I'd like to finally let a topic out of the bag that I've been thinking and working on for a few months now. Let's go back to the year 2023 for a moment ... I'm still in the role of Managing Director at BE-terna and am getting to know an innovative platform called viingx AG. During the same period, I discuss the effects of the Supply Chain Act on the application landscape of fashion companies with CIOs from the fashion industry several times a week. I start to draw and visually connect the challenges of the industry with the technical possibilities of the viingx platform. The result is a drawn landscape with a large HEART in the middle, which connects the many applications of a company. Sounds pretty simple at first glance, doesn't it?
I present this idea to two people I know in the industry. They like this approach and after 30 minutes I realize that this innovative idea is urgently needed on the market and that I have to implement it. I am delighted that now - one year later - we have a business plan and, together with MSP AG and viingx, we can bring the idea to life under the product and company name heartpiece.
For historical and practical reasons, a company has many real applications in operation that communicate via interfaces. This application landscape looks different in every company. Just like paintings of the same landscape in an art exhibition also look different because the artists (in this context the CIOs) use different colors, materials, canvases, picture sizes and compositions.
Now, however, a disruption in the form of a medium-sized storm is threatening to shake up this landscape. We are talking about the Supply Chain Act or CSDDD, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive as a guideline on corporate due diligence in the area of sustainability. The European Union law obliges companies to fulfill and document human rights and environmental due diligence obligations in their supply chains.
In our picture: Companies are forced to paint their picture with additional colors. And now there are two options:
a) We take the new colors and paint a few ugly strokes everywhere OR
b) WE THINK THE PICTURE NEW.
In technical and practical terms, this means that companies are obliged to collect, store, process and pass on much more data than was previously necessary and than they would have liked. This is an enormous amount of work and companies are making complex and expensive adjustments to their existing systems and the relevant database tables. This does NOT generate ONE EURO more turnover, which is so urgently needed. It's not just the CIOs who say this. Many companies are still moaning about this additional work, which will cost a lot of money for IT service providers, who in turn still have very limited capacities of suitable specialists. Many other companies see the opportunity for real change and new competitive opportunities.
🎨 Therefore: The new colors are coming and all CIOs will have to learn to draw creatively.
I belong to the "let's rethink the image" group and see a pulsating heart at the center of the application landscape. The focus of the image will therefore be redefined and the image composition will have to be fundamentally changed in my eyes.
Our technical heartpiece as a data platform in the middle of an application landscape will therefore be supplied with PRODUCT DATA from systems such as PLM, PDM, ERP etc. These systems must and must no longer be changed unnecessarily in the standard, which already has an enormous impact on update capability today.
In heartpiece itself, this wealth of data is enriched with other necessary data such as images, videos, texts and translations and forwarded to consuming sales channels. And we record the additional supply chain data from suppliers via an interface and link it to the product itself or suppliers or production sites.
But how can we do this when everyone is proud of their flourishing landscape painting?
As is so often the case in real life, many companies think that we might somehow still be able to get around the requirements without too much effort. Our German Economics Minister Robert Habeck is even publicly considering postponing, weakening or suspending the Supply Chain Act for a certain period of time. This will reduce the hardships of the economy in the short term, but will only push the enormous effort into the near future.
However, the law has now finally arrived in companies as a result of the resolution.
But where exactly in the company is the implementation of the requirements being discussed? It is not just an issue for the IT department, the logistics department or the specially created sustainability department. It is a cross-departmental issue because it affects and moves the entire company. That's why we can't just look at the application landscape of a single company in isolation, but have to include all companies and their inter-company data flows in our solution approaches.
So it is not enough to think as far as your own incoming goods zone; companies need to look deep into the supply chain. As a result, we expect a lot of terabytes of data because we will have to think at batch and BOM element level. We need a very strong core platform and modern data exchange strategies.
We are currently talking to the management boards and placing our new "painting" of a flourishing application landscape of the future with a heartpiece in the middle. The heartpiece is a platform for European companies as an opportunity to redraw the picture and set new accents in the landscape.
The heart in the middle has all the necessary data and passes it on to all sales channels. Everything happens centrally in one place in the application landscape. Individual applications do not have to be extensively reprogrammed - they can remain as they are. They can stay close to the standard (which is the strategy of ERP service providers such as SAP or Microsoft anyway).
The new heart now comprises all product data, including additional sustainability information, with the aim that all brands and manufacturers will be able to provide the Digital Product Passport in 2027 and make their supply chain transparent.
We end consumers will be delighted and we already like to buy sustainably - without plastic, in refill packs or with electricity from renewable sources. How great would it be if the new shirt or backpack was demonstrably sustainably produced and this was mandatory and comparable? There are already Green Choice labels and the Green Button in Germany. But these are voluntary and national measures. What will the big low-cost chains do?
With our expertise, we help to harmonize isolated initiatives within the company and enable a competitive advantage for our customers. For example, through more efficient data preparation and provision. Fewer interfaces in the application landscape thanks to a central core.
I look forward to receiving your feedback on www.heartpiece.eu and to engaging in in-depth discussions with you.
Rico