The Pros to Know Award recognizes supply chain executives along with manufacturing and non-manufacturing enterprises who are leading initiatives to help prepare companies’ supply chains for the significant challenges of today’s business climate. Josh Green was named a 2014 Provider Pro to Know, which honors individuals from software firms and service providers, consultancies or academia, who have helped their supply chain clients or the supply chain community at large prepare to meet these challenges.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive recognized Josh and the entire Panjiva team for pushing the boundaries of how companies can (and should) leverage data to identify and monitor trading partners across the globe. By working to increase the efficiency and transparency of global trade, Josh and Panjiva hope to positively impact the entire supply chain community.

At Panjiva, we incorporate data from a wide variety of sources and we’re constantly updating our offerings to make the supply chain and global trade more transparent and efficient. An example of this is the recently announced visualization tool, Network View, which provides a fast and easy snapshot of a company’s entire trading network.

The entire list of winners will be featured in the March issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive. A big congrats to Josh for this accomplishment!

We’ve been rather outspoken at Panjiva that manufacturing is gradually transitioning away from China. In addition to moving to other Asian countries, it will also be moving to Latin America. For North American buyers in particular, Latin America is a viable option: buyers can source closer to home, the logistics are simpler, and much of the infrastructure and expertise is already in place. In fact, according to an HSBC analysis, U.S. imports from Mexico may soon exceed U.S. imports from China.

To support this shift in global trade, we’re proud to announce that we’ve added Latin America to Panjiva’s comprehensive customs data package.

This means access to a wealth of information—more than 60 million records—that will help buyers determine if Latin America may be a good sourcing destination for their business. Through Panjiva’s existing, intuitive search platform, customers can find the names of companies that are importing and exporting, product details, FOB values, and HS codes of products. The records cover ocean freight trade data as well as air and truck shipments dating back to 2007.

We are constantly on the hunt for new data that will help make global trade more efficient and more transparent.  Last month, we announced a partnership with ThomasNet that finally put American manufacturers on Panjiva. Today, we add Latin American trade data for Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay (with more Latin American countries coming soon).  But we’re not stopping there. We’re working on the latest—and arguably greatest—data set now that we’ll be unveiling right here in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!

Nick had some interesting thoughts on supplier communication, which we’ve shared below.

Q.    We hear a lot about challenges US companies face communicating with overseas suppliers. Do you hear the same, and why do you think—especially in today’s digitally-connected world—this is still such a big hurdle?

Yes. It is a topic that cannot be avoided because it really comes down to dealing with the realities of the world. The way people communicate is just not the same everywhere. There are eight or nine common languages spoken, plus countless others that serve as a barrier in more remote areas. Language, though, is just the basic layer.

The process for communicating is also different. Email, fax, phone and Excel are still the preferred technologies of many organizations – spreadsheets are still the most commonly used B2B collaboration and information exchange format, despite decades of advancement of EDI and XML. This leads to latency and process synchronization issues that require time and patience to fix. You have to slowly wean people on to new ways of communicating. Because communications will always revert to the path of least resistance, the easiest way for people to engage – so we have to cater to human nature.

Q.    Would you agree that information sharing—or a lack of it—is just as challenging? Does it go hand-in-hand with the communication issue, or is it a separate problem that needs to be addressed in the supply chain? 

They do go hand-in-hand and both are a challenge. Consider a recent statistic I heard that said a company’s trading partner master data changes every eight seconds on average. How are these changes communicated, from the supplier to the company, and then internally across the company, to the stakeholders who rely on this information to conduct commerce? Then how are the changes synchronized in internal systems, so we are all looking at the same supplier profile consistently?

People will try to get by with whatever tools they have at their disposal, leaving massive productivity and efficiency gains on the table very frequently, because they don’t have adequate information management tools on hand.  Information sharing amongst trading partners still has a long way to go, to be even close to good.

In a recent conversation with a CEO from a big technology company, he complained that he didn’t think he could send a greeting card to all of his suppliers even if he wanted to because they don’t have up-to-date addresses, emails or fax numbers for each of them. If it’s impossible for his team to achieve something that simple, then how can they be expected to orchestrate a product recall, manage spend, enforce product safety, deal with a supply chain emergency, or even just better engage them more profitably day to day? Something needs to change.

Q.    Social networking has certainly won over the mainstream public. But is the supply chain industry really ready to embrace it?  What’s the role of companies like Panjiva and GXS in making this a reality?

 There is no reason to go social in the supply chain just for the sake of it. That said, there are tangible values for social networking and technologies depending on which departments are using it and who they are trying to engage.

Gartner once told us that ‘suppliers aren’t your friends’, and ‘we’re not going to share pictures of our cats with our suppliers’.  And they have a point.  Commerce isn’t social for the sake of social; it’s about structured collaboration and for many its arm’s length.  However, social collaboration tools ARE bleeding into the supply chain.

Buyers are like the mirror image of sales people, and so why don’t we empower them with the same tools we give to sales people, to more effectively manage relationships – after all, procurement in the new economy is ALL about relationships.  Buyer support teams don’t need to get social with supplier finance and supply chain operations departments, but couldn’t we make the tools that they use every day to eradicate issues, deal with discrepancies, recover over-payments and manage performance more collaborative – more BUSINESS social?

Q.    GXS acquired RollStream in March of 2011. Can you tell us about the deal and how it’s helping to solve communications and supplier management issues?

RollStream was a new technology acquisition we completed in April 2011, after a rewarding two year partnership.  This technology is exciting, because it moves GXS beyond systems-to-systems integration, and delivers a new layer of human-to-human integration.

Total supply chain integration is not only about systems any more.  To release the next level of gains in our supply chain, we need to align the people, process and information flow that happen around the transactions.  That’s what RollStream is all about.

RollStream offers totally net new return on investment options for our customers.  By streamlining how we communicate, share information with suppliers, onboard them faster and deal with issues more rapidly, we are seeing huge returns.

Q.    What needs to happen for the different players in the supply chain—buyers, suppliers, technology vendors, etc—to come together and make social communication an everyday part of supply chain management?

At an industry level, this is going to require standards and consistent ways to define what a company is, and numbering systems that we already have (e.g. Duns Numbers, GS1 GLNs etc.).

At a company level it is just a simple realization that the key 8 or 9 departments who manage suppliers are looking at fragmented and siloed information about suppliers.  Yes, there’s a supplier master file, and master data, but master data just got fatter in the last 25 years and this has gotten out of control.   Internal departments need to come together and be on the same page, around a single view (profile) about each and every trading partner, and that view includes every piece of information they may need to know about the company, including risk data, spend data, credentials and quality certifications, relationship history, time sensitive materials etc. This kind of central information profile has the power to become the cornerstone of all supplier communications, and in my opinion that is where we are headed.

Once you have this kind of profile, all the other tools can be built on top of it. Think of it as a digital filing cabinet where information is constantly added and available to anyone with access. I’m excited to be at GXS because we’re helping the supply chain do this and as a result, are taking communication to the next level.

In the past, incidents like these have served as catalysts for positive change.  Will it be the same this time?  Yes, particularly if the sourcing community embraces two inconvenient truths:

1) This is not an isolated problem

It will be tempting to write off this incident as one-of-a-kind.  However, if pressed, most sourcing professionals will admit that “compliance” problems are widespread in global manufacturing.  Why don’t we hear more about these problems?  Because the only people interested in exposing these problems have limited power (those physically harmed), limited attention span (the press), or limited financial resources (NGOs).

Press and NGOs tend to focus their investigative efforts on big companies, which make big targets.  But these big companies — whether motivated by a desire to make a positive difference or a desire to protect their brands — have made the most progress in addressing compliance problems.  Yes, sometimes the big companies get caught doing something wrong, but it’s a good bet that the vast majority of abuses of people and the environment are happening in the supply chains of small and medium size companies, which are not under constant scrutiny and which lack the resources to effectively monitor manufacturers around the world.

2) Technology is not keeping up with changes in the sourcing organization

The role of the sourcing organization has expanded dramatically over the last few decades.  Today’s sourcing professional has to do much more than find low-cost suppliers of goods and services; indeed, s/he has to cope with an array of risks that come with doing business across borders (political, macro-economic, environmental, ethical, legal, etc.).  Unfortunately, as the role of the sourcing professional has changed, the tools at his/her disposal have basically remained the same.  Those tools?  Middle-men (that will check out a factory on your behalf) and airplanes (that will get you to a factory in case you want to do it yourself).

Given the many technology advances of the last few decades, why do today’s sourcing professionals not have better tools for tackling their many challenges?  In particular, why are there not more effective risk-management tools for companies of all sizes?  Primarily because we have failed to recognize the dangers of pervasive global supply chain risk and, as a result, we have failed to imagine how technology can be leveraged to manage risk.

But technology, while not a cure-all, CAN be leveraged to help sourcing professionals do their increasingly complex jobs — and, in particular, manage risk.  For instance, technology can help organizations capture information from a variety of stakeholders and intelligently use this information to spot risky behavior.  More on this in future posts.  In the meantime, I would love to hear your ideas for how technology can help sourcing professionals (josh@panjiva.com).  As they say in DC these days — we must not let this crisis go to waste.

Silicon Alley Insider: “Now, Panjiva is trying to make its service more useful to a broader audience by allowing other companies to build their data — for paying customers, via an ‘app store’-like revenue sharing deal — into Panjiva’s search engine of global suppliers.  Through August 31, the company is accepting nominations for its new onPanjiva program.”

VentureBeat: “The new service, called onPanjiva, is letting any other data provider, such as governments, credit bureaus and non-profit organizations, apply to integrate its data with Panjiva’s service…  For businesses looking to be included, Panjiva says it hopes to use its service to drive revenue to those partners.”

SpendMatters: “It’s not too often that you see true creativity on a continuous basis in the procurement space… [But Panjiva] has risen to the forefront of the market from a mindshare and ideas perspective in just a matter of months…  I’m pulling for them, because if they can make [onPanjiva] work, it will have a tremendous positive impact on procurement organizations when it comes to acquiring supplier content to better manage supplier information and supplier relationships.”

About.com: “The first company to nominate an information provider that ultimately publishes its information onPanjiva will receive one-year’s worth of free access to information from this provider. Information providers can also nominate themselves for inclusion onPanjiva.”

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: “‘Just as the App Store connects iPhone users with applications they want, onPanjiva connects global businesses with relevant information they need to engage in global trade and mitigate supply chain risk,’ said James Psota, Panjiva co-founder and chief technology officer.”

The back-story…  Over the last few years, as we published profiles of the hundreds of thousands of companies engaged in global trade, we learned two things:

1. Our clients, global trade decision-makers, always want more information — and more kinds of information.
2. There are so many sources of information out there!

Over the last several months, the entire Panjiva team has made a concerted effort to connect our clients with more information, and more kinds of information. We announced deals with financial information provider Sinosure, social responsibility standard-setters SAI and WRAP, and illicit trade red flagger deKieffer & Horgan.

In addition to forging relationships with these information providers, we have invested in technology — the technology to take all these data sources and integrate them seamlessly. You can see the results of these efforts in the newly upgraded Panjiva Search.

But, really, we’ve only scratched the surface. onPanjiva represents the next step in our efforts to connect global trade decision-makers with the information they need. With your help, we will be identifying information providers whose data should be onPanjiva. We will move quickly to give our clients access to this valuable data — and, in so doing, give information providers the benefit of a broader audience for their data.

Lately we’ve been calling onPanjiva, “an App Store for Global Trade.” Just as the App Store connects iPhone users with applications they want, the onPanjiva program connects global trade decision-makers with the information they need.

The analogy isn’t perfect. In the first integration cycle (applications due by August 31st), we will be starting small, with a focus on quality. Information providers interested in being onPanjiva will fill out applications and provide data samples. Panjiva’s business development team, in consultation with our clients, will then choose a small number of data sources to integrate into Panjiva Search during the fourth quarter of 2009. In future cycles, we will expand the number of data sources eligible for integration.

Of course, the onPanjiva program only works with the participation of those who believe, as we do, that connecting decision-makers with information is the key to transforming global trade. If you know of an organization with valuable information, we hope that you will take 30 seconds to nominate this information provider to be onPanjiva. And if you are an information provider, we encourage you to nominate yourself.

Note: if you are the first to nominate an information provider to be onPanjiva — and that information provider ultimately publishes information onPanjiva — you will receive a year of free access to this information!

Want to learn more about the onPanjiva program? Check out http://on.panjiva.com.

BusinessWeek:  “Panjiva uses algorithms to clean up and analyze data to score suppliers on, for instance, whether business is growing, stable, or declining. ‘We take multiple data sources and triangulate them to see if they are telling you the same story,’ says Psota, 29, chief technology officer.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/06/0627_fresh_entrepreneurs/3.htm

BusinessWeek: “Panjiva plans to launch a function this summer that will allow sources to apply to add data to the platform to create a richer pool and ‘democratize the availability of information,’ says Green. ‘There are a lot of companies doing innovative things and we’ll accomplish more by harnessing their innovations to serve clients.'”
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/06/data_packaged_u.html

deKieffer & Horgan – Red Flag Suppliers

deKieffer & Horgan will provide Panjiva subscribers with information that will make it easier to steer clear of counterfeiters, diverters, and other companies engaged in illicit activities.  deKieffer & Horgan’s mission is to provide timely, reliable legal advice that will help their clients compete successfully in international business by ensuring adherence to the law and promoting effective interaction with the responsible government agencies.  Over the last 15 years, deKieffer & Horgan has compiled the EDDI database, which contains an astounding amount of information about companies that have engaged in illicit activities — information that will soon be accessible to Panjiva subscribers.

Social Accountability International (SAI) – Certified Suppliers

Social Accountability International (SAI) will provide Panjiva subscribers with information that will make it easier to find socially responsible manufacturers.   SAI is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving workplaces and communities by developing and implementing social responsibility standards and assisting brands, retailers and suppliers in meeting labor and human rights objectives.  Soon, Panjiva subscribers will be able to focus their searches on manufacturers that have been certified as being compliant with the SA8000 standard established by SAI.

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) – Certified Suppliers

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) will provide Panjiva subscribers with information that will make it easier to find socially responsible manufacturers.  WRAP is a non-profit organization dedicated to the certification of lawful, humane and ethical manufacturing throughout the world, based on 12 Production Principles focusing on compliance with local laws, workplace regulations, universal workers’ rights, the environment, customs rules and security.  Soon, Panjiva subscribers will be able to focus their searches on manufacturers that have been certified as being WRAP-compliant.

“Multinational corporations and their manufacturing partners in emerging markets need to rethink how they manage their relationships with each other in light of the global downturn.”

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/07/just-how-healthy-is-your-global-partner/ar/1

“With the state of the economy, news orgs like BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal have turned to it [Panjiva] as a bellwether for the health of global trade.”

Read the rest…