Cupertino, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/20/2013 -- Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of an interconnected or interlinked between network, channel and node businesses involved in the provision of product and service packages required by the end customers in a supply chain. Narayan Laksham, Ultriva’s Founder and CEO, recently discussed the importance of customer relationships in the supply chain. Laksham noted, “I’m confident there is no more important supply chain trend for 2014 than customer relationship management. Even though it would be great to always get end users consumption patterns, it is unrealistic as sometimes they are multiple tiers away from the end consumer. For thousands of manufacturing companies, the customers could be OEMs, dealers, retail distribution channels, or the end user.”

Ultriva therefore recommends multi-tier touch points with each loop interacting with the immediate preceding customer. If there is a distribution channel, the plant should interface with central DC whereas central DC will interface with regional DCs while regional DCs will interface with retail outlets.

There are advantages of this kind of relationship management including a granular level of consumption patterns instead of a consolidated demand which can hide individual nuances can have a direct impact on customer relationship management.

Tara Duggan of Demand Media recently reported in the Houston Chronicle, “By coordinating the flow of work from vendors to manufacturers and then from distributors to retailers, effective supply management techniques reduce inventory and ensure product availability when required. Customer relationship management programs are used to ensure parts and service get to customers when needed after sales are completed by automating business processes used for sales, service and support. Integrate supply chain management and customer relationship management functions to maximize operations.”

Better customer relationship management is improved when the demand response time is considerably reduced and can lead to improved service levels. In fact there is often a direct correlation to proximity (shorter lead time), which translates to a more consistent demand pattern.

To read the entire blog click to link: http://web.ultriva.com/ultriva-blog/bid/96036/Thought-Leader-Narayan-Laksham-s-2014-Supply-Chain-Predictions.

About Ultriva
Ultriva (http://www.ultriva.com) empowers leading industrial, automotive, healthcare, aerospace, and defense businesses to operate more effectively and collaboratively by providing real time visibility and targeted actionable intelligence into inventory and material flows. Ultriva’s cloud-based platform leverages and seamlessly integrates with leading ERP and MRP systems, to deliver an end to end pull based replenishment model for 21st century enterprises such as ATK, CareFusion, Emerson, Ingersoll Rand, McKesson, Magellan, Regal Beloit, Thermo Fisher and more. Ultriva is a privately held, growing software company based in Cupertino, California. Follow Ultriva on Twitter at @Ultriva.

Ultriva, Inc.
http://www.ultriva.com
Cynthia Leonard
Marketing Executive
cynthial@ultriva.com
408.961.2495