 Hey everyone, welcome to Las Vegas. Lisa Martin here on the ground with the queue about Koopa Inspire 2022. And can you hear the buzz behind me? It is so great to be in person. Nick Bonich joins me, the Chief Revenue Officer and Global Partnership Manager for the Koopa Alliance at MiBot Consulting. Nick, it's great to have you on the program. Thanks for having me, Lisa. First time here at Inspire and it's exciting. Is it exciting? It's great to see this room packed. It is. It feels like the pandemic is finally maybe behind us. Right? Fingers crossed. Talk to us a little bit about MiBot Consulting and a little bit about the Koopa partnerships that the audience gets that understanding of what you guys do. Yeah, I guess we're kind of new to the Koopa ecosystem. You could say we came as part of the acquisition of Lamasoft. So MiBot is a supply chain focus advisory consultancy engineering firm. So we have three different business lines, supply chain strategy, where we do things like supply chain design in the Koopa platform planning inventory, engineering, automation studies and distribution centers with the labor crunch that we're facing right now, as well as we have a digital transformation group that works on getting the decision-making as a supply chain industry into the digital realm and away from Microsoft Excel. Let's talk about the digitization of the supply chain. You know, one of the things that we've seen in the last couple of years is this massive acceleration to digital because businesses in every industry had no choice. But where are, what are the current trends from a digital supply chain perspective? You know, I think the kind of the integration of the compression of the decision-making cycle has really gotten companies to not look at strategic decisions, then operational decisions and tactical decisions and execution. That all has to be compressed now with the volatility we've all been exposed to. I mean, basically for the past 20 years we took the supply chain and turned it into a Swiss watch. It was very long, but very well orchestrated. But with the volatility, with labor issues, with the land war in Europe, this volatility and change is requiring companies to be much more adaptive and they've had to compress that decision cycle down. And the Koopa platform, certainly from a supply chain standpoint, absolutely helps infuse that process to shorten time from question to answer and allow you to address strategic and tactical topics in parallel to one another and not kind of waterfall down over the decision-making process. That's important because these days there is no time for waterfalls. So let's unpack the Koopa supply chain design platform. Talk to me about it, what it does, and how it is helping that acceleration. Yeah, so it's incredibly powerful. And what it allows you to do is create that digital representation. We can take a three-dimensional world and put it into a two-dimensional linear program. And within the same platform we can optimize strategically and take a look at end-to-end type of supply chain decisions, near-shoring, on-shoring, supplier diversification and risk aspects. We can look at it more operationally. We're actually looking at which manufacturing plants should make what? What distribution centers should serve what customers? How do I segment my products? How do I segment my customers? Then within the same modules you can use and go to your inventory optimization. Not only optimize inventory but also simulate it, which gives you phenomenal power in a world where there is so much uncertainty, you can apply risk and those questions of what if, so you're ready. So that way when the thing happens you're not then scrambling to have analysts crunch excel files to see what do you do to normalize inventory levels or normalize your supplier base, you're able to be more proactive with the predictive and prescriptive analytics that the full suite provides for you. That is essential. If that's one of the lessons we've learned in the last couple of years. Not if, but when. Yes. Talk to me about customers that are using the platform. What are some of the, using it well? What are some of the things that they have in common? You know, I think the organizations that are implementing it well look for it. They view it as a real platform. You know, historically supply chain design, network optimization was seen as a tool and companies implemented it as a tool. You purchased licenses, you assigned a couple of people to work on it from your analytical department and you just went with it. This is a very powerful platform to completely revolutionize how you make decisions within your supply chain. And you need to approach it the same way you approach a new warehouse management system, a new planning platform, a new labor management system, the change management aspects, the organizational aspects, the education of stakeholders on what is this, demystifying it so it's not a black box and everybody knows what it can and should do and how best to utilize it. So those organizations that view it as more than a distribution network tool, hey, where do I put my new warehouse? Hey, this lease is coming up in Central Europe, it's coming up in Ohio. Do I extend the lease? Do I need to move? That's like a level zero maturity on our maturity graph. The very mature companies are using it and infusing it both strategically, operational technically and are using it for distribution decisions, transportation decisions around mode selection, production footprint decisions. You have the capability to have a digital twin and by having the other thing companies struggle with is they just build one model. I start out, I buy the product, I get it built in, I move everything to the cloud and then I do a distribution solve for the US. And then the European group says, hey, that was great, that was insightful, can we do the same thing in Europe? And you take that model and then you add Europe into it. And then the production group says, hey, you know, we're thinking about changing some of our make by decisions. Can you model what the effect would be on total cost if we did do some nearshoring? And all of a sudden you turn your one model that you had built for a specific purpose into this Christmas tree where everybody's hanging their ornaments. And what you really need to do is having modeling strategy. What type, you should have a volume, a portfolio of models you can pull from and say, hey, here's our strategic end model. Hey, here's our tactical Asian production models. Hey, here's our total ended cost for top 15% of our customers. And having that set of models, so you have right models to write questions, that's what the companies that are really scaling this and really excelling. And you'll notice a pattern. The companies that are excelling that have the Koopa platform, typically you'll find them on lists like Gartner's Top 25 and things along those lines because it is a very powerful platform when you unlock the art of the possible with it. Sounds like those are companies that are very innovative but where does a company that maybe isn't there yet, how did they start? Because it sounds like there's a tremendous wealth of potential and opportunities that the technology can deliver. Do they have to start with executive buy-in? What do you see as kind of like some of those early steps? This is a change management exercise from the very beginning. So creating that sense of urgency, creating your powerful coalition, you have to start with that. If you view this as, hey, we're going to have a tool, we're going to use this once and then our supply chain's fixed for the next 10 years. I mean, I think most leaders are realizing that those days are long gone that supply chain design has to be a continual topic at the top levels. Supply chain is on the lips of every politician and every board member right now. So this is a wonderful moment for those supply chain leaders that have wanted to infuse a greater level of digital decision making. This is the perfect opportunity. You can get buy-in like you've never had before. Your CFO is probably analyzing labor inflation, fuel inflation rates, disruptions on supply base and you're probably having to deal with the more pressure out of the CFO and his department than you ever had to in the past. We see it with our clients. The pressure is on with those leaders and this allows you to very quickly be much more holistic in that decision making. You're not relying on how good was the analyst that made this Excel file that told you to open up this plant, move this distribution center, serve this customer base in this way. It's not based on how that data looks and how good that analyst was. You're infusing an entire practice into your organization. That's critical because every company these days is a data company. If they're not, they're not going to be around. It's about the ability to have visibility, extract the value from the data to make those data driven decisions because we don't have time. We heard a lot about that from a real time perspective in the keynote this morning. That's table stakes for any organization. Yeah and with the move of the platform to the cloud, as part of the Coupa ecosystem, with the DDM, with the rapid model builder and all those things that come along with it, it will significantly quash the amount of time you have from question to answer. Because the first time you do this, it probably takes four months. And of that four months to ask that question and get an answer, build your model, replicate the 3D world in that 2D environment, over half of that time is spent on cleaning data, building the baseline model, aligning with finance. They peanut butter spread certain aspects of cost onto SKUs and really getting correct cost allocations for A, B, and C SKUs. You spend half your time just playing around with your data to get the model to work right now. Once you have that model, next time, question to answer infinitely quicker, but you have to have a good data strategy. You have to have the right data architecture. If you don't have that specific to supply chain, leaders really need to get on that. Because what we see a lot of times is, organizations will have an enterprise data strategy and they're going to build a data warehouse or a data lake, whatever, I'm a consultant so I'm also guilty of the buzzwords. But we kind of call it the supply chain data pun. You don't need to wait for the whole enterprise to get ready to have all of your data sorted out in a single instance, homogenized, start collecting that supply chain data, have a data strategy around it so that way you can start replicating these things. Then you can feed it back into the enterprise data strategy, but you have to get your data right. It's the old adage, garbage in, garbage out. It's still true to this day no matter how powerful the analytical tools are. We're infusing machine learning, artificial intelligence and some of the solves in the platform. But if you don't have that good data, you're going to struggle. So that's a key piece to it. Getting that executive buy-in and having that right data strategy will set you on a much smoother path to success than if you don't do those things. Right, the data strategy is critical. If not one of the biggest competitive differentiators these days. Where is the chief data officer, the chief digital officer, the chief information officer in these conversations that Mibach is having with customers? Too often not at the forefront enough. Really? Those clients that have that group, have that organization and they have influencing power, those programs go much quicker, much simpler. The rate of adoption, the scalability of the program. All of a sudden you're not thinking about what am I going to do with one or two analysts interacting with the product. You're now developing apps. You have your planners interfacing with it. You have capacity managers interacting with the digital model. Those that don't have that do have much more impetus because it's always the adage of well IT and what do we do and our data's a mess. We have this data program and our IT resources are super constrained. So you have to bring those people to the table. You have to have them part of the conversation because they can be an incredible enabler if you bring them and get them bought in. That's a great point of those enablers and especially given the fact that nobody has extra time to waste here. This is, everything is so fast moving. You mentioned supply chain being on the lips of every politician. Some, everybody's lips. Everybody's expecting some delivery that is delayed for whatever reason. I mean, 12 years ago when I started with the firm and people, oh what is the firm doing? I'm like, oh, we're a global supply chain consultancy and they're like, what? Yeah. Now everybody knows and they're like, oh, it's amazing that the revolution, I mean the pandemic has been incredibly unfortunate with all the hardships and deaths and everything and still dealing with hotspots and things. I think it did bring supply chain. Supply chain was struggling for a while to get a seat at the table. Organization started having chief supply chain officers. That was a new thing, not that long ago. This has brought table stakes to the supply chain organization. My challenge back to us is, what do we do with this now? For years as an industry, we've asked to be at the table. We're here now. Spotlight's on us. It's time for us to deliver. Things like the KUPA platform are an incredible enabler of that. But you got to get it right when you roll it out. The spotlight's on you, but there's also a skills shortage. Talk to me about that. I just saw you do a big sigh. How can Meebok and KUPA with this platform help to mitigate some of the supply chain skills gap that organizations in every industry are facing? You know, it really comes down to the human element and when people talk a lot about sustainability, they talk about environmental conditions. There's a human sustainability topic we have to cover. Nobody likes being assigned to be a data analyst on a transformational project and you're crunching Excel spreadsheets and running it SQL, you know, coding. No, that's not an enjoyable, fulfilling task for many people. There are special people that it is and God bless them. So with things like the apps, with things like building out so that way we can take the people that you do have and have them making decisions, driving discussions around the insights the platform's giving versus just crunching numbers and building models. You know, this is where you're going to have a much higher retainment. People are going to be excited about the job. They're going to have fun at the job because you do see a turnover of organizations that don't get the data strategy right that people don't like being in a supply chain center of excellence and perpetuity. Again, there are certain people that are, but a lot of times once people get this analytical insight to how strategically the design of the company is set up, business units will grab them and give them a significant role and then you're continually churning and replacing your COE talent. So having a talent strategy for your COE and having a strategy of how you're going to leverage, you know, we're in a world where my first graders learn in coding, right? Like you need to have a data strategy so that way that becomes your people strategy as well. And too many times people think, hey, I buy the platform, I need a project strategy. What are the projects we're going to do? And not often enough do they talk about the people element of it to really make this work. And it absolutely has to be part of the discussion as you're setting up your center of excellence. It's people, it's processes, and it's technology. Absolutely. You got to bring those three together or you will struggle a bit. You do. And change management is not an easy thing to do for anybody, but one of the things you talked about this is the pandemic as an accelerator of getting the supply chain folks to the table, being able to accelerate, getting data into the hands of people that can actually take in clean insights and make decisions based on that. So if you look into a crystal ball, what's the future of supply chain design? Where is it going? I believe we're going to see a lot more of movement towards applications and infusing of artificial intelligence and machine learning. It's there, it's ready to go. What a lot of companies are lacking, and it goes back to what we already talked about is the data piece of it. I mean, we have been developing algorithms in a machine learning environment for three, four years now. Goes back to garbage in, garbage out. So I think it's going to be a big element of supply chain talent, securing that, figuring out with robotic process automation and things like that. How do you take non-value added work so you can take the talent you do have and give them more fulfilling work? I think companies are going to need to have data strategies and all that unlocks applications and things so you can democratize, right? You have this digital twin in the cloud. How many people within the organization cross-functionally have questions about the supply chain? What if this happens? What if that happens? Hey, if we do this, what does it affect upstream downstream? So once you build that cloud to develop the applications that allow the entire enterprise to interface with this digital representation to play around and see what the effect is to then make better, more informed, more holistic decisions, drive more conversational cross-functionally amongst leaders, and even below the top leadership level. I think this is really where we're going to go and the companies that don't just survive but thrive in this new normal, whatever that's going to be, is going to be the companies that get that right. They have to embrace that. They have to embrace it. Nick, it's been great having you on the program, talking about supply chain, what's going on there, the accelerators, but also the opportunities. Thank you so much for sharing your insight. I appreciate the opportunity. So it's been a great conversation. I look forward to the rest of the event. I agree. For Nick Bonich, I'm Lisa Martin on the ground in Las Vegas at Coupa Inspire 2022. Stick around. I'll be back with my next guest shortly.