The chemical industry is undergoing a structural transformation with macroeconomic supply chain challenges and post-COVID-19 business impacts. Chemical companies are under pressure to:

• Adapt to customer demands and delivery commitments
• Address the effects of commoditization and the emergence of new competition that have arisen through mergers, divestitures, and acquisitions
• Manage disruptive changes from digitization or feedstock shifts

Chemical companies need to accelerate positive change, from fast-tracking the adoption of intelligent technology and new ways of working to pivoting quickly to evolve with changing consumer expectations while creating more engaging experiences for employees. Enterprise transformation is ever more critical to creating sustained value. The journey to a cloud-led architecture can allow companies to achieve their sustainability targets and long-term value faster.

We spoke with Kevin Jinks, managing director at EY, to learn more.

Q: When you talk to chemical customers, what excites you about the chemical industry?

A: Our clients are investing in their businesses and innovating through expanding products and solutions, as well as heavily investing in business transformation journeys. As we meet with industry clients, we see firms focusing on operational efficiencies, dealing with pricing pressures and looking for ways to change their profiles. Companies are also looking at asset optimization and customer engagement models, including touchless ordering.

What鈥檚 exciting to us is how we are engaging with clients on their business initiatives and supporting their transformations. This is exciting when you consider how these investments have been historically viewed. All of these ideas translate into large-scale programs that are enabled by technology. A prime example of this effort is , which aligns well with our clients鈥� strategies to leverage their 麻豆原创 industry capabilities, specifically 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Chemicals.

Certainly, the pandemic has impacted all industries, including chemicals. But, in some segments, we have actually seen significant business improvement through COVID-19. As the broader economy continues to recover and evolve, chemical companies will look for additional ways to do business differently and remotely and deliver business value in a more touchless fashion. We also expect to see considerable activity around dealmaking, including mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. It is an exciting time for the chemical industry, which is something I may not have said five years ago.

Looking forward, what do you see as some of the top priorities and opportunities for chemical customers?

Right now, there is a lot of discussion among industry leaders about getting back to the core capabilities and enabling business strategies. So, if you have a business unit that doesn鈥檛 align well with that company鈥檚 core function or core capabilities, the conversation turns to potential divestiture options. At the same time, companies are looking to acquire and strengthen their cores to support growth opportunities in the market. If it鈥檚 a strategy that helps the business more effectively optimize its assets, chemical companies are looking at it. EY and 麻豆原创 are well positioned to do this from a business and technology perspective.

Another priority in the industry is the notion of getting closer to customers and developing that capability of serving in a more touchless environment, which, at least in part, is being driven by capacity issues. How do you prioritize capacity that is limited? How do you find ways to increase margin in a business that is typically under price pressure? Companies are utilizing technology to answer these questions and craft a plan that maximizes their capabilities.

Chemical companies also need to recognize that the transition to the cloud is more than merely lifting and shifting assets from on-premise to the cloud. The transition requires a systematic, strategic approach to a well-designed solution that enables companies to achieve true value. EY has found success in helping clients quickly deploy 麻豆原创 on Microsoft Azure by building strategies, architecting transformations, and enabling a customized, secure, and optimized cloud solution. Finally, with a new administration in the White House, regulations in the United States will likely change, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns will become key talking points as companies evaluate the future. EY has emphasized the importance of ESG in its own practices and is working to help clients do the same.

How has technology changed the way chemical companies operate?

You can find examples in the chemical industry where technology that wasn鈥檛 available even just a few years ago is now providing a great deal of benefit. For example, commodities firms are using advanced analytics and AI to predict future pricing. These findings can inform decisions about when to make a buy and when to defer until pricing gets better, and they can also be integrated into a company鈥檚 global procurement model. The savings that this is driving can be significant.

Digital technology, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) back-end program, is helping to bring efficiency to both the process and the model itself to help reduce costs and achieve desired fulfillment rates. There are several buckets of digital and technology that are happening in chemicals, which is quite impressive to see.

When we talk to chemical industry customers, big or small, change management is a key pillar of digital transformation. How are companies embracing these changes and equipping their teams for success?

Many of our clients underestimate the damage that can be done when change management is not done well. An expression I like to use is, 鈥淭he soft stuff is the hard stuff. The technology works.鈥� What I mean by that statement is that 麻豆原创 software 鈥� the configuration and the industry capabilities within the software 鈥� is proven. There may be some processes that require customer-specific extensions. However, a failure to get executive alignment, business buy-in, and project team commitment on the change agenda can wreak havoc, negatively impacting production, fulfillment rates, and customers.

Unfortunately, project teams often undervalue and minimize project budgets and investments, inadvertently creating substantial risk.

As we look at transformation, there is a lot of momentum in the market around industry templates that are pre-built. The idea is that if you use these templates, the process model is already built and the business will adopt it. That approach can work very well if it鈥檚 done right. However, change management is an area that actually gets harder because it requires an organization to adapt to fit what the software is already configured to do. No prebuilt solution will yield a 100% fit, and an organization鈥檚 business differentiation will not be there either. Instead, clients should be working with their service partners to focus on how their differentiated processes will work while adopting common non-differentiated ones. They should also ensure that everyone who needs to be involved in the effort has visibility into what鈥檚 happening. Take steps to ensure that industry skill and knowledge are coming to life in your solution.

Why team with EY?

We have strong business acumen and experience in performing business-driven insights and analysis that help define where companies are struggling and the experience that is needed to design future-enabled solutions. Our strengths and differentiators are our business-led, process-driven, and technology-enabled perspectives. The depth and breadth of our global scale is more than I think clients realize, since many view EY as strictly an accounting firm.

How does EY create value for the chemical industry and how can people connect with you?聽

Our experience is that every client has different business priorities, value drivers, and performance and business objectives. That said, common value creation opportunities often center on supply chain planning, customer segmentation, and commodity pricing, to name a few. We start with building a business-aligned case for change that defines benefits and opportunities based on unique needs and goals.

We recently worked with a client where we quickly identified benefit areas and opportunities to capture value. Where we are looking at the potential to drive significant value, we鈥檒l engage strong industry subject-matter resources that work together with our clients to align business, process, data, and technology needs; address their issues; and help realize that value. It鈥檚 providing a complete picture of what that company can achieve and provide the vision and road map to achieve it.

As far as connecting with me, I鈥檓 a pretty active member on some of the social media portals, such as . You can also go to our or email me at kevin.jinks@ey.com.

Looking to stay connected with the chemical Industry? Please join the , follow us on Twitter , and check out our .

麻豆原创 is a leader in the chemical industry, and we are committed to continuous innovation. We encourage you to collaborate with us and discuss how the 麻豆原创 solution portfolio can enable the Intelligent Enterprise in the chemical industry.

Dr. Lauren McCallum is 麻豆原创 Chemical Industry Business Unit solution manager.

The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.

Here, we talk with Brandon Evans, vice president of Customer Transformation at NTT DATA Business Solutions.

Q: When you talk to chemical customers, what are some of the challenges and opportunities you see in the industry?

A: When we look at the chemical industry holistically, given an 麻豆原创 context, we see a lot of change happening in the ecosystem. In 2020, we saw a lot of mergers and acquisitions put on hold due to market uncertainty, which we feel will result in increased activity in 2021 and 2022.

In the same period, we鈥檝e been shown how a strong or fragile supply chain can affect the chemical industry in terms of supply and order fulfillment. Building stronger supply chains to protect the business has never been more pertinent. It鈥檚 important to apply agility in the face of industry or societal disruption to service customers and deliver outcomes.

Lastly, we continue to see organizations focusing on environmental issues, energy sourcing, and volatility.聽 Sustainability and becoming carbon neutral are beginning to take hold, through leveraging technology to begin carbon tracking for example. Alternative sources of fuel are being investigated further, such as hydrogen, partially driven by the volatility in oil pricing for petrochemical companies looking to take advantage of the upswing in oil pricing.

In summary, we see a lot of change in the chemical space, which presents opportunities for fast movers to resolve challenges and take advantage of chemical industry market dynamics.

Looking to the second half of 2021 and beyond, what do you see as the top priorities for chemical customers?

We see the following four major trends when dealing with our chemical clients:

• Improving customer experience (CX): Customers are requiring digital collaboration for faster product introductions, self-service ordering, and B2B/B2C e-commerce platforms.
• Moving from selling products to selling business outcomes: Clients are looking to serve customers based on insights, using data such as product sales volume and product adoption to create faster new product introduction with assurance.
• Strengthening supply chains: Customers are asking themselves questions such as 鈥淗ow can we be more insightful with demand planning and forecasting using statistical modeling, prediction, and outside factors to adjust and become more agile?鈥� and 鈥淗ow can we use business networks to allow for multi-sourcing if global competition for raw materials or feedstock becomes too rife?鈥�
• Focusing on factories: There is interest in connected machines to synergize pipeline flow, with costing metrics of process or phases, as well as the maintenance and servicing of aging facilities, coupled with governmental compliance and sustainability initiatives.

How has digital enabled these priorities from your perspective?

Digital can mean a lot of things in today鈥檚 age, but for us digital in the context of these priorities means the ability to provide solutions to business issues now, in a relatively short amount of time.

麻豆原创 has made a great deal of investment in tools for industries to improve customer experience and supply chain via cloud deployment solutions. The days of infrastructure, lengthy implementations, and design from scratch are gone. Now, chemical and process industries can adopt 麻豆原创 Commerce and 麻豆原创 Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain and deploy these solutions in a matter of weeks, not months.

What have been the key elements of success when working with chemical customers?

When we look at some of our recent chemical success stories, many of them point back to a few major tenets that we reinforce within our client engagements. For example, with a recent specialty chemical 麻豆原创 S/4HANA implementation, the following aspects helped achieve faster time to value and organizational adoption:

• Executive buy-in and involvement: Having stakeholders that are invested in and championing the project initiative is critical.
• Adopting best practices versus design: In order to move with agility, it is key to ensure the scope is managed appropriately and that the organization challenges why standard best practices cannot be leveraged. If change requests from the business do not increase revenue, decrease costs, or provide competitive advantage, then full stop.
• Recognize change, plan for people to be impacted: Change is difficult, but progress is never made by adhering to the status quo. Equally important when implementing software, the return on investment is achieved much faster if users are engaged and leveraging the system. In short, plan for change, plan for impact, and ensure users understand how their job responsibilities will change moving forward.

When we talk to customers, big or small, change management is a key pillar of digital transformation.聽 How are companies embracing these changes and setting up their teams for success?

Organizational change management is a large topic with any software implementation to ensure value is realized from the implementation. Given the remote nature of working today, we are finding it even more essential to plan for additional avenues to ensure end users accept, adopt, and understand change. We share a few of the best practices we are deploying with our customers in small and large engagements:

• Leveraging collaboration platforms for virtual learning
• Preparing just-in-time course content for team enablement
• Building quick-reference guides that are shared physically and electronically
• Using augmented reality (virtual reality glasses) to visualize processes and collaborate on issues
• Communicating with numerous quick touchpoints on virtual platforms daily and augmenting that with various collaboration tools, like SharePoint, Google Docs, Slack, and Microsoft Teams
• Prescriptively ramping up in-person opportunities for knowledge sharing and other forms of support

What differentiates you in the chemical industry?

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, we focus solely on implementing 麻豆原创 software products 鈥� 麻豆原创 is in our DNA. Over the years, we have spent a great amount of time working with our customers to understand their business challenges and problems, so we can help them realize solutions, obtain benefits, and meet corporate objectives.

Having these experiences and focusing only on 麻豆原创 products has allowed us to create global practices, or competency centers, which share in the development of business content (pre-configured best practices) and our own (software extension solutions to solve common chemical gaps).

Finally, we have scaled our ability to cover nearly all 麻豆原创 solutions with strategic acquisitions in supply chain, such as , and have long-standing partnerships with niche competencies to fulfill all of your 麻豆原创 needs through one service integrator.

How can people connect with NTT DATA Business Solutions?

We have a variety of assets available on our Website for chemical companies that are evaluating 麻豆原创 solutions or current customers planning their business transformations. Please follow us on and visit our channels for more background on how we help businesses thrive and transform in the chemical industry.

Looking to stay connected with the chemical Industry? Please join the , follow us on Twitter , and check out our .

麻豆原创 is a leader in the chemical industry and is committed to continuous innovation. We encourage you to collaborate with us and discuss how the 麻豆原创 solution portfolio can enable the Intelligent Enterprise in the chemical industry.

David Dunn is director of Global Industries Marketing at 麻豆原创.

Linx-AS helps businesses be more of what they aspire to be with 麻豆原创鈥攕trategic, innovative, sustainable, productive, and profitable. In doing so, it brings the highest level of expertise to its customers, delivering thoughtfully designed and meticulously implemented solutions.

Here, we talk with Jeff Frye, president and CEO of Linx-AS.

Q: When you talk to chemical customers, what excites you about the chemical industry?

A: First off, the chemical industry is where Linx-AS got its start in 2000 with our environment, health, and safety consulting practice, so our chemical roots run deep. Since that time, the many changes and challenges chemical companies have faced鈥攚hether internal or external鈥攈ave been met with innovation. It鈥檚 truly a dynamic industry, and that鈥檚 what makes working in chemicals exciting for us. We have earned insight on how chemical manufacturers operate and the business processes that drive success. It鈥檚 a natural fit for us to innovate with 麻豆原创 technologies to deliver inspired customer solutions.

2020 was quite the year. What do you see as the top priorities for chemical customers in 2021?

Everyone was blindsided by the pandemic and the disruptions to life and business as we knew it. If there was a bright spot to 2020, it鈥檚 that the market and operational stresses were a catalyst for transformation trends that will continue as priorities through 2021.

Across industries, a predictable focus on worker health and safety emerged. I believe companies will continue to shore up foundational data and processes while exploring innovative ways, like mobile, the Internet of Things (IoT), and sensors, to extend the enterprise into the workplace.

Another priority will be research and development (R&D). Confronted with disrupted supply chains, the need for R&D agility became painfully apparent. Whether it鈥檚 reformulating products with substitute raw materials or developing for alternative markets, streamlining upstream definitely makes the list.

And then for chemicals especially, sustainability is key moving forward鈥攏ot only taking care of what you produce now but driving sustainable product development for the future, which ties into R&D agility.

How has digital enabled these priorities from your perspective?

Digital is critical. I think there are a lot of definitions and expectations鈥攐r maybe aspirations鈥攐f digital floating around. For our customers, foundational work often needs to be done before realizing or even recognizing transformational opportunities. Reflecting on the priorities, simply centralizing data and digitalizing current processes in these areas is step one.

For instance, I mentioned health and safety initiatives. We鈥檝e engaged in pilots and proofs of concept for mobile and IoT in this space to increase data collection and accuracy to ultimately drive decision-making and safety performance. The key takeaway is that you can collect all the data you want with sensors and apps. However, if your foundation isn鈥檛 solid, you can鈥檛 process the data in a meaningful way. To make digital effective, you must put data to work to deliver insights and drive workflow across the enterprise. My advice to customers is to definitely explore innovative solutions, but make sure you鈥檙e innovating on solid ground. That approach will lead to true transformation.

You just mentioned mobile. How do you see the mobile landscape in 麻豆原创, and do you have any advice for chemical customers embarking on mobile initiatives?

That鈥檚 a rich topic. There are so many factors to consider when looking at mobile, ranging from the technical to corporate policy to user personas to security. Are you running 麻豆原创 S/4HANA or still on 麻豆原创 ERP? Do you have a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy? Do your users require offline capabilities? It goes on and on. It鈥檚 an exercise we help clients with all the time. To sum up, the landscape is difficult. But the mobile landscape, particularly with cloud solutions from 麻豆原创, has a lot of potential for customers.

What I will say is that mobile is beyond exploratory; it鈥檚 expected now. It鈥檚 part of everyday life outside of work, so users demand it on the job with the same user experience (UX) performance. For some areas of 麻豆原创, you鈥檒l require custom development to extend core capabilities. For instance, we鈥檝e built a suite of risk management apps to augment 麻豆原创 Environment, Health, and Safety Management by supporting additional use cases. For a customer in a development situation, I鈥檇 say pay attention to your users, use standard technologies, and choose an easily deployable architecture.

When we talk to chemical industry customers, big or small, change management is a key pillar of digital transformation.聽 How do you see this topic in the industry?

It all comes down to communication. If you assess and understand the risks going into a transformation project, you鈥檒l be prepared to navigate the challenges鈥攁nd there are always challenges. If everyone impacted, from the top to shop, is engaged early, you鈥檙e on solid footing when you encounter bumps. It sounds simple, but it鈥檚 often difficult because of things that you can鈥檛 necessarily control. You need champions for your solution in impacted areas. Sometimes they鈥檙e not there or as vocal as needed. You need executive buy-in. Again, it鈥檚 another variable.

One thing we do at Linx-AS, a thing we can control, is constantly thinking of the end user in the solution鈥攆rom design through implementation and support. Most failures can be attributed to breakdowns in user adoption. It鈥檚 critical to get user feedback and involve users in prototyping, so there are no surprises, or at least fewer, when you roll out and train your teams.

Why partner with Linx-AS?

What we hear most from our customers is usually one or all of three things: you understand our business, you really know 麻豆原创, and you give it to us straight. Because our focus in PLM and EHS is so specialized, we鈥檝e invested heavily in our people, drawing from talent who have worked in industry and keeping them up to speed on the latest technology. It鈥檚 not commodity consulting that you can contract out. You need people who know the complexities of the chemical industry and have the business acumen to apply technology smartly. And, to the last of the three, that鈥檚 just how we do business. When you partner with Linx-AS, you get honest assessments of what will bring the most value to your business.

What makes Linx-AS different from other implementation partners in the chemical industry?

Echoing my last comments, our expertise in PLM and EHS, coupled with our understanding of the chemical industry, is unmatched. But, to expand on this, I鈥檇 say that our Innovations Division is truly a differentiator. We have a dedicated team that is churning out solutions that extend 麻豆原创. Whether it鈥檚 workflow solutions in recipe development or our offering for 麻豆原创 Environment, Health, and Safety Management, we continually have an eye toward bringing added value to customers and designing solutions that engage end users.

How does Linx-AS create value for the chemical industry and how can people connect with you?聽

I鈥檇 go back to part of the Linx-AS vision statement that says, 鈥淲e help businesses be more of what they aspire to be with 麻豆原创.鈥� We understand chemical manufacturers have significant investment in 麻豆原创 technology to realize benefits across the enterprise, but sometimes the path to value, particularly in the specialized areas of PLM and EHS, isn鈥檛 always clear cut. We simplify that path, provide focus for customers, and bring additional innovation to the platform that engages users and improves business performance.

As far as getting in touch, you can reach me at jfrye@linxas.com. For the latest on Linx-AS, you can go to our or follow us at @LinxASLLC.

Looking to stay connected with the chemical Industry?聽 Join the , follow us on Twitter , and check out our .

麻豆原创 is a leader in the chemical industry, and we are committed to continuous innovation. We encourage you to collaborate with us and discuss how the 麻豆原创 solution portfolio can enable the intelligent enterprise in the chemical industry.

Mark Carlson is an chemicals solution expert at 麻豆原创.

Enowa is active in the chemical industry, leading multiple business and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformations as well as sponsoring the recent ASUG Best Practices for Chemicals event. During this event, Enowa鈥檚 client, Jayhawk Chemical, spoke about its five-month 麻豆原创 S/4HANA business transformation, and Lubrizol shared how Celonis was leveraged to support its 麻豆原创 S/4HANA journey.

Here, we talk with Rick Place, partner and vice president of Marketing and Client Development at Enowa Consulting.

Q: When you talk to chemical customers, what excites you about the industry?

A: The chemical industry is 麻豆原创鈥檚 foundation; it is the base of why 麻豆原创 ERP came to life. Similarly, Enowa started with most of its clients in the chemical industry, and now its client base spans across all sectors of manufacturing (mill to food, repetitive to discrete) and other industry sectors.

Our excitement of and alignment with the 麻豆原创 community in the chemical industry is firmly rooted in our start. I think, like everyone, we get excited when we talk about our roots. The roots establish the tenure of our experts. We have 麻豆原创 configurations that are more than 20 years old deployed at various divisions of companies that have been bought and sold for decades 鈥� and Enowa鈥檚 configuration footprint is still running at those clients!

What excites me is the drive for efficiency and change. In 2021, we expect to see many mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and spin-offs. These transactions are always prevalent in the chemical space, but the frequency is increasing and the speed requirements to complete these projects increases for shorter timelines. This results in a landscape complexity reduction in the divesting company and a lower cost of TSA for the acquiring entity. We are excited because our competence in both scenarios is our core.

In addition, over the more than 20 years I鈥檝e been leading Enowa鈥檚 alignment for new projects, I鈥檝e been able to lean heavily on our successful delivery team. I cannot think of a better compliment than trust and partnership between Enowa and our clients. In sum, trust is what excites me to make a difference every day with clients.

Looking forward into 2021, what do you see as the top priorities for chemical customers?

Speed. We see two needs for speed. The first is with clients who need real data in real time, or close to it. They are calling on Enowa experts to drive transformation projects both in 麻豆原创 ERP and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA landscapes. Most commonly, we are driving results on these topics:

• Financial optimization projects leveraging group reporting and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud for planning
• Analytics based on having data governance and data accessibility to visualize and analyze data
• Reviewing process execution with Celonis
• 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformations through a mutually agreed upon approach:
  • Selective data transition to limit business disruption and leverage existing parts while leaving behind undesired areas
  • Greenfield to move away from years of unnecessary customization
  • Brownfield to leverage previous releases in good condition

The second need for speed is around mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, largely driven by private equity. For these clients, our consultants run these complex projects. They will expect a fully functioning system in short order.

Overall, the chemical industry is continuing to leverage advancing technologies. We see more activity around these topics:

• Process excellence such as rapid financial closing; refined and optimized planning and scenario-based planning; shop floor integration with 麻豆原创 Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence; and customer experience focused on enabling sales teams with 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud and backend customer satisfaction with 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud
• Digitalization such as supply chain integration of data from shop floor, lab, and sales with actionable insights; and robotic process analysis (RPA) analysis, assessment, and results projection, leveraging available RPA technology

How has digital enabled these priorities from your perspective?

We no longer only talk to IT about business system transformation. We talk to the business in their terms so they can understand how 麻豆原创 products improve productivity for their department. In the chemical industry, we do not see wide corporate adoption of digital transformation, but adoption in pointed areas. For instance, our Connect Lab combines real-time data with actionable insights to keep products moving, with temperature range and with notification of any supply chain disruptions.

We had a chance to hear about Enowa鈥檚 麻豆原创 S/4HANA implementation at Jayhawk Fine Chemical Corporation during various ASUG events. At Jayhawk, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA was deployed in five months.聽 What made this project successful?

The foundation is always the excitement for change. Enowa鈥檚 business process experts were able to demonstrate foundational changes that would help every department drive efficiency, and now fast forward to the past year where every person is essential and process efficiency is key. Once we established the C-suite鈥檚 commitment to change, we kept them visible while navigating around the other departments, from finance, to production, to warehouse, and to customer service.

The ability for our experts to create excitement about change is key. Jayhawk鈥檚 team was as equally committed and motivated as we were, which is the key for accomplishing a project together. We always explain this to clients: The software works, but we cannot just do this project to you, we need to do it with you.

When we talk to customers, big or small, change management is a key pillar of digital transformation. How are companies embracing these changes and equipping their teams for success?

I see two things here. Readiness and change management.

Our clients understand that 麻豆原创 S/4HANA works; the end-to-end technology supports the majority of business processes, especially in the chemical industry. What is often confused is the business changes necessary in a readiness phase. These include the story build, the vision, and many benefit statements needed to bring the business into a lead or co-lead position for foundational change. Given Enowa鈥檚 business consulting experts, we build the storyboard to ensure the business drives projects and participates in key decisions. Simultaneously, Enowa is working with IT to build the platform, including systems, applications, and technology components as preparation for a successful adoption of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

Recently, organizational change management is a regular topic. In the past, Enowa had always executed a 鈥渢rain the trainer鈥� approach via our consultants who performed the project and were most intimate with configuration and supporting documentation. As change is now occurring with remote work and more disparate operations, we approach each client with a rich program to understand what it means to do their job after go-live. These programs contain knowledge portals for managing and tracking training, documentation, help guides, and other key elements. We also promote a non-live system that is close to what a productive solution would look like for larger programs, so users can touch and feel a system in a day-in-the-life scenario.

Enowa is a close partner to 麻豆原创 and continues to execute successful projects. What advice can you offer to our chemical clients to enable success?

We have a few pillars of success, which have been recent changes to the current delivery capacity. These foundational delivery components, in a remote setting, can be leveraged by 麻豆原创 clients as well.

• Execute in small teams. Only engage meeting or project participation with those that are critical. Wide project teams take longer to move and communication is more challenging.
• Look at the pieces of a process that are most complex and tackle them succinctly in small groups and consumable portions. Engage an internal or external expert to validate the overall process before digging in deeper.
• Encourage and equip every participant with good audio, visual, and remote working means.
• Spend the time and effort to build a robust training plan and execute it thoroughly.

How does Enowa create value for the chemical Industry and how can people connect with you?

Recognizing the Enowa logo is getting easier given the depth of our projects in the chemical industry. We are growing our activity in many areas of 麻豆原创, like chemical and other manufacturing industries such as food, consumer packaged goods, and pharmaceuticals.

While our logo appears up with the large system integrators, we are still intimate in what we do 鈥� our clients appreciate and realize having the right dedicated expert, not necessarily a whole swath of resources in a different country, is needed. When we deliver our projects with a smaller team of experts, communication is streamlined, clutter is lost, and the overall number of delivery hours is a fraction of when trying to execute with too many consultants.

As many of our clients will tell you, I am available when you need me, and this is true of our team. I鈥檓 routinely getting text messages from the executives at our clients and responding to calls and e-mails at all times of the day. We can be followed on social media, contacted through an expert on our website chat, called at 610-296-3640, or e-mailed at info@enowa.com.

Looking to stay connected with the chemical industry? Join the , follow us on Twitter , and check out our .

麻豆原创 is a leader in the chemical industry and is committed to continuous innovation. We encourage you to collaborate with us and discuss how the 麻豆原创 solution portfolio can enable the intelligent enterprise in the chemical industry.

Matthew Reymann is a chemicals solution specialist at 麻豆原创.

To bring this perspective to the 麻豆原创 community in the chemical industry, we are kicking off 2021 with our Chemical Industry Partner Stage Series.

, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., announced it has come together with Hitachi Consulting as one company to create a new digital infrastructure and solutions powerhouse. The new Hitachi Vantara combines consulting-led digital solutions and vertical industry expertise of Hitachi Consulting with Hitachi Vantara’s IT and Internet of Things (IoT) domain expertise. Going forward, the integrated company will help customers develop practical, scalable digital strategies and solutions that transform operational processes, improve customer experiences, and create new business models to drive innovation and growth.

Hitachi Vantara has evolved since its founding in 1989 from a manufacturer of mainframes, to enterprise storage systems, to complete cloud computing solutions, to complete digital transformation services. Today, Hitachi Vantara provides hardware, software, content platforms, storage arrays, and professional services globally.

Hitachi was founded over 100 years ago and is one of the largest manufacturing conglomerates in the world with over 200 manufacturing facilities that produce automotive parts and systems, robotics, military vehicles, construction machinery, locomotives, consumer products, steel, wire and cable, telecommunications equipment, IT infrastructure, wind generation systems, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power plants, elevators and escalators, aerospace components, power grid equipment, chemicals, and infrastructure components.

Here, we talk with Jack Roman, vice president of Americas, and Kimberly Reid, vice president of U.S., 麻豆原创 Solutions, from Hitachi Vantara.

Q: When you talk to chemical customers, what excites you about the chemical industry?

A: Our company was founded as a manufacturing company and both of us have backgrounds in manufacturing. Kimberley came out of the chemical industry, Jack came out of the glass manufacturing industry, and both of us have spent over 25 years consulting for primarily manufacturing firms. Close to 20 years ago we decided to focus on the chemical industry and have worked with many chemical companies over the years.

We both have a passion for manufacturing, helping process manufacturing companies improve and compete, and, for a lack of a better term, working with old school heavy industrial manufacturing firms. We both still get excited to walk into a chemical plant and learn about its business, challenges, history, and evolution as a firm. Some people get excited about Silicon Valley or fancy consumer products; we get excited about chemicals!

2020 was a crazy year. Looking forward, what do you see as the top priorities for chemical customers in 2021?

Yes, 2020 was a crazy year. We saw chemical companies having economic challenges for probably 12 months or more before the coronavirus hit. COVID-19 obviously added greatly to these challenges. We saw a lot of companies in crisis management throughout 2020, but now we are starting to see management refocusing on longer term priorities.

I think the top themes we hear from chemical company executives are the reevaluation of supply chains caused by both COVID-19 and trade disputes, new technologies and consumer demands impacting the bottom line and the ability to forecast the future, sustainability and risk management, and the volatility of commodity prices. Besides managing the impact of COVID-19 and trying to determine how work life will change in the future, if we had to prioritize what challenges we hear chemical companies addressing and investing in to address in 2021, number one would be sustainability and the circular economy, then alternative material sources (renewable, bio-based), and finally digitization (IoT, sensors, automation).

How has digital enabled these priorities from your perspective?

Digital is all about capturing data, storing data, and analyzing data. Digital has enabled the ability to capture huge amounts of data that weren鈥檛 available in the past. Capturing it is one thing, but the value comes from having the tools and ability to analyze the data and use it to make decisions, change, and react. Whether its customer preferences, supply chain track and trace, manufacturing efficiencies, product quality, or employee and environmental safety 鈥� whatever the priority 鈥� we see companies investing to build the capability to capture data and use the results of analysis to improve their business.

When we talk to chemical industry customers, big or small, change management is a key pillar of digital transformation. How are companies embracing these changes and equipping their teams for success?

From our perspective as a professional services firm focused on process manufacturing for the past 25 years, we have seen a significant shift in our projects. At one time it was very technical, a very technology-centric approach to implementing solutions. Then it became all about speed: how can customers reduce three- to five-year implementations to a year or under a year鈥攑re-configured industry solutions, methodologies, code libraries, and templates.

But, even the most efficient implementations were not always totally successful because one piece was missing: change management. About 10 years ago we realized that change management was as important or perhaps more important than any other component of a transformation. We started placing much more emphasis on it in our projects, training our consultants, and eventually incorporating it as a key part of our methodology. Our chemical customers today are much more aware of the importance of change management, and they don鈥檛 need to be convinced to invest the money and resources in this part of a project.

Companies recognize that there is a lot of change involved and recognize the importance of planning for this and addressing it. It鈥檚 one of our primary conversation topics with customers when we are planning digital transformations. When it comes to equipping their teams, it鈥檚 recognized that key customer resources that hold credibility in the organization should be tasked with change management. It is recognized that consulting resources, in some cases a significant amount, should be retained as part of the project. Whether our project manager pushes it or the customer realizes it and wants it, there is an emphasis on change management tasks and deliverables. These include training, communication, executive sponsorship and involvement, job function change evaluation, and all of the tools that help with these.

We had a chance to hear about Hitachi Vantara鈥檚 麻豆原创 S/4HANA implementation at Tokyo Chemicals during the 2019 Best Practices for Chemicals event. What made this project successful?

This project was successful because of our desire to be fully aligned with their strategic goals and business vision. We understood the need to partner, collaborate, and think creatively in the midst of a global pandemic where our entire global team worked virtually. Our 麻豆原创 S/4HANA go-live occurred in May 2020 and the global big bang deployment to transform operations was quite remarkable.

What does Hitachi Vantara deliver in your Chemical Industry Best Practices business scenarios template?

We leverage the pre-configured content at the core of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and focus on bringing to light the value of specific 麻豆原创 Fiori apps, embedded analytics, and embedded capabilities in transportation management and warehouse management to provide an end-to-end solution capability. In addition, we deliver simplified integrated business planning scenarios to enable consensus-based planning processes, inventory optimization, and the development of constrained supply plans. Our focus is on delivering value in a meaningful way that will drive higher user adoption rates and sustainable business value.

What makes Hitachi Vantara different from other implementation partners in the chemical industry?

We believe that our understanding of the pain points, challenges, and trends facing our customers is one of our greatest strengths. We recognize that when we help our clients learn their new business processes in conjunction with 麻豆原创 products, end users will adhere to the new ways of executing tasks. This supports maximizing business value attainment and helps our customers see value in the 麻豆原创 investment.

We stay connected to the latest innovations that are planned in our areas of focus and we assist in determining the relevancy of these capabilities for the clients we serve. We define implementation strategies and approaches that support the customer throughout their entire journey. We enjoy sharing our lessons learned and helping our clients to grow and develop a passion for 麻豆原创 solution capabilities.

Why partner with Hitachi Vantara?

Hitachi isn鈥檛 just a top 麻豆原创 partner and a leader in the chemical industry; we are also a large, global manufacturing organization that happens to be one of the largest users of 麻豆原创 in the world. We focus on manufacturing companies with a heavy emphasis on process manufacturing. We have been delivering 麻豆原创 solutions utilizing the Chemical Industry Best Practices template for over 15 years. Change management is a key component of our methodology and all our projects. Our teams consist of experienced consultants, many of whom have worked in the chemical industry and understand manufacturing.

How does Hitachi Vantara create value for the chemical industry and how can people connect with you?

We create value by helping to demystify the 麻豆原创 value proposition for mid-size chemical manufacturing companies and allow them to streamline their software portfolio while lowering operational costs associated with using 麻豆原创. We help to provide the foundation for growth and further innovation through the 麻豆原创 platform. We help our clients adopt new business models by leveraging the tools and accelerators available through our Hitachi manufacturing heritage. You can reach us at Jack.Roman@hitachivantara.com and Kimberley.Reid@hitachivantara.com.

Looking to stay connected with the chemical industry? Join the 麻豆原创 Chemical Industry Community on LinkedIn, follow us on Twitter @麻豆原创Chemicals, and check out our .

麻豆原创 is a leader in the chemical industry, and we are committed to continuous innovation. We encourage you to collaborate with us and discuss how the 麻豆原创 solution portfolio can enable the intelligent chemical enterprise.

Mark Carlson is a chemicals solution expert at 麻豆原创.