Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) has released a series of updates to its supply chain applications as the business software giant looks to stay competitive in the buzzy world of logistics IoT, machine-learning and global compliance software.
“If you wind your memory back one year ago, pre-COVID, one of things that was appearing on the front page was trade agreements and impacts on the supply chain,” said Derek Gittoes, Oracle’s vice president of supply chain management product strategy, commenting on the backdrop for one of the updates.
Since Brexit, tariffs and other trade agreements “were and are a big deal,” Oracle decided to introduce a feature to help customers comply with rules of origin criteria — stating how much of a product must be manufactured domestically — across hundreds of different trade deals.
Oracle can now conduct an analysis on any particular good, Gittoes told FreightWaves, and let customers know if they will get preferential duty treatment. “We can say: ‘This widget meets the threshold for the trade agreement.’”
Machine learning, IoT extend platform capabilities
Oracle releases quarterly updates to its Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) application, a set of tools that help businesses plan and execute on logistics decisions, making processes more efficient and meeting customers’ increasingly stringent demands for on-time delivery and service.
The Austin, Texas-based software giant (the company relocated from Silicon Valley in December) joins dozens of legacy and venture-backed companies that have forged a lucrative industry aimed at digitizing supply chains, and more recently bringing in the power of AI and machine-learning to create data-driven and predictive analytics solutions.
Marching forward in that realm, Oracle has released a machine-learning improvement that helps customers accurately predict transit times, reducing costs associated with unplanned delays by upwards of 65% — a significant improvement that could shave days off trans-Atlantic shipment travel times, Gittoes noted.
Another update takes a more granular approach to shipment monitoring and visibility. Previously, Oracle had the ability to monitor the truck or vehicle, but the new capability allows customers to attach sensors and monitor individual pallets, totes and even individual items, according to Gittoes.
Rounding out the new capabilities are an enhanced logistics chatbot to interact with customers about orders; an ocean enhancement tool helping customers automate transactions with ocean carriers; and a 3D Load configuration editor that allows customers to manage container-based shipments and how they are loaded.
These updates are part of Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) and Oracle Global Trade Management (GTM), both of which are part of Oracle Cloud SCM.
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