EY, Kinaxis Link Up For Supply Chain Digitization

Professional services and accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) and supply chain management firm Kinaxis are joining forces to modernize their joint customers’ supply chains, the companies said in a press release on Tuesday (Jan. 8).

EY U.K. and Kinaxis will jointly provide supply chain services to facilitate planning, data management and connections between supply chain partners via EY’s consulting, automation and digitization services, alongside Kinaxis’ supply chain planning platform and machine learning offerings.

“Companies with complex supply chains face considerable planning challenges in the form of demand volatility, market uncertainty and unprecedented levels of change,” said EY Global and Americas Supply Chain Leader Glenn Steinberg in a statement. “Supply chains must meet customer service levels at the lowest cost and with the highest operational efficiencies, in ways that are agile, flexible and efficient.”

“The complexity and continuing evolution of supply chain planning require experienced change management, process re-engineering, data integration and implementation capabilities,” added Kinaxis Chief Revenue Officer Paul Carreiro in another statement. “The integrated and collaborative EY approach to serving [its] clients aligns with our philosophy and our capabilities to help achieve a consolidated view of the entire supply chain so that clients can plan expected performance, monitor progress and respond to disconnects.”

Their partnership follows the publishing of a report by American Shipper, sponsored by U.S. Bank and Amber Road, which found that corporates continue to rely on legacy tools like Excel to manage their supply chains.

“The development and deployment of technology in supply chain is advancing at an exponential rate,” wrote American Shipper Managing Editor Ben Meyer in the report’s introduction, “but the industry is still often derided as slow to adopt and adapt.”

The survey found that 17 percent of companies have not adopted any digital supply chain tools, while 13 percent said all their supply chain processes are entirely manual.