The supply chain industry has never been more top of mind than it is today. And while I never could have predicted that I would forge a career in the industry, I've been interested in the space since I was a teenager.

After graduating from high school, I had the opportunity to start a pop-up sandwich restaurant that I playfully named "On A Roll." We decided to feature hot dogs on the menu and had a freezer that could hold up to 500 hot dogs, so naturally I ordered 500 buns – but I quickly realized that our freezer was far too small to hold the buns, and we had to discard most of our inventory. Although I didn't realize it at the time, my little sandwich shop taught me an important lesson about inventory and order management that I still lean on today.

For example, the pandemic has caused organizations to grapple with inventory imbalances like my hot dog bun surplus on a daily basis. But procurement leaders today face the additional complexity of a severe lack of visibility into their company spend – including what their organization is spending on, and with which suppliers – which can quickly lead to inefficiencies and increased risk.

That's one of the reasons why I'm very excited to share two significant updates today for our Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) customers.