Discussion

Get Ready for “Social Supply Chains ” When Marc Benioff outlined his vision for the “social enterprise” at last month’s Dreamforce, he described social networks for employees, customers, and products. Being a long -time supply chain analyst, I was surprised that he didn’t talk about social net works for your suppliers. Let me do it for him. This past week I was in the Rocky Mountains to attend E2open ’s annual customer event. As I sat listening to some of the world’s smartest supply chain practitioners talk about the challenges keeping up with an ever -expanding list of new SKUs and new product categories (e.g., tablets), I wondered whether Chatter could be deployed as the preferred collaboration medium between brand ow ners and their top suppliers. After all, it would seem that you would want to capture most or all of the back -and -forth discussions on forecasts, purchase orders, engineering changes, shortages, and other factors versus using email, IM, fax, etc. in th is case, Chatter could be used as a knowledge management system, too. If you’ve been around chief procurement officers for Fortune 100 high tech companies, you know that they tend to be deadly serious people. While many CPOs might read this and spontaneo usly scream “Not in my lifetime!” let me outline a social supply chain scenario for you. Caution: This scenario has a 0% probability Imagine that Marc Benioff and Michael Dell are meeting right now to discuss Marc’s idea for the salesforce.com DealBook, a new tablet designed specifically for business apps. Over lunch, Mr. Dell agrees to license some of his IP and to share his suppliers in exchange for royalties on each unit sold. When Mr. Benioff returns home, he announces the news to his exe cutive team. They immediately create “Project Aloha,” and set up new Chatter streams including “Launch Teams,” “Development Schedules,” “New Product Ideas,” “Tier 1 Suppliers,” “Carriers,” “Competition,” “Sales Forecasts,” and “Cost Targets.” In addition to all internal communications, Chatter also becomes a content repository as third party information such as IHS ’ iSuppli Teardown reports get added for all to share. Next step: Create a social network for suppliers Here’s what could happen next: Wit hin 72 hours an internal team makes the trek down 101 to E2open. Their goal is to get rapid access to the 50,000 suppliers in E2open’s trading network. When they get there they discover that their new partner is a salesforce customer and used Force.com t o write a new application to streamline the onboarding process. A deal is quickly negotiated, but with one condition – Chatter will be the collaboration standard for all supplier interactions. Over the next few weeks and months the network expands from d esign firms, contract manufacturers and Tier 1 partners to include critical suppliers embedded deeper in the supply chain. It also includes selected AppExchange partners who have agreed to provide free 90 -days trials of their software as well. In a short time, Chatter is conveying P.O.s, demand updates, engineering changes, and updated launch information to key suppliers. Then expand to customers/partners Thanks to the network, the sales team soon has DealBook prototypes that they can preview to selec ted carriers, retailers, and customers. Verizon and BestBuy ask salesforce.com to create a shared partner network built around Chatter. They want to begin training employees and creating marketing plans ahead of the launch. As word begins leaking out a bout Project Aloha, salesforce.com turns to its Radian6 team to monitor the buzz. This gets shared over Chatter to the employee, supplier, and partner networks. Leveraging Chatter on the day of the launch On launch day, salesforce.com sends its employees out to key retail sites to track the success of the new DealBook. Immediately, the field begins submitting videos of the lines outside the store and interviews with customers and the retail employees. Messages are coming in on product sales and competit ive responses. Every comment is recorded on the new Chatter Map and arranged by geography. As the first batch of DealBooks quickly sells out, salesforce.com sets up a new Chatter stream to track re -sale prices and volumes on eBay and Craigslist . Meanw hile, marketing has created a new social network for the DealBook itself. Customers log on to download the video of the Metallica performance at Dreamforce. They also post their ideas on new features they want to see in DealBook2 as well as their views o n how the new tablet stacks up against the iPad. Thousands post YouTube videos and Like it on Facebook . What do you think? Still sitting there with your arms folded muttering “Not in my lifetime”?