prices. This system should have different assisting functions to help the partners of a supply chain, especially the small firms, to easily integrate up-to-date management and informational system refinement methods, in an efficient and effective way. As it has been pointed out in the paper, a major role for the enhancement of SCM performances is information technology such as Internet and ERP systems. Internet offers important opportunities to all partners from the supply chain to get information about consumption tendencies and changes in consumption request, virtual information about a product and the clients’ requests regarding the logistic services. As for ERP systems, it can be said that they mostly influence the designing of business processes, in order to assure coherence between them and the effective integration of different firm components. Even though the internal integration is an important aspect, an approach to management at the supply chain level, in an efficient and effective way, cannot be done without external integration with suppliers and clients. That is why we consider that companies belonging to the business field must focus on structuring key processes, to collaborate with their clients and suppliers and to integrate their internal systems, with the aim to support business operations.
