Over a 14 year period with funding from the Government of Canada's Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program, I led an at times sizeable research team that investigated the utilization of agent-based models to develop tools that would operate in an adaptive Metaprise platform.
Based on my findings, which have been well documented, the term supply "chain" is actually a misnomer. A reference I might add will likely vanish within the next 12 to 18 months from business consciousness.
This is because the term "supply chain" implies a sequential sequence of events, versus the real-world synchronization that occurs in the transactional exchanges between diverse and seemingly disparate stakeholders. In fact, this misperception is one of the main contributing factors to the high rate of supply chain/e-procurement initiative failures worldwide. (Note: industry reports indicate that between 75% and 85% of all initiatives have failed to produce the expected results.)
Now how does this tie into your question regarding Financial Supply-Chains?
It appears, at least on the surface, that financial institutions are attempting to carve out a segment of the sequential chain through a variety of "financial" services such as the creation of electronic invoicing, A/R and A/P reconciliation (including the real-time electronic transfer of funds) and electronic documentation management (which would include the "intelligent" creation of all transactional documents including customs paperwork).
The problem with this strategy is that the financial "tools" that are being developed are based upon the traditional equation-based models that have been used by vendors to create their enterprise products (re ERP, CRM, SCM etc.). In essence the instituions are adapting to a outdated supply chain architecture instead of a dynamic real-world, real-time Metaprise platform. Think of it terms of putting new and expensive tires on a rusted out, late model automobile. The tires may shine, but they are not going to take you very far if the car's engine isn't working.
The Tier One vendors certainly know this, and it is one of the reasons why they have been promoting their respective Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) as a "solution." In reality however, the "loose coupling" of functional applications is a far cry from the dynamic elements of a true meta-enterprise platform.
So while the concept is sound, the ability to provide and execute these transactional elements will be seriously hindered.
Included below are links to two of the more recent articles I have written on the emergence of the Metaprise as a point of reference.
Reference Material:
Additional Reference Material (available upon request):
Strand Commonality Theory and the emergence of the Dynamic Metaprise (Research Paper)
The utilization of Advanced Algorithm in the procurement process (Research Paper)
Building Dynamic Meta-enterprise applications using Agent-based Modeling (Research Paper)
Note: To obtain copies of the above referenced studies, please contact the author.
Financial Supply Chains: Member Question & Survey - To learn more about this author, visit Jon Hansen's Website.
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