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But when you start to think about how you can add more value, you realize that if you can't access the data quick enough, you can't help the business formulate opinions on this or even to help yourself. Vazquez: We've had that business engagement for several years. How has the transformation of the ERP environment helped with this business alignment? Verizon has taken a very proactive approach to integrating a lot of what could be considered part of corporate service or functions into the business operations. We're part of the strategic planning sessions and we're part of standing weekly meetings with senior management. Vazquez: We consider ourselves part of the business and we're integrated with it. Have supply chain and procurement become more strategic in the business organization? It becomes a much simpler sell internally and you can get people organized around it. It actually becomes very exciting to everyone involved when they look at it from this perspective, and here's the vision of what can be. So that compelling case of blockchain implementation or robotic procurement based on demand that's coming cannot happen in the current environment. Once people understand the power of the predictive nature of AI and business intelligence, they clearly understand we have to integrate our systems because, otherwise, it will take forever to get to the data that we're looking for. It's more than 60 people who constantly look at the data from a procurement perspective - how we spend, what we have spent, how we will spend, and work on demand forecasting as opposed to just documenting what happened. Vazquez: One of the big things that we've done is to also create a business and analytics function within our organization. Where are some of the ways the supply chain and procurement organizations can take advantage of next-generation technologies? One of the key factors is the concept of change management and talking to people about how the way that you work changes and showing what the advantages are going forward. It's also critical to be aligned with the IT organization that's supporting that so they understand what's happening.
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When you look at the dollar volume that flows through our processes, it's obvious that there's a natural alignment across the finance and supply chain organizations. The finance organization also sees what the issues are and how we're managing spend. Vazquez: First of all, our approach has been that the supply chain needs to be aligned with the finance organization and it has to be both ways. What's your strategy to make this happen? It's really about improving the efficiency of how you keep track of everything. We do that today, but we go to multiple sources to make that happen. If you want to bring those systems together, you need to get the financial reporting and accountability in one place. We want to build the inventory management systems so we can look across businesses and manage inventory holistically within its own vertical. But that will no longer serve us well as we enter the world of 5G, specifically because it requires a more aggressive type of network build, and it will also require delivery not just of phones and accessories, but also of 5G home fixed wireless, as well as managing the installation of those in their homes. Vazquez: The longer you work in a system that has different ERP systems and different accounting systems, you find ways to have a swivel-chair operation - you find ways to manage through legacy operations. Why are you moving everything to one ERP platform?
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We are very closely aligned on the supply chain side to the finance group we work together in terms of managing and documenting all of the spend. A lot of these programs that we have are SAP products, and that's where we tie those together as we build the one ERP platform with SAP.
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Vazquez: We use several SAP systems, whether it's workforce management or Concur for travel and expenses, finance systems. What supply chain management systems and applications do you run? We ship to our 100 million-plus customers directly, with over 130 million items delivered each year. And we do more than just supply chain we also have sourcing, logistics and inventory management. It's a group of 1,500 professionals in the supply chain organization. Everything in Verizon - holistically and globally - flows through one supply chain organization.